Caracas Chronicles

An excellent story on smuggling in Zulia state, by Bloomberg’s Anatoly Kurmanaev and Andrew Willis, on Venezuela’s unlikely and unsustainable path to becoming … a rice exporter!

The money quote:

“Sotomayor hasn’t seen rice for sale in the shops of Venezuela’s second-largest city since July, as smugglers snap up the staple for a maximum of 7.2 bolivars ($1.14) per kilogram, just $0.11 at the black market exchange rate. While many Venezuelan shelves go bare, the country’s rice exports to Colombia have doubled this year and now represent 11 percent of the market, according to the U.S. Foreign Agricultural Service and Colombian rice growers association Fedearroz.”

I’m happy the authors captured the sense of lawlesness prevailing in our roads and highways, which undoubtedly contributes to the crime wave.

It’s all related folks – Cadivi, contraband, and Mónica Spear. All part of a package called “chavista Venezuela.”