The Venezuelan city where nothing works: Running water comes once a month and cash machines are empty – as president Maduro finally admits his socialist economic policies have ‘FAILED’
Food, medicines and sanitary products in short supply in San Juan de los Morros
Passengers describe ‘kicking and punching’ their way on to overcrowded buses
The city of 160,000 inhabitants is just 90 miles southwest of the capital Caracas
President Nicolas Maduro has now admitted his economic models have ‘failed’
JULIAN ROBINSON
DAILYMAIL.COM
1 August 2018
This is the Venezuelan city where beleaguered residents endure daily blackouts, empty cash machines and dismal public transport amid economic turmoil in the country.
Running water only comes once a month in San Juan de los Morros while, food, medicines and sanitary products are in short supply.
Overcrowded buses regularly take hours to arrive with passengers describing how they have to ‘punch and kick’ their way on board.
Far from being a remote village outpost, San Juan has a population of 160,000 inhabitants and is just 90 miles southwest of the capital Caracas.
With the country in the grip of acute economic and political turbulence, under-fire President Nicolas Maduro finally admitted his socialist economic policies had ‘failed’.
This came in the wake of food and medicine shortages and public service paralysis, such as Tuesday’s power failure that affected 80 percent of Caracas.
‘The production models we’ve tried so far have failed and the responsibility is ours, mine and yours,’ Maduro told his ruling PSUV party congress, as Venezuela looks to tackle chronic inflation the International Monetary Fund predicted would reach one million percent this year.
‘Enough with the whining… we need to produce with or without (outside) aggression, with or without blockades, we need to make Venezuela an economic power,’ he added, with the country grappling with a four-year long recession.
‘No more whining, I want solutions comrades!’
The socialist government has over recent years nationalized various industry sectors such as cement and steel, expropriated hundreds of businesses, including supermarket chains, and lately brought in the army to control street markets to guard against rising prices.
It has also fixed prices on various goods and imposed a monopoly on foreign exchange.
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