Bachaqueros: Food Smuggling in Venezuela

RM 207

Despite having the world’s largest reserves of oil there are shortages of basic necessities in Venezuela which is causing the illicit trading of food across the border of Columbia. To begin it is important to firstly address what the cause of this food crisis is before moving onto its effects. As Venezuela’s economy continues to spiral downwards, the food smuggling business is booming. This is a perilous time in Venezuelan history and a precarious time for those who are trying to amend the situation or simply survive. Therefore this paper seeks to establish what caused the food crisis in Venezuela, how the smuggling is helping or hurting the food shortage, and to what extend globalization has contributed to this situation. I will conclude that there needs to be a referendum constructed against president Maduro relieving him from power. Secondly, the Venezuelan military’s control of the food industry needs to be relinquished to help end some of the corruption and people that are actually expert economists of who have education in the agro-industry should replace them. Moreover, price controls in the region have been aimed at helping the poor through bust times they have overstayed their welcome; they have now empowered the black market which has incentivized smuggling and shortages and extremely high inflated prices on the black market made it known. In a country that has been so dependent on oil to supply everything they need they have neglected cultivation of other aspects of the economy that could produce during the times oil does not.