Economics
Hungry Venezuelan Workers Are Collapsing. So Is the Oil Industry
Starving employees are growing too weak for heavy labor, hobbling the refineries that keep the economy running.
A Petroleos de Venezuela worker heads toward a bus stop to travel to work. Thousands have walked off their jobs as food becomes scarce and money loses value.
Photographer: Wil Riera/BloombergAt 6:40 a.m., Pablo Ruiz squats at the gate of a decaying refinery in Puerto La Cruz, Venezuela, steeling himself for eight Sisyphean hours of brushing anti-rust paint onto pipes under a burning sun. For breakfast, the 55-year-old drank corn-flour water.
Ruiz’s weekly salary of 110,000 bolivares — about 50 cents at the black-market exchange rate — buys him less than a kilo of corn meal or rice. His only protein comes from 170 grams of canned tuna included in a food box the government provides to low-income families. It shows up every 45 days or so.