Living conditions in Venezuela are growing ever grimmer ➡ Starving Venezuelans dying for eating poisonous yuca sold in black market. Desperate for anything to eat, people in the newly-created socialist paradise are ingesting one of the few staples still available and affordable in the starved nation. Unfortunately, there’s a poisonous variety of the yuca plant that’s deadly ~

The two roots (sweet – which is safe – and bitter, which isn’t) are almost undistinguishable, yet one is banned from the market because it contains a component – hydrocyanic acid – that becomes poisonous if not properly processed.
 
 
The difficulty to set them apart is taking lives. Unofficial reports count at least 29 yuca-related deaths since October, including a 2-year-old girl last week. Dozens have been intoxicated to different degrees […]
 
In 2015, Venezuelans predominantly bought flour, rice, bread and pasta, chicken and meat — all those now in the luxury category for the vast majority.
 
So the deadly yuca is a matter of great concern, especially because it is sold by untraceable unknowing individuals who are just trying to make a buck.

 
As Fox News reported last month, there’s so little to eat in the country that in 2016 Venezuelans actually lost 19 lbs. on average 😯 ~

The 2016 Living Conditions Survey (Encovi, for its name in Spanish), conducted among 6,500 families, also found that as many as 32.5 percent eat only once or twice a day — the figure was 11.3 just a year ago.
 
In all, 82 percent of the nation’s households live in poverty, the study found.
 
Venezuelans suffer shortages of the most basic goods, from food to medicine, amid triple-digit inflation and a nearly 80 percent currency collapse in the last year.
 
A whopping 93.3 percent told Encovi researchers that their income was not enough to cover their food needs, which would explain why Venezuelans are replacing red and white meat with vegetables and tubers, mainly potato, and other cheaper options.

 
What’s so tragic is the fact that this never would have happened but for Hugo Chavez and his totalitarian take-over of the country’s economy. As Ed Morrissey at Hot Air pointed out a few years back ~

Before Chavez, Venezuela was a successful petro-state with a significant middle class and stable economics. Then Chavez created a command economy, expropriated private property, and ruled by whim for most of his term as president/dictator. He managed that through brute force and a cult of personality, but his successor only has brute force to use.

As Castro destroyed the middle class in Cuba, Chavez – and now Nicolas Maduro – have essentially done the same in Venezuela.
 
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Related:
Here at least is a positive development (which probably wouldn’t be happening under another Democrat administration – Barack Obama was one of Chavez’ biggest fans) ➡ Nations to Challenge Venezuela’s Authoritarian Regime ~

Fourteen nations including U.S., Mexico, and Canada will work together to restore Venezuela’s democracy. The joint effort of these countries will call on Nicolas Maduro’s government to return full powers to National Assembly, release political prisoners and bring back holding of regional elections that have not enjoyed today […]
 
(They intend to) submit the statement for a vote as a resolution at the Organization of American States. Members are asked to pass a resolution calling on Maduro’s government to permit elections and ease the clampdown on the opposition within 30 days, otherwise lost membership of the organization […]
 
The situation in Venezuela is getting worst. Suppression of dissent has escalated. Maduro’s government continues to imprison opposition leaders, indefinitely postponed gubernatorial elections and also scuttled a recall referendum by the opposition. While political situation has gone like these, Venezuela’s economy continued to shrink. The number of people getting poorer is surging. Other Latin American nations were shocked to know that many people in the oil-rich country spend their days searching for food in the garbage.