World

Pregnant Venezuelan woman shot dead in holiday food line

January 01, 2018
Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro talks to the media during a news conference at Miraflores Palace in Caracas in this Oct. 17, 2017 file photo. — Reuters
Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro talks to the media during a news conference at Miraflores Palace in Caracas in this Oct. 17, 2017 file photo. — Reuters

CARACAS — A pregnant 18-year-old Venezuelan woman was fatally shot in the head early Sunday in Caracas as she waited in line at a National Guard outpost to buy food, relatives said.

Alexandra Conopio, who was five months pregnant, was shot as she and other residents of the Antimano neighborhood in the west of the capital waited to buy food at subsidized prices, her stepfather said.

“We had been waiting since 9 o’clock Saturday night, just chatting with each other, and at 3 am, some drunken guardsmen came and told us to leave,” said the stepfather, Alexander Cisnero.

The group of residents refused to leave and after some discussion with the uniformed guardsmen, two of them opened fire, Cisnero charged.

A 20-year-old man identified as Luis Medina suffered a hip wound in the incident, but he was expected to survive.

The suspected shooter was detained, according to a police report.

Food products have been in short supply during the holiday season in crisis-hit Venezuela, sparking multiple protests over the past week in Caracas and other cities.

Falling oil prices, political unrest, and corruption have decimated the country’s economy under President Nicolas Maduro, leading to chronic food and medicine shortages.

The International Monetary Fund forecasts that inflation will exceed 2,300 percent in 2018 in a country that was once one of the wealthiest in Latin America.

On Sunday, Maduro announced a 40 percent increase to the minimum wage as of January, a move that will foment what many economists already consider hyperinflation in the oil-rich but crisis-stricken nation.

In his televised year-end address, leftist Maduro said the new wage level would protect workers against what he calls Washington’s “economic war” to sabotage socialism.

“Good news!” said the former bus driver and union leader, speaking next to a Venezuelan flag in a midday address.

Most economists say the government is in fact fomenting a vicious cycle in a country already wrestling with the world’s fastest inflation.

To counter those price increases, Maduro has been raising the minimum wage, but quickening inflation coupled with a depreciating bolivar currency has plunged millions into poverty.

Venezuelans will now earn some 797,510 bolivars a month, factoring in food tickets, or just over $7 on the widely used black market index. Millions will still be unable to afford three meals a day, while the increase is likely to stoke inflation further.

Prices went up 1,369 percent between January and November, according to figures released earlier this month by the opposition-led Congress, which estimated the 2017 rate would top 2,000 percent. The Venezuelan government no longer publishes inflation data on a regular basis.

Opposition politicians say Maduro’s refusal to overhaul Venezuela’s state-led economic model and stop excessive money printing will only create more misery in 2018.

Maduro, however, spent much of his half-hour address blaming others for the country’s woes. He said foreign and local media were spreading “negative propaganda,” while Venezuela was facing “attacks” on its currency and attempts to “sabotage” its oil industry. — Agencies


January 01, 2018
158 views
HIGHLIGHTS
World
2 hours ago

Baltimore bridge collapse: Divers find two bodies in submerged truck

World
3 hours ago

US urges fair legal process for India opposition leader Arvind Kejriwal

World
3 hours ago

Gaza starvation could amount to war crime, UN human rights chief says