It shows a standing Chavez, his left arm raised with clenched fist while the base depicts scenes from his childhood. Sabaneta's misery contrasts sharply with the grandiose bronze and granite statue of Chavez, donated by Russian state-controlled energy company Rosneft at the behest of Russia President Vladimir Putin. The cost of goods is rising so quickly that prices change throughout the day. The International Monetary Fund predicted it would surpass a staggering one million percent this year.Īnd the global financial institution's outlook for 2019 is even worse, with a mind-blowing 10 million percent inflation prediction. Hyperinflation is a major reason behind the hardships endured by most of the population. Families that don't have anything suffer, and if they have (the means to buy things), one day there's a price, the next day there's another price." Nonetheless, this 42-year-old who works in a car wash near the six-meter (20 foot) tall statue still views Chavez as "a great leader."
Here in Sabaneta, in west Venezuela, there's been a tremendous toll," Jose Pacheco told AFP.Īlmost everything in the country has become too expensive for the general population, while there are frequent public service failures in transport, running water and electricity supply. More than five percent of the population has fled the country due to shortages of basic necessities such as food and medicine.Īnd life just keeps getting harder in this town of 28,000 inhabitants. Yet Sabaneta has not been spared the crippling financial crisis that has left millions of Venezuelans in poverty. It includes the house he grew up in, his school and a tree under which South American liberation hero Simon Bolivar once camped - and from where Chaves launched the campaign for his last election. The "Route of Conscience" visits the house of Chavez's grandmother Rosines, where he was born on July 28, 1954. Sabaneta, in Barinas State, has not forgotten its most illustrious son and commemorates him with almost fanatical devotion, marking out important sites from his life in much the same way as Holy Land tours paying homage to Jesus Christ. Deserted streets and closed stores surround the imposing statue of late Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez in his birthplace of Sabaneta, 20 years after the enigmatic figure launched the country's revolution.
0 kommentar(er)
