Venezuela Quietly Abandons Communist Price Controls

“Comrades!”, the Whatsapp message read, “the food has arrived!” In the socialist township of Catia, the bedrock of chavista support in Caracas, state supermarket PDVAL -- decked in red with pictures of former President Hugo Chavez and current President Nicolas Maduro -- is selling long scarce foodstuffs, hastily imported from Brazil, at ten times the state-set prices. The kilo of Brazilian “harina pan”, the corn flour to make the “arepas” staple fat tortilla bread, is selling at Bs 1,900. Venezuela’s Polar, the sole local manufacturer of the flour is forced by the government to sell each kilo at Bs 97. Currently, the minimum main monthly salary in Venezuela of Bs 22,577 is barely enough to buy a dozen kilos of maize flour. The vast majority of Venezuelans make minimum wage and there is 7%-plus unemployment, according to the government. More…