Versión Español
Spanish – Venezuela has run out of the Iranian gasoline that Nicolás Maduro’s regime had imported. There are only 15,000 barrels left for the entire population.
The regime, which prided itself on receiving 1.5 million barrels of fuel from Iran to supposedly alleviate the shortage confronting the oil-producing country, has no way of dealing with the shortage of gasoline once again.
According to the executive director of the United Federation of Oil Workers of Venezuela (Futpv), Eudis Girot, the country faces fuel shortages because “Iran’s gasoline has run out,” and the refineries remain inoperative. He stated that the “only hope is a ship of imported gasoline.”
Girot reiterated that national production is paralyzed and that the refineries no longer produce gasoline: “their tanks are totally empty.”
The deputy before the National Assembly (NA) Omar González Moreno told Diario Las Américas that “eight out of every ten” service stations in Venezuela no longer have the gasoline sent by Iran in May and that the gasoline found in PDVSA tanks is distributed only to those linked to the regime or is sent to Cuba.
Caracas, the Venezuelan capital, still has gasoline, and although fuel distribution is slowing down, citizens can still purchase the fuel. But that is not happening in the rest of the Venezuelan territory. In fact, in the state of Carabobo, for example, gasoline is available only at stations with dollar charges, while those with subsidized gasoline remain empty.
Llevo dos horas exactas en una cola kilométrica en #Valencia para surtir de #gasolina el carro, en una estación de servicio a precio internacional, porque de las subsidiadas sólo queda el nombre. #HechoEnSocialismo #Venevisión #Televen 4:24pm #2Agosto
— Kervin García Mannillo (@Kervingarcia) August 2, 2020
While the Venezuelans once again face the threat of a gasoline shortage, which is becoming more tangible every day, it is important to remember that Maduro sent fuel to Cuba despite the needs of the South American country.
The shortage of gasoline is not new for Venezuelans. Although Nicolás Maduro attributes it to the “tightening” of sanctions imposed by the United States, the truth is that the shortages have emerged sporadically for years due to the precarious state of Venezuela’s refineries and low oil production.
Maduro’s regime is in charge of the distribution and production of gasoline. Chavismo manages refineries and exports. So only the dictatorship is responsible for what happens to the fuel and its severe scarcity.
Whenever the shortage of gasoline worsens, the situation becomes so unsustainable that Venezuelans buy gasoline by smuggling it from Colombia and Brazil. In other words, the country with the largest oil reserves in the world imports the fuel clandestinely and then resells it.
We must remember that on February 20, Maduro decreed an “oil emergency” in Venezuela and assigned Tareck El Aissami to the “defense and restructuring” of the state-owned PDVSA. Meanwhile, he sent fuel to Cuba. However, the results are not yet visible.
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