CARACAS – Virmania Cáceres takes her eight-year-old son by the hand and walks through Catia, a poor neighborhood in Caracas that is overflowing with informal vendors selling all kinds of food: vegetables, fruits, groceries and proteins.
“It is one of the cheapest areas” to buy, he tells the voice of america this 40-year-old woman, who goes regularly and has already located the “points” with the best prices.
She has worked as a teacher for a decade in a public school and recently received the impoverished salary that the Venezuelan government pays her for 15 days of work: about nine dollars at the official exchange rate. In total, she receives $18 per month.
It is almost four times the minimum wage, diluted in chronic inflation that in the last 12 months exceeds 500%, according to the Venezuelan Finance Observatory, an independent institution that makes indicator projections in the absence of official information.
Thus, the minimum wage went from being worth 28 dollars in March 2022, when the government decreed the last increase of 1,700%, to just over 5 dollars today, which is not even enough for a kilo of white cheese, according to found.
“Actually (the salary) is not enough,” says Cáceres, who has participated in the protests by public workers that began at the beginning of the year, in which they demanded a salary indexed to the value of the food basket.
In March, the basic family basket was located at 510 dollars, according to the Center for Documentation and Social Analysis of the Venezuelan Federation of Teachers (Cendas-FVM).
Cáceres does not even come close to raising that amount, not even adding the money from her husband, who works on his own.
Analysts estimate that on May 1, International Workers’ Day, some type of adjustment could be announced, although far from the amount demanded in the demonstrations.
“The wage pressure is very high due to the severe impoverishment of the workers. It is obvious that the government is negotiating options,” wrote the economist and president of the firm Datanálisis, Luis Vicente León, on Twitter.
“There is not even left for the ticket”
Back at the market, a man unloads a basket of vegetables from a truck that is parked in a row of vehicles blocking the road at this popular open-air market.
“A la orden, a la orden”, another vendor whispers from a fruit stand with flashy promotional signs.
The environment is hostile with the press in a highly politicized country. A merchant throws his hand for example towards the camera of VOA so that food prices are not recorded. Another says that there is no permission to film.
Here at least I can choose and negotiate with the seller, gang and other things “
Cáceres begins the tour with her nine dollars in her pocket, a market to do and three people to feed. There is no possibility of altering the shopping list that you have already memorized and it should last until the next fortnight.
First stop, a butcher shop. There is a line, but it moves fast.
Cáceres keeps the purchase in a cloth bag; 950 grams of minced chicken, a quarter of a kilo of meat, a bit of hard cheese and mortadella.
“I buy chicken mince elsewhere and they want to put the little rump that is pure bone (…) here at least I can choose and negotiate with the vendor, rump and something else.”
At a next stop, he asks for 15 eggs, and he has no more left. “Fortnightly a teacher’s salary is enough for just that,” she shows.
In total, he spent $10.72. “I missed breakfast,” she questions.
There will be no fruits, vegetables, or groceries either… much less personal hygiene or cleaning products.
“I don’t even have enough for the tickets,” he concludes.
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