"Irony of the World's Largest Oil Producer: Crops Discarded Due to Lack of Fuel"

Venezuela Unable to Transport Due to Lack of Vehicle Fuel
Farmers Say "Crops Are Rotting, So They Just Throw Them Away"

South American Venezuela, the country with the world's largest oil reserves, is struggling with the issue of 'automobile fuel.' Farmers have even discarded crops they painstakingly cultivated because they could not obtain fuel for their trucks.

Venezuelan civil society organization 'Espacio Publico' released a statement on the 22nd (local time) via official social media and its website, saying, "Two farmers protesting the gasoline shortage were recently arrested one after another and then released."

According to the organization and the Venezuelan Ministry of Justice, on the 19th, a farmer in Pueblo Llano, M?rida state in the west, was caught for violating the Fair Pricing Law after discarding carrots without permission.

At the time, he reportedly told authorities, "I could not send the carrots to distributors because there was not enough fuel for the truck," and "They were just rotting, so I had no choice but to discard them."

Two farmers caught discarding crops due to the inability to obtain fuel for their trucks. [Image source=Twitter of the Venezuelan Minister of Justice]

Meanwhile, another farmer was caught after dumping a large quantity of tomatoes he had carefully grown into a river because he could not find gasoline for his truck. He was released after police investigation.

The Venezuelan authorities enforce the Fair Pricing Law to limit the margins of distributors. Accordingly, the selling prices of various daily necessities and food ingredients are strictly controlled, and unauthorized actions affecting these prices can be punished.

The scene of the farmer pouring tomatoes into the river was recorded on video and spread on local social media. Opinions among Venezuelan citizens were sharply divided. Some voices said, "People who destroy precious food should be punished," while others criticized, "The government is oppressing the vulnerable while failing to solve the root cause of the situation."

As the controversy grew, Tarek William Saab, Minister of Justice, posted on Twitter the photos and identity information of the two farmers, emphasizing, "Those who violate the Fair Pricing Law will be prosecuted."

Vehicles lined up near a gas station in Venezuela on the 9th (local time)
[Image source=Yonhap News]

Meanwhile, Venezuela's gasoline shortage is not a recent issue. Although Venezuela is a resource-rich country with the world's largest crude oil reserves, oil drilling and production have continuously declined over the past decades. The government's energy policy failures and management difficulties of the state-owned resource companies have been pointed out as causes.

In particular, Venezuela's state-owned oil company 'PDVSA,' established in 1976, was successful enough to rank 27th in the world by sales in 2009 but underwent a massive investigation due to large-scale corruption allegations.

The Nicol?s Maduro administration is also reported to have failed to invest timely in upgrading refining facilities. As a result, oil production, which once reached 3 million barrels per day, has sharply decreased.

Venezuelan civil society groups condemned, "Three years ago in 2020, there were intense protests due to the fuel shortage," adding, "The pattern of arrests and censorship is repeating, and the situation is unfolding similarly under the Maduro administration."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.