Venezuela under candlelight

The bridge in Cucuta is the busiest border between the two countries. With the shortage of necessities in Venezuela, residents of the border town, San Antonio de Tachira, often buy basic necessities (toilet paper, diapers, laundry detergent, etc.), from Colombian supermarkets at the border.

Jaimes Suarez and his wife have three children, including a six-month-old daughter. The couple crossed the border with their baby to buy groceries and candles in Cucuta.

“San Antonio isn’t a functional city anymore. Stores are closed. Candles are sold on the black market. But they are very expensive,” says Suarez.

Without electricity, they have no means of storing food or milk for the baby. Neither can they cook fresh meals.

A few years ago, the Suarez family started using an electric stove.

“Cooking gas is state managed, and we would get one cylinder every few months. It was difficult to cook sufficient meals until the next distribution of gas cylinders. The service was unreliable,” he adds.

They tell me that electricity is heavily subsidized in Venezuela. However, there have been frequent power cuts since 2009.

“Caracas wasn’t affected by power cuts before this year, but in many other states, we remained without electricity for three to four hours almost every day. The Venezuelan people don’t believe the lies of this government. We all know that electricity outage is due to corruption and mismanagement,” he concludes.