Rural Venezuela bearing the brunt of economy in ruins

Shortages of fuel and electricity, hospitals in ruins and impassable roads: outside the relative comfort of Caracas, years of economic crisis have taken their toll on rural Venezuela.

The only thing these abandoned communities have in abundance is electoral promises in the run-up to Sunday's presidential vote.

Incumbent Nicolas Maduro, seeking a third six-year term, has offered to repair schools and clinics, as well as build houses in the dozens of towns and villages he has campaigned in.

But for the residents of places like Biscucuy, a coffee-growing region in the western Portuguesa state, it is hard to imagine an escape from their daily misery.

"The economy in the village is not easy," laments Jose Gregorio Mejia, a 56-year-old mechanic, as he wipes his hands on oil-covered clothes.

Mejia needs surgery for a urinary obstruction but the local hospital, with its derelict facade, does not have the materials to do the operation.

Against his doctor's orders, he goes out to work every day with the goal of earning between two and four dollars for his efforts.

Blackouts of up to four hours a day are common in this region of 50,000 people.

The roads between Biscucuy's coffee farms are full of potholes and when it rains they become muddy traps.

"We used to say: 'Let's start working young so that we can live happily in old age.' Now we can't say that because this government cut our pensions," said 62-year-old Rosa de Madrid.

The retired teacher only makes ends meet thanks to financial support sent by her daughter from the United States.

- 'We are drowning' -

Maduro blames Venezuela's economic woes on US sanctions imposed after dozens of Western and Latin American states refused to recognize his 2018 reelection due to alleged fraud.

But residents and experts say the collapse began much earlier, with the petro-state's all important oil industry collapsing under corruption and mismanagement.

Many in rural Venezuela feel they are overlooked in favor of Caracas, where electricity blackouts are less frequent and there is fuel and food, though even the capital has not been spared the rise in poverty.

Biscucuy harvests between 60 and 70 percent of Venezuela's coffee but production has become increasingly difficult.

The Hernandez family, for example, does not have fuel to run their coffee-drying machine or to transport it to the village.

There is a shortage of fertilizer and coffee growers complain about the price the government pays them for their product -- sometimes $80 for a quantity that trades for $200 on the international markets.

"We are drowning because we have no resources," said Migdalis Hernandez, 53, who runs the family farm.

To produce the targeted 3,680 kilograms (8,113 pounds) of coffee per year, they must spend about $800 on diesel -- money they do not have.

Coffee farmers increasingly use part of their production to barter for food as Venezuela faces one of the world's highest inflation rates and a sharp devaluation of the local currency, the bolivar.

- 'A poor diet' -

Rafael Hernandez -- not related to Migdalis -- told AFP he has no choice but to exchange some of his coffee production for basics such as corn flour, pasta, sugar and vegetable oil. He cannot spare enough for meat or chicken.

"Us coffee growers have a poor diet," Hernandez told AFP.

The mayor of Biscucuy, Jobito Villegas, estimates that "between 5,000 and 10,000 (inhabitants) have left the community" in recent years as life has become increasingly tough.

"The young are gone and we're left with the old. We're losing our workforce," he said. "Before it was the rural exodus that went from Biscucuy to Caracas, now they go from Biscucuy to the United States."

Some seven million of the once-rich country's citizens have left since Maduro came to power in 2013, as GDP fell by 80 percent in less than a decade.

Migdalis Hernandez still clings to her farm.

"It is what we have, it is the inheritance. It is what our parents left us, it is our economy, how do we leave it?" she said.