A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
Dollars are trickling back into Venezuela's economy, proceeds from the first sale of oil seized by the U.S. Venezuela's interim government says the cash is helping to keep prices steady, which have soared since the U.S. military captured President Nicolás Maduro nearly three weeks ago. But a trip to the market is still a dizzying experience for consumers, as NPR's Carrie Kahn reports with the help from Venezuelan journalist Maria Graterol.
(SOUNDBITE OF MARKET CHATTER)
CARRIE KAHN, BYLINE: Sixty-year-old Miguel Jaimes (ph) calls out the price of fresh fish from his stall on the Quinta Crespo municipal market in downtown Caracas, all in the local currency, bolivars.
MIGUEL JAIMES: (Non-English language spoken).
KAHN: But everyone calculates the prices in dollars. The country, which has been in economic freefall for more than a decade, has long been unofficially dollarized. But since the U.S. attack on January 3, prices have hit new highs, say shoppers like Ramon Perdomo (ph), a 64-year-old retired lab technician.
RAMON PERDOMO: (Non-English language spoken).
KAHN: He was looking at some cheese, which he says is selling at $7 a kilo. Who has that kind of money, he says, let alone dollars to buy it?
PERDOMO: (Non-English language spoken).
KAHN: "No, dear," he says, "forget getting any meat or rice or sugar, none of that kind. I only have enough for a little bit of cheese, some ham and hot dogs," his grandson's favorites, he says. Perdomo's monthly pension is 130 bolivars, less than 40 cents. His daughter's private sector salary keeps the extended family afloat. Annual inflation, the highest in the world at 600% last year, has depressed income, says Venezuelan economist Jose Guerra at the Central University of Caracas.
JOSE GUERRA: The wages are very low, and people can't afford to buy the necessities like food and paper services, electricity, gas, etc.
KAHN: He says more than 70% of the population lives in poverty. Interim President Delcy Rodriguez announced this week that prices are stabilizing thanks to the $300 million injection from oil sales.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
DELCY RODRIGUEZ: (Non-English language spoken).
KAHN: In this official video, Rodriguez doesn't mention it's the U.S. controlling and selling Venezuelan oil that's brought the windfall. According to the Trump administration, the oil was sold and the proceeds sent to banks in Venezuela. But it's unclear how the deal actually works, says Phil Gunson of the International Crisis Group, and not just questions about the long term viability of the U.S. managing Venezuela's economy.
PHIL GUNSON: But whether it's politically feasible for the government here to simply outsource its economic management to a foreign government, and not just any foreign government, either. I mean a foreign government with which it has been in a significant conflict for the last quarter century.
(SOUNDBITE OF MARKET CHATTER)
KAHN: At the downtown Caracas Market, those shoppers want immediate help. Cesar Calderone (ph), a 52-year-old delivery driver, says he's got to feed a teenager at home who eats for three, so he'll just keep relying on what he always does to deal with Venezuela's staggering and ever-fluctuating prices.
CESAR CALDERONE: (Non-English language spoken).
KAHN: "Magic," he says. "You take a little from here, you buy a little there. That's how we survive," he says. Carrie Kahn, NPR News.
(SOUNDBITE OF LOTUS' "COLORADO (REMASTERED)") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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