- Title: Venezuela's new gasoline system fails to end epic lines
- Date: 7th June 2020
- Summary: RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL (JUNE 7, 2020) (REUTERS) PROTESTER MARCHING IN BLACK LIVES MARCH WITH BRAZILIAN FLAG. MESSAGE ON FLAG THAT READS (Portuguese) "STOP KILLING US. THE FAVELA RESISTS" PROTESTER HOLDING UP STREET SIGN IN HONOUR OF SLAIN LAWMAKER MARIELLE FRANCO PLACARD AT PROTEST THAT READS (Portuguese) "AN END TO GENOCIDAL RACISM" MOTHER AT PROTEST WEARING A T-SHIRT WIT
- Embargoed: 21st June 2020 19:33
- Keywords: Caracas Iran President Nicolas Maduro Venezuela fuel lines motorists opposition leader Juan Guaido petrol shortages
- Location: CARACAS, VENEZUELA
- City: CARACAS, VENEZUELA
- Country: Venezuela
- Topics: Government/Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA005CHDD8AV
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text:Hundreds of Venezuelans queued up in miles-long lines to try to fill their car tanks with subsidised gasoline over the weekend, a week after President Nicolas Maduro launched a new dual-price scheme aimed at easing an acute fuel shortage.
Maduro on May 30 announced a new system in which motorists could purchase up to 120 litres (31.7 gallons) of gasoline at a heavily subsidised price of 5,000 bolivares (2.5 U.S. cents) per litre, and 50 U.S. cents per litre thereafter. Some 200 gas stations were designated to charge solely at the higher price.
That new system effectively ended decades of unlimited heavy subsidies in Venezuela, an OPEC nation with the world's largest crude reserves where cheap fuel has long been considered a birthright of sorts. The new plan caused chaos and confusion at service stations across the country when it debuted on June 1.
Fuel shortages have plagued Venezuela for years as its economy deteriorated due to a plunge in prices for crude, its main export, as well as socialist policies economists criticise as misguided.
But the shortages grew more acute early this year due to a near-complete collapse in the South American country's 1.3 million barrel-per-day refining network, as well as U.S. sanctions designed to force Maduro from power.
Maduro launched the new gasoline scheme after receiving five shipments of fuel from Iran, another U.S. adversary whose oil sector is under heavy sanctions by Washington. But the government has not provided details on how much gasoline arrived through the shipments.
Neither Venezuela's state-run oil company Petroleos de Venezuela nor the government's oil or information ministries responded to requests for comment for this story.
Raising gasoline prices has long been considered the third rail of politics in Venezuela, where a previous attempt to cut subsidies and implement other market-frieldy reforms in 1989 led to a violent uprising known as the Caracazo. But this time, there were no signs yet of major unrest in response to the move.
(Production: Efrain Otero, Paul Vieira) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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