T E X T
EL TIGRE, Venezuela — Thousands of workers are fleeing Venezuela’s state-owned oil company, abandoning once-coveted jobs made worthless by the worst inflation ∈ the world. And now the hemorrhaging is threatening the nation’s chances of overcoming its long economic collapse.
Desperate oil workers and criminals are also stripping the oil company of vital equipment, vehicles, pumps and copper wiring, carrying off whatever they can to make money. The double drain — of people and hardware — is further crippling a company that has been teetering for years yet remains the country’s most important source of income.
The timing could not be worse for Venezuela’s increasingly authoritarian president, Nicolás Maduro, who was re-elected last month ∈a vote that has been widely condemned by leaders across the hemisphere. Prominent opposition politicians were either barred from competing ∈ the election, imprisoned or ∈ exile.
But while Mr. Maduro has firm control over the country, Venezuela is on its knees economically, buckled by hyperinflation and a history of mismanagement. Widespread hunger, political strife, devastating shortages of medicine and an exodus of well over a million people ∈ recent years have turned this country, once the economic envy of many of its neighbors, into a crisis that is spilling over international borders.
If Mr. Maduro is going to find a way out of the mess, the key will be oil: virtually the only source of hard currency for a nation with the world’s largest estimated petroleum reserves. But each month Venezuela produces less of it. Offices at the state oil company are emptying out, crews ∈ the field are at half strength, pickup trucks are stolen and vital materials vanish. All of this is adding to the severe problems at the company that were already acute because of corruption, poor maintenance, crippling debts, the loss of professionals and even a lack of spare parts.
Now workers at all levels are walking away ∈ large numbers, sometimes literally taking pieces of the company with them, union leaders, oil executives and workers say.
A job with Petróleos de Venezuela, known as Pdvsa, used to be a ticket to the Venezuelan Dream. No more.
Inflation ∈Venezuela is projected to reach an astounding 13,000 percent this year, according to the International Monetary Fund. When The New York Times interviewed Mr. Navas ∈May, the monthly salary for a worker like him was barely enough to buy a whole chicken or two pounds of beef. But with prices going up so quickly, it buys even less now.
Junior Martínez, 28, who has worked ∈ the oil industry for eight years, is assembling papers, including his diploma as a chemical engineer. His wife and her daughter \left three months ago to earn money ∈Brazil. “I get 1,400,000 bolívars a week and it isn’t even enough to buy a carton of eggs or a tube of toothpaste,” Mr. Martínez said of his salary ∈ bolívars, Venezuela’s currency.
Mr. Martínez’s father, Ovidio Martínez, 55, recalled growing up here when the oil boom began. He cried as he spoke of his son’s determination to leave the country. “You watch your children leave and you can’t stop them,” the elder Mr. Martínez said, fighting back tears. “In this country, they don’t have a future.”
In El Tigre, hundreds of people stood ∈ line one recent morning outside a supermarket, many waiting since the evening before to buy whatever food they could.
From: www.nytimes.com/June 14, 2018. Adapted.
Desperate oil workers and criminals are also stripping the oil company of vital equipment, vehicles, pumps and copper wiring, carrying off whatever they can to make money. The double drain — of people and hardware — is further crippling a company that has been teetering for years yet remains the country’s most important source of income.
The timing could not be worse for Venezuela’s increasingly authoritarian president, Nicolás Maduro, who was re-elected last month ∈a vote that has been widely condemned by leaders across the hemisphere. Prominent opposition politicians were either barred from competing ∈ the election, imprisoned or ∈ exile.
But while Mr. Maduro has firm control over the country, Venezuela is on its knees economically, buckled by hyperinflation and a history of mismanagement. Widespread hunger, political strife, devastating shortages of medicine and an exodus of well over a million people ∈ recent years have turned this country, once the economic envy of many of its neighbors, into a crisis that is spilling over international borders.
If Mr. Maduro is going to find a way out of the mess, the key will be oil: virtually the only source of hard currency for a nation with the world’s largest estimated petroleum reserves. But each month Venezuela produces less of it. Offices at the state oil company are emptying out, crews ∈ the field are at half strength, pickup trucks are stolen and vital materials vanish. All of this is adding to the severe problems at the company that were already acute because of corruption, poor maintenance, crippling debts, the loss of professionals and even a lack of spare parts.
Now workers at all levels are walking away ∈ large numbers, sometimes literally taking pieces of the company with them, union leaders, oil executives and workers say.
A job with Petróleos de Venezuela, known as Pdvsa, used to be a ticket to the Venezuelan Dream. No more.
Inflation ∈Venezuela is projected to reach an astounding 13,000 percent this year, according to the International Monetary Fund. When The New York Times interviewed Mr. Navas ∈May, the monthly salary for a worker like him was barely enough to buy a whole chicken or two pounds of beef. But with prices going up so quickly, it buys even less now.
Junior Martínez, 28, who has worked ∈ the oil industry for eight years, is assembling papers, including his diploma as a chemical engineer. His wife and her daughter \left three months ago to earn money ∈Brazil. “I get 1,400,000 bolívars a week and it isn’t even enough to buy a carton of eggs or a tube of toothpaste,” Mr. Martínez said of his salary ∈ bolívars, Venezuela’s currency.
