Venezuela landslide kills at least 39 people, over 50 missing – BBC News
The Venezuelan authorities have said that at least 39 people died and more than 50 are missing after a landslide near the capital, Caracas, on Tuesday.
The disaster occurred in a part of the country that has been hard hit by shortages and hyperinflation.
The people of the mountain region of Guajira are among the poorest of the poor. They have lived in poverty since the region was settled in the 1500s by Spaniards.
The area has witnessed a surge in violence during the past several months, with two car bombs being detonated in the border city of San Cristobal by gunmen, killing two people. That violence has forced people to flee the area.
Venezuela’s economy is in crisis
The disaster comes just two months after a devastating earthquake killed thousands of people in Caracas.
The International Monetary Fund on Monday warned that the crisis in Venezuela was likely to continue for the foreseeable future.
This morning we’re taking a look at how the humanitarian needs of Venezuelans are affected by the collapse of socialist economics in the country.
Venezuela’s economy has collapsed since the country’s political crisis began in January. President Nicolas Maduro has promised free, high-quality food, medicine, and education. But shortages have gripped the country since the beginning of the year, affecting the lives of more than 1.6 million people in 2018.
People line up outside a supermarket in Caracas, Venezuela, ahead of the month-long Ramadan fasting period.
The International Monetary Fund on Monday warned that the crisis in Venezuela was likely to continue for the foreseeable future.
It said that the economy was expected to contract by about 2% in 2019. The IMF blamed the collapse of the economy on years of mismanagement and mismanagement.
Maduro has promised free, high-quality food, medicine, and education. He also has said he is willing to devalue the Bolivar and allow some prices to be fixed, but Venezuela’s currency, the bolivar, is still heavily regulated and its value has remained low compared to the dollar and other foreign currencies.
Last month, the government announced that it planned to devalue the currency by 50%, but that move has been postponed twice.
On Monday, Venezuela’s government said that the IMF will release