Venezuela's gas shortages stall ambulances in their tracks

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https://www.apnews.com/8c1402829d8943c89aadb72d95758cdf

Venezuela’s gas shortages stall ambulances in their tracks

By LUZ DARY DEPABLOS and SCOTT SMITHOctober 10, 2019


SAN CRISTOBAL, Venezuela (AP) — Ambulances have become the latest casualty of Venezuela’s unraveling political and economic crisis, struggling to fuel up and speed away to emergencies as gasoline scarcities deepen.

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But first responders in the mountainous state of Tachira said this week they’re now being stripped of priority service due to the work of smugglers who sneak Venezuela’s dirt-cheap gas to Colombia for huge profits.

Venezuela was once among Latin America’s wealthiest nations, rich with abundant oil reserves. But production has plummeted to a fifth of highs two decades ago, which critics blame on years of corruption and mismanagement at the state-run oil firm PDVSA under socialist rule.
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Farmers in Tachira, a mountainous state bordering Colombia, reported a scarcity of gasoline earlier this year which prevented them from shipping produce to market. Crops such as carrots and potatoes spoiled in fields at a time of unprecedented hunger in Venezuela, driving more than 4 million people abroad.