Venezuela president raises fuel price, devalues bolivar to tackle crisis
Just to put things in perspective, filling up a gas tank here is still cheaper than buying a two liter coke bottle.<p>30 liters of gas will cost Bs. 30 or Bs. 180 depending on the type you use. A 2 liter coke costs Bs.500. A McDonalds meal costs around Bs.1000 (Add Bs. 500 if you want fries fries. Fries are imported for some reason. I might be off on the price, I haven&#x27;t been there in a while.)<p>And this will not stop the smuggling of gasoline to Colombia and Brazil, since the price differential is still so big. It reduces profits a bit, but it&#x27;s still worth it for those that can do it (mostly military mafias that control the border).<p>EDIT: just to expand a bit on the subject, the price has been fixed since 1996 I think. The govt subsidies on gas are ridiculous. The country was losing around US$12500 million a year through the subsidy. Add to that, Chavez started PetroCaribe as a way to &quot;sell&quot; cheap oil to caribbean nations (in exchange for loyalty) that was never paid , or paid with beans,etc.<p>Now that the oil prices are so low, we have no income.Most of the money that came in to the country was stolen by govt officials (composed mostly of military men) and we have a huge debt obligations and low international reserves. Now it&#x27;s time to tighten our belts.<p>Lines to buy food are enormous. You can only buy certain things twice a week if you can find them (according to the last number of your national ID). Medicines are dissapearing.<p>Maduro is looking everywhere he can to find some money, but there&#x27;s not much he can do really.