Venezuela's 15-Cent Phone Bills Come Complete With No Service
- Antennas are stolen, picked for parts amid crumbling economy
- Investments dry up as rates are cheapest in the world
This article is for subscribers only.
Anytime Margara Bermudez has to make a call, she rides her motorcycle to a tree about five minutes away from her home in a small town on the outskirts of the oil rich city of Maracaibo. That’s the only place where there’s enough signal for her cell to work.
Residents of Los Puertos de Altagracia have figured out that the spot is somehow a refuge from the growing dead zones that leave them unreachable most of the time, the result of a popular crime in the crumbling nation: stealing and vandalizing cellular antennas. So the tree, which always offered a welcome shade in heat that regularly surpasses 30 degrees Celsius (86 Fahrenheit), now fills up even at night, illuminated by people answering texts.