Caracas, Venezuela —
As Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro faces growing US military pressure and calls for his resignation, an old foe is returning to haunt him in his own backyard: Inflation, one of Venezuela’s chronic economic maladies, is on the rise again.
“Prices are growing every day,” said Yon Michael Hernandez, 25, a motorcycle taxi driver in the slum of Petare, east of Caracas.
“Corn flour is 220 bolivars today, it may be 240 tomorrow and 260 the day after, and the same package that might have cost you one dollar 15 days ago is worth three now,” Hernandez told CNN. He referred to the Venezuelan currency and to the pre-cooked flour used to make arepas, the ubiquitous corn pancakes that are a daily staple.
In the three months since the Pentagon deployed warships and aircraft in a campaign that the White House said was aimed at drug traffickers from Venezuela, the bolivar has depreciated around 70% against the US dollar, according to data from the central bank, hemorrhaging one point every day.
In the illegal but widely used currency black market, the drop has been just as steep. At the official rate, the US dollar is pegged at about 231 Venezuelan bolivars.
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