Keeping a Grip on Venezuela, Using Food

Venezuela is falling apart. Inflation could reach 13,000 percent this year. Few people have enough food, and infants are dying of starvation. President Nicolás Maduro is deeply unpopular.

But he is still expected to win re-election Sunday. The authoritarian leader is skilled at manipulating voters and sidelining his opponents to hold onto power.

Access to food is a powerful motivator in a country where only 10 percent of people can afford enough to eat. Many store shelves are empty. And a month’s pay for a minimum-wage worker buys just three bags of rice.

Boxes of food from the government are a lifeline for the hungry. Critics accuse the government of manipulating voters by threatening to take away rations if they don’t vote or show up at rallies.

Yolanda Godoy Valecillos worries she will lose the food rations she depends on if the opposition wins. “They say to me: ‘But are you blind? Look what is happening to the country,'” she said. “But I keep voting for him.”

The search for food can be all-consuming.

Álvaro Castillo arrived in the middle of the night and waited more than 30 hours for subsidized food in Plaza Venezuela, a crime-ridden area of Caracas. He said he would not vote Sunday.

“If we go out to vote or not, Venezuela is already destroyed,” he said.

Thousands of people were waiting in line with Castillo. Most were exhausted. Many women carried infants. The elderly struggled to keep standing.

Opposition politicians have called on people to withhold their votes in protest. Many I spoke to felt strongly this was the wrong approach.

“People are dying; why are you going to call a boycott?” said Sabrina Medina Bello. “So that we continue to endure this?”

Government workers were required by their bosses to attend a rally for Maduro. The mood was strikingly different from the one during the 2012 presidential campaign of Hugo Chávez, who easily drew thousands who genuinely adored him.

But when state television cameras pointed in their direction, workers cheered. Everyone was eager to be seen, and most important photographed, supporting Maduro.

Sometimes, people get surprise text messages telling them they are going to receive cash bonuses, often on holidays. For the poor, the bonuses can be equivalent to a month’s wage. It’s enough to persuade many of them to vote for Maduro.

But when I go to the slums, I see a change. The poor once supported Maduro. This year I’ve seen an increase in support for opposition candidates.

Henri Falcón, one of the candidates, pledges decent wages for workers and criticizes Maduro in fiery speeches. “It is deceitful what he offers — food for today, and hunger tomorrow,” he said.

But the fear remains: If you do not vote, you could lose your ration box. And with most opposition voters planning to abstain, low approval ratings or not, Maduro will probably win.

More than 1 million Venezuelans have already left the country. If Maduro wins Sunday, Castillo’s only option will be to follow them, he says.

“It is better to leave the country than try to change it,” he said.