Venezuela’s Coronavirus Crisis Is Different
These days, Teresa buys food that doesn’t need to go in the fridge. Hers broke, after a series of power outages finally wrecked its circuitry. When she can afford to buy meat, she resorts to a bygone technique—preserving it with salt. It’s a burden her family has gotten used to. Others are harder to make peace with: Teresa’s 8-year-old, Sara, has autism and epilepsy, and just one box of the anticonvulsant pills she needs costs $70, a hefty sum for a public-school teacher who makes barely $6 a month.
Such is life in Charallave, a city near Caracas, the Venezuelan capital, where Teresa lives with her husband, mother, and two children. And that was before the coronavirus struck.
In mid-March, with just a few dozen confirmed cases of COVID-19, Venezuelan authorities opted for a strong response. Citizens were ordered to stay home and to wear masks if they went outside.
