Ken Hanly wrote:
>
> >From Manitoba Co-operator March 2, 2000. I wonder how many Venezuelans below the poverty line own automobiles. Someone suggested to me it could be quite a
> few. There are tons of clunkers chugging around I gather but even so the following sounds slightly bizarred and ingenuous.
>
> President Hugo Chavez has consistently ruled out reducing state subsidies to gasoline, which now costs 11 cents a litre ( 34 cents U.S. per U.S. gallon),
> arguing a rise would fuel inflation and would be unacceptable for the millions of Venezuelans now living below the poverty line.
Yes, Venezuelan car culture is something like the USA in the mid-seventies full of Gran Torinos, Monte CArlos and all the other behemoths. Even the taxis are huge seventies American models, not to speak of the buses.
11 cents a litre sounds about right. There is a state monopoly on gas in V, there's only one kind of gas station. Cheap gas is a major populist issue in Venezuela, a sure way of winning lots of votes. The air pollution in the cities is horrible, none of these cars has emission controls. Lifting the subsidies would spark a riot.
Sam Pawlett