‘I do not have any hope’: Inside Venezuela’s economic and political meltdown

"My neighbour saw me eating something that it was clear I’d pulled out of a bin; I was so ashamed,” says Samuel Dana. “Then he asked which bin it was that I had taken it from.” In desperation, Dana and his wife, who live in one of Caracas’ many poor areas, stopped buying food for themselves in a bid to save enough money to get antibiotics for their two-year-old son. On the black market, the price for the medicine they needed had reached several months worth of Dana’s salary. With nearly no savings left, he and his wife were desperate to try and make up the money. They didn’t manage it. Their child died from an untreated ear infection. More…