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Hunger is hastening the ruin of Venezuelan’s oil industry as workers grow too weak and hungry for heavy labour. With children dying of malnutrition and adults sifting garbage for table scraps, food has become more important than employment, and thousands are walking off the job. Absenteeism and mass resignations mean few are left to produce the oil that keeps the tattered economy functioning.

Venezuela, a socialist autocracy that once was South America’s most prosperous nation, is suffering a collapse almost without precedent, its gross domestic product dropping 40 percent since 2013. Petroleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA), the government oil company and economic linchpin, has fallen into chaos as leaders replaced expert managers with loyalists, padded the payroll and channeled revenue to social programs — and to epic corruption. Production fell by half in the past 16 years. Daily output dropped to 1.77 million barrels in January from a peak of 3.34 million in 2001.

Much of the decline is due to lack of money for maintenance and exploration. Recently, though, hunger is to blame. A survey by three Venezuelan universities released Wednesday found that that more than 64 per cent of residents lost weight in 2017, on average 25 pounds. More than 61 per cent of respondents said they had gone to bed hungry over the past three months.

Photo by Carlos Becerra/Bloomberg

Ivan Freitas, a PDVSA union leader and critic of President Nicolas Maduro’s regime, said Wednesday that in Zulia State 12 malnourished workers collapsed in November and December and had to be taken off drilling platforms for treatment. More go down each day, he said.