After food shortages turned to street violence, Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro gave control of the country’s food supply to the military. Now soldiers are making money off of the hungry, the AP says.
“After opposition attempts to overthrow him, the late President Hugo Chavez began handing the military control over the food industry, creating a Food Ministry in 2004,” says AP. “His socialist-run government nationalized farms and food processing plants, then neglected them, and domestic production dried up. Oil-exporting Venezuela became dependent on food imports, but when the price of oil collapsed in 2014, the government no longer could afford all the country needed.”
Venezuela entered a hunger crisis, with long ration lines, child malnutrition and 90 percent of the adult public saying they can’t afford to buy food. Military leaders, from foot soldiers to generals, are in on the fraud, which involves taking bribes from suppliers and exporters. Companies that don’t even sell food products or list fake addresses are sometimes given false contracts, while trucking companies tried to move exports out of the country also have to pay exorbitant fees to get their products on the road.
Retired Gen. Antonio Rivero told AP that he thinks Maduro put the military in charge to dissuade soldiers from rebelling against him. “They gave absolute control to the military,” Rivero said from exile in Miami. “That drained the feeling of rebellion from the armed forces, and allowed them to feed their families.”