Caracas (AFP) – Ever since Venezuelan government agents put up a giant “Sale” sign in his storefront, crowds have been lining up outside Juan Vieira’s shoe shop.
But he’s having a hard time getting into the Christmas spirit.
“What good is it to sell shoes if I’m giving away my product?”
Stuck in a nasty economic crisis, Venezuela is facing a Scrooge-worthy Christmas this year.
The world’s highest inflation rate has gutted Venezuelans’ incomes and chronic shortages have left them struggling to buy food, let alone presents.
Seeking to spread some cheer, President Nicolas Maduro’s socialist government has set aside its distaste for consumerism and sent a small army of bureaucrats and soldiers to force more than 200 retail stores in Caracas to hold Christmas sales.
“Our worker-president has ordered us to guarantee fair prices for the people, and we are complying. These economic hitmen can’t take away our merry Christmas,” said William Contreras, head of the National Superintendency for the Defense of Socioeconomic Rights, known by the acronym Sundde.
The government accuses the owners of the targeted stores of jacking up prices by 300 to 500 percent.
But Vieira and other owners deny that, saying the mandatory markdowns are pushing them to the brink of bankruptcy.
In the capital’s historic center where Vieira keeps shop, most storefronts carry signs sporting the government’s seal and advertising “Sundde sales” or a “30-percent Sundde discount.”
The discount is always 30 percent — the maximum amount of profit stores are allowed to make under a 2014 law.
Two soldiers guard the entrance to Vieira’s store, allowing customers in two at a time.
Venezuela, socialist utopia.
Where everyone is equal, equally poor and free to be hungry.
Exactly where Obama was leading the US.
“Beatings will continue!
Until morale improves!”
izlamo delenda est …
I’m surprised people there are even concerned about buying shoes when they’re killing wild cats for food and using leaves for toilet paper.
Would anybody have suspected Venezuela would prosper like this? They head to wait for Fi9del to pass before this great news could be made public. That economic imbecile from the UN hurried them along the path. He did exactly the same to Zimbabwe before he was thrown out.
MM,
Charlie Chaplin (that old Commie) showed us how to cook shoes.
Bern baby Bern. There are far too many Americans who supported Bernie and think that Cuba and Venezuela are economic utopias. California is going there fast, though Puerto Rico has a good head start.
Not quite out of other people’s money yet.
Soon. Very soon.
Socialism: Legalized Theft.
Do the ice cream parlors have Sundde sundae sales on Sundays?