Socialist "occupation" in Venezuela: The army seized shops and distributes goods almost for free

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro cannot cope with the economic crisis in the country and therefore takes extreme measures. The other day, he ordered troops to seize several retail chains selling household appliances and sell goods at gunpoint for 25-10% of the cost. Residents drop everything and stand in kilometer-long queues. All this goes under the banner of "fighting inflation".

(Total 15 photos)

1. The Venezuelan authorities "occupied" a chain of electronics stores in order to force them to sell goods at the "correct" prices.

2. The Venezuelan authorities, at the direction of President Nicolas Maduro, continue to take measures to combat the difficult economic situation in the country, and measures that seem reasonable to the socialist authorities of this state, but in the rest of the world are steadily surprising. According to Reuters, Maduro recently ordered a "seizure" of the Daka electronics chain.

3. According to Maduro, chain stores such as Daka, with their "inflating" prices, interfere with the normal development of the country's economy.

4. Over the weekend, five managers of the largest electronics retail chains - Daka, JVG and Krash electronics - were arrested and accused of price fixing.

Daka is the largest retail chain of electrical household goods in Venezuela, employing more than 2.5 thousand employees.

5. Maduro actually allowed the shops themselves to be robbed: from Monday, household appliances in them are sold at a 75% discount.

6. Venezuelan state television channels broadcast footage of soldiers checking price tags in Daka stores. While hundreds, as Reuters calls them, "cheap shoppers" flocked to the chain's stores to take advantage of the new, lower prices.

7. “We are doing this for the good of the nation,” said Maduro, 50, who constantly accuses wealthy businessmen and US-backed right-wing opponents of unleashing an “economic war” against him.

8. “I ordered this chain of stores to be immediately seized in order to offer their goods to the people at a fair price, so that everything would go away. Let nothing remain in warehouses. We are going to continue like this. This robbery of the people must stop,” Maduro proclaimed.

9. “Inflation is killing us. I'm not sure if this is the right way, but something has to be done. I think that it is right to strive for things to be sold at a fair price, ”buyers in Daka stores reacted to the actions of the authorities with approximately these words.

10. In Venezuela, there is now an official dollar exchange rate at which a limited amount of currency is sold, it is 6.3 bolivars per dollar. On the black market, the exchange rate reaches a mark 10 times higher - 60 bolivars per dollar. Therefore, the prices of imported goods in state stores, set on the basis of the official exchange rate, differ greatly from prices in private stores, whose owners are more realistic about things.

11. “Since they won’t let me buy the right amount of dollars at 6.3 bolivars, I have to buy goods with black market currency at 60 bolivars, so how can I set low prices? To sell at a loss? There will be nothing for my children to eat,” the businessman, who wished to remain anonymous, said in an interview with Reuters.

12. Meanwhile, Maduro, meanwhile, for example, expressed indignation at the fact that some large refrigerator costs 196,000 bolivars in Daka ($31,111 at the official rate, but only $3,266 at the unofficial rate). The president did not like the difference in price for the air conditioning system, which was offered in state stores for 7,000 bolivars ($1,111 at the official rate), and in the commercial Daka it was already for 36,000 bolivars ($5,714 at the official rate, but only 600 dollars at black market rates).

13. A happy woman shows off her number while standing in line at an electronics store in Caracas.

14. Inflation in Venezuela is the highest in Latin America (about 50 per cent), while retail chains often experience shortages of goods for which prices are strictly limited by the state. The president and the government of the country blame the opposition and entrepreneurs for what is happening, the latter citing currency restrictions and obstacles to foreign economic activity as the reason.

15. At the sight of the heir to Chavez shops with toys, cars, food, textiles and shoes. This is how the president is trying to deal with the acute shortage of goods, which began in the first quarter and reached its peak in October.