Panama: A filthy taste hangs over the black-stained shores of Lake Maracaibo in Venezuela, where an fuel cool is indicative of the steep drop in the country’s once-enviable gas business.
Here, little like elsewhere in what was once Latin America’s richest land, economic pain drives much of the conversation ahead of July 28 elections, in which President Nicolas Maduro will get a second six-year name.
” We suffer. Fish from the sea is no longer possible because of the oil”, man Yordi Vicuna, 34, told AFP, adding that strikes have fallen twofold.
He argued that nets must always be cleaned or replaced after being contaminated by oil leaking from damaged pipes, which the state cannot afford to resolve.
Maduro, who has been in business since 2013, has overseen the majority of Venezuela’s economic decline, which was largely caused by a sharp decline in global oil charges after 2014 and was fueled by a sharp decline in global oil prices.
Some Venezuelans– including Vicuna– blame US punishment for the severe condition.
” The pipeline is damaged because of the ( economic ) blockade”, the fisherman said, echoing the government’s official line, as he and others shoveled oil-soaked sand from the lake shore.
” We ask the skilled companies, individuals from exterior, to help the government in any way… to correct the pipes”, Vicuna added.
– Boom to knock-
More than a century before, the hydrocarbon-rich Maracaibo Basin was the birth of a company that transformed Venezuela into one of the nation’s top 10 fuel producers– fueling a decades-long period of extraordinary prosperity.
The state, which has the world’s largest proven oil reserves, was producing 3.5 million barrels of oil a day by 2008, with the United States as its primary client.
In only 12 times, however, this dropped to less than half a million containers as a result of the industry’s privatisation and a terrible, months-long strike at state oil company PDVSA in protest of then-President Hugo Chavez.
Chavez sacked hundreds of PDVSA employees and managers, who watchers say were replaced largely by non-expert loyalists.
Venezuela experienced years of economic crisis caused by years of recession and hyperinflation, which has caused about a quarter of the country’s population to flee in less than ten years.
Most experts blame the company’s rapid collapse on corruption and inept control at PDVSA, worsened by the softening of sanctions on Venezuela after Maduro’s 2018 election, which was not recognized by dozens of countries.
– ‘ The lake is lost’-
A few oil pumps still operate on Lake Maracaibo’s polluted shore, but dozens of machines stand idle.
The beach at Puyuyo near the Bajo Grande refinery is oozing with oil. Although it was once a popular swimming destination, the majority of the smaller hotels and bars here are now closed.
” People used to come here… Families came from all over to visit, eat fish and swim but now there are 30 centimeters ( 11.8 inches ) of oil” on the bottom of the lake, said Guillermo Albeniz Cano.
The 64-year-old owns a beach cafe but has no clients. He substitutes rice and flour for sporadic crab or fish meat.
Only one table in the cafe was occupied when AFP visited Puyuyo by crabbers playing dominoes who claimed they preferred to be working.
” Since there is a lot of oil in the lake, we could not go out today”, said father-of-four Luis Angel Vega.
” Sometimes we do n’t eat for a whole day, the 26-year-old added.
His colleague Alvaro Villamil, 61, tried his luck nevertheless. He showed his catch of a few blue crabs he managed to get from the less polluted center of the lake on his boat,” Carmen Rosa.”
But it is not enough to make a living.
” It’s hard… The lake is lost. There’s a lot of oil,” Villamil told AFP, his long-sleeved T-shirt stained with the stuff.
– ‘ For sale’-
Maracaibo was a flourishing city in the 20th century, with its colonial buildings, Art Deco theater and tramline.
In the industrial zone, tall grass and crumbling walls abound, and property signs far outnumber election campaign posters are” for sale.”
Some 200 companies, including the German firm Siemens, once had a presence in the area. There are currently about 30.
Yet there are signs that Venezuela’s oil fortunes may be looking up again.
Washington is allowing businesses like Chevron and Repsol to apply for individual licenses to continue operating in Venezuela despite Maduro’s repeated violations of negotiated election conditions.
And oil minister Pedro Tellechea expressed hope that Venezuela’s oil production will surpass one million barrels per day this year in May.
The outcome of the vote on Sunday will largely determine this, with many people worried that Maduro will steal the election and set off a new era of global pariahdom.
