Cradle of Venezuela oil industry is a scene of desolation

Greasy slicks continue to darken the ground in Mene Grande, a modest town where Venezuela's oil boom was born more than a century ago. But now the days of crude glory are gone, replaced by desolation. The asphalt on the roads is worn down. Water, cooking gas and electricity are absent most of the time. Locals, who previously received generous oil-related salaries, have left the country because of the worst crisis their country has known. "We used to live like kings," recalled Henry, a 48-year-old former oil well worker who declined to give his last name. "This was the biggest oil area in Venezuela... You stopped here and used to see a big number of barges working there. Now, all that is finished," he said, indicating Lake Maracaibo, a vast body of water in Venezuela's northwest. More…