Venezuela food crisis

SUNDAY DECEMBER 6 2015 $2 VOLUME 151, No. 134WWW.IDAHOSTATESMAN.COM/

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NEWS ALL DAY.YOUR WAY

Fatal shootings by police and sheriff’s deputies have climbed in Idaho

since the turn of the century, an Idaho Statesman review has found, and no

officers have been charged. With attention to police shootings increasing

nationwide, reporter Cynthia Sewell combed media reports, public records

and other sources to create Idaho’s first database of fatal law enforcement

shootings since 2000. The number has increased to about five per year the

past five years. Many have taken place in the Treasure Valley, including the

May 13, 2007, shooting of Ricardo Benitez inside his Meridian home, left,

after he lunged with a knife at a Meridian police officer. Check out our

chart of all 47 killings by law enforcement since 2000. DEPTH, 1C-3C

SPECIAL REPORT: IDAHO POLICE SHOOTINGS

Officer-involveddeaths on the rise

Statesman file

Some went to hotels and

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up. JoJo Valdez, above, the

group’s spokeswoman,

went to a hotel. NEWS, 4A

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A HOME FOR ALLOVER HOLIDAYS

In Venezuela, people can barely afford to keep their families alive. Everything from medicine to flour to car parts is

scarce. Crime is unprecedented. The rich hide behind walls while the poor scavenge in streets. Whose fault is this?

Opinions are as plentiful as solutions are scarce. Landowners, such as the family that runs the ranch pictured

above, say the government’s policy of expropriating farms, factories and other productive resources is to blame.

Politicians say business leaders are sabotaging the economy with the goal of undermining the government. Today

at the polls, voters in Venezuela will decide which side has made a stronger case. Statesman reporter Sven Berg,

who spent three weeks this fall in Venezuela as part of a McClatchy news project, reports on the state of life there

and the history of bad blood between the country’s socialists and oligarchs. DEPTH, 1C

SPECIAL SERIES, PART 1: VENEZUELA IN CRISIS

As socialists, businessestrade blame, people suffer

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Depth

With concernrising aboutofficer-involved

shootings nationwide –and in Idaho, especiallysince an Adams Countyrancher died in an en-counter with two depu-ties – the Idaho States-man reviewed shootingsso far this century. Thenewspaper’s tally foundthat the number of an-nual fatal shootings waszero or just one from2000 to 2003; it hasrisen to about five an-nually over the past fiveyears.In 45 of the 47 cases

we found, authoritiesruled that officers’ ac-tions did not warrantprosecution. Two cases

are still being investigat-ed.The Statesman has

compiled Idaho’s firstknown database of offi-cer-involved shootings. Itfollows in the tracks ofnational databases estab-lished this year by TheWashington Post andThe Guardian of London,though theirs cover onlyshootings since the startof this year.The Idaho Attorney

General’s Office, IdahoProsecuting AttorneysAssociation, U.S. At-torney’s Office and oth-ers queried cannot recallany incident in which apolice officer or sheriff’sdeputy in Idaho has beencharged in connectionwith a fatal shooting.Former Ada County

Sheriff Gary Raney, nowa consultant for the U.S.

Department of Justice,said shootings by officersin the line of duty havecome under increasingscrutiny since the 1980s— a trend he endorses.

There are more inde-pendent shooting in-vestigations and laws,and better investigationtechniques and evidenceanalysis, than ever be-

fore, he said.“It was not that long

Statesman file

Boise Police storm a pickup truck just west of the intersection of Franklin and Cole roads on June 12, 2000, after a standoff. Police shot thedriver, Brian Allen Poppleton, who was armed with a handgun and had aimed it at police.

SPECIAL REPORT: POLICE SHOOTINGS

No Idaho officers charged infatal encounters since 2000.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Law enforcement officers have shot and killed atleast 47 people in line of duty past 15 years.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Officers were cleared in 45 of those deaths; twocases are still under investigation.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

The pace of officer-involved fatal shootings is rising.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

BY CYNTHIA SEWELL

[email protected]

Sources: Idaho Statesman archives, Idaho media archives, FatalEncounters.org, The Guardian’s The Counted project.