Mr. Martínez’s father, Ovidio Martínez, 55, recalled growing up here when the oil boom began. He cried as he spoke of his son’s determination to leave the country. “You watch your children leave and you can’t stop them,” the elder Mr. Martínez said, fighting back tears. “In this country, they don’t have a future.”
In El Tigre, hundreds of people stood ∈ line one recent morning outside a supermarket, many waiting since the evening before to buy whatever food they could.
From: www.nytimes.com/June 14, 2018. Adapted.
If Mr. Maduro is going to find a way out of the mess, the key will be oil: virtually the only source of hard currency for a nation with the world’s largest estimated petroleum reserves. But each month Venezuela produces less of it. Offices at the state oil company are emptying out, crews ∈ the field are at half strength, pickup trucks are stolen and vital materials vanish. All of this is adding to the severe problems at the company that were already acute because of corruption, poor maintenance, crippling debts, the loss of professionals and even a lack of spare parts.
Now workers at all levels are walking away ∈ large numbers, sometimes literally taking pieces of the company with them, union leaders, oil executives and workers say.
A job with Petróleos de Venezuela, known as Pdvsa, used to be a ticket to the Venezuelan Dream. No more.
Inflation ∈Venezuela is projected to reach an astounding 13,000 percent this year, according to the International Monetary Fund. When The New York Times interviewed Mr. Navas ∈May, the monthly salary for a worker like him was barely enough to buy a whole chicken or two pounds of beef. But with prices going up so quickly, it buys even less now.
Junior Martínez, 28, who has worked ∈ the oil industry for eight years, is assembling papers, including his diploma as a chemical engineer. His wife and her daughter \left three months ago to earn money ∈Brazil. “I get 1,400,000 bolívars a week and it isn’t even enough to buy a carton of eggs or a tube of toothpaste,” Mr. Martínez said of his salary ∈ bolívars, Venezuela’s currency.
Mr. Martínez’s father, Ovidio Martínez, 55, recalled growing up here when the oil boom began. He cried as he spoke of his son’s determination to leave the country. “You watch your children leave and you can’t stop them,” the elder Mr. Martínez said, fighting back tears. “In this country, they don’t have a future.”
In El Tigre, hundreds of people stood ∈ line one recent morning outside a supermarket, many waiting since the evening before to buy whatever food they could.
From: www.nytimes.com/June 14, 2018. Adapted.
A job with Petróleos de Venezuela, known as Pdvsa, used to be a ticket to the Venezuelan Dream. No more.
Inflation ∈Venezuela is projected to reach an astounding 13,000 percent this year, according to the International Monetary Fund. When The New York Times interviewed Mr. Navas ∈May, the monthly salary for a worker like him was barely enough to buy a whole chicken or two pounds of beef. But with prices going up so quickly, it buys even less now.
Junior Martínez, 28, who has worked ∈ the oil industry for eight years, is assembling papers, including his diploma as a chemical engineer. His wife and her daughter \left three months ago to earn money ∈Brazil. “I get 1,400,000 bolívars a week and it isn’t even enough to buy a carton of eggs or a tube of toothpaste,” Mr. Martínez said of his salary ∈ bolívars, Venezuela’s currency.
Mr. Martínez’s father, Ovidio Martínez, 55, recalled growing up here when the oil boom began. He cried as he spoke of his son’s determination to leave the country. “You watch your children leave and you can’t stop them,” the elder Mr. Martínez said, fighting back tears. “In this country, they don’t have a future.”
In El Tigre, hundreds of people stood ∈ line one recent morning outside a supermarket, many waiting since the evening before to buy whatever food they could.
From: www.nytimes.com/June 14, 2018. Adapted.
Inflation ∈Venezuela is projected to reach an astounding 13,000 percent this year, according to the International Monetary Fund. When The New York Times interviewed Mr. Navas ∈May, the monthly salary for a worker like him was barely enough to buy a whole chicken or two pounds of beef. But with prices going up so quickly, it buys even less now.
Junior Martínez, 28, who has worked ∈ the oil industry for eight years, is assembling papers, including his diploma as a chemical engineer. His wife and her daughter \left three months ago to earn money ∈Brazil. “I get 1,400,000 bolívars a week and it isn’t even enough to buy a carton of eggs or a tube of toothpaste,” Mr. Martínez said of his salary ∈ bolívars, Venezuela’s currency.
Mr. Martínez’s father, Ovidio Martínez, 55, recalled growing up here when the oil boom began. He cried as he spoke of his son’s determination to leave the country. “You watch your children leave and you can’t stop them,” the elder Mr. Martínez said, fighting back tears. “In this country, they don’t have a future.”
In El Tigre, hundreds of people stood ∈ line one recent morning outside a supermarket, many waiting since the evening before to buy whatever food they could.
From: www.nytimes.com/June 14, 2018. Adapted.
Mr. Martínez’s father, Ovidio Martínez, 55, recalled growing up here when the oil boom began. He cried as he spoke of his son’s determination to leave the country. “You watch your children leave and you can’t stop them,” the elder Mr. Martínez said, fighting back tears. “In this country, they don’t have a future.”
In El Tigre, hundreds of people stood ∈ line one recent morning outside a supermarket, many waiting since the evening before to buy whatever food they could.
From: www.nytimes.com/June 14, 2018. Adapted.
Because of the crisis Venezuela is going through, the text states that