0

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2015201420132012201120102009200820072006200520042003200220012000

2000-15: 47 fatal shootings around Idaho

SEE POLICE, 2C

DATABASE

Explore the digital database, with

facts about each shooting and

photos.

IDAHOSTATESMAN.COM

MORE INSIDE

Read a full-page chart listing all

47 shootings over 16 years. 2C

OF THE 47 PEOPLE KILLED, 36 WEREARMED WITH A GUN, SIX HAD AKNIFE, THREE WERE USING A VEHICLEAS A WEAPON, ONE HAD A PIECE OFGLASS AND ONE WAS UNARMED.

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congressional delegationhas pledged support forTrump this side of theJuly 2016 nominatingconvention. Rep. RaulLabrador is still backingSen. Rand Paul. Rep. Mike

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EYES ON IDAHO

BY ROBERT EHLERT

SEE EHLERT, 11C

SAN JUAN DE LOS MORROS,

VENEZUELA

Misael León still believes inVenezuela.Standing in the muggy shade

on his farm, the native of Me-dellín, Colombia, said he’soptimistic that someday, some-one’s going to fix his adoptedcountry.León has had a bad run of it

lately — the same run that’sbrought this resource-rich na-tion to its knees.He describes life as a fight for

survival. He struggles to findfood for his family. One of the

first words out of his mouth is“escasez” — shortage — a refer-ence to a nationwide lack ofeverything, from food to laun-dry soap to car parts.León gets milk, eggs and

some meat from the animals heraises on the northern edge ofVenezuela’s agricultural region.But he has to buy basics such asrice, flour, pasta and sugar.Supplies of those items arescarce.“Anywhere you go in Vene-

zuela, any city, any village,you’ll see a line to buy food,” hesaid. “And that’s not the worst

part. Worse is that you stand inline, and when you get to theplace where you make the pur-chase, the food is all gone.”Eighteen days traveling

across Venezuela in Septemberand October and conversationswith people in all walks of lifefound León’s observation re-peated dozens of times. Vene-zuela is in crisis, its economyshrinking, its oil wealth no long-

er generating the kind of moneythe country needs to importproducts, its farms and factoriesno longer producing enough tosatisfy its citizens.That, however, is where the

agreement ends. The cause ofthe shortages remains a hotlydebated topic that pits thecountry’s current socialist rulers

NATION IN TURMOIL

Venezuela’s foodcrisis dominatesahead of key vote

Alejandro Cegarra McClatchy

Venezuelans are used to long lines, such as this one in Puerto Ordazon Oct. 7, to buy price-regulated food. Food scarcity has becomeone of the greatest afflictions in Venezuelan life in recent years.

SEE VENEZUELA, 4C

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Waiting in line for hours hasbecome a regular part of life inVenezuela. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

With a critical election Sunday,many blame government forshortages. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Government says corporationsare hiding their supplies. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

BY SVEN BERG

[email protected]

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against an oppositionrooted in its businessclasses.The conflict is expected

to play out Sunday, whenVenezuelans go to thepolls to decide control oftheir National Assembly,a 167-member governingbody that’s their versionof Congress in the UnitedStates.Shortages of food and

other basic items will beone of the biggest issueson their minds.León is one of many

who blame the govern-ment for allowing thingsto get so bad. The peoplein power caused Venezue-la’s drastic fall in produc-tion, he says. They con-fiscated farmland as wellas private factories thatproduce staples like ce-ment, iron and car batter-ies. Then they put peoplewith no expertise incharge of those resources.León describes a vicious

cycle where even feed foranimals is hard to comeby. That has driven feedprices up, so León isforced to buy less andlower-quality food for hiscows, which causes themto produce less milk. Hisincome has dropped somuch that he now feedshis hog scraps and foodwaste from a local restau-rant. He drives a cab tosupplement his income.He tries to hang on.The Venezuelan gov-

ernment tries to hang onby rationing supplies,limiting how much andwhen customers can buythem. The last digit of aperson’s government-issued ID determineswhich day of the week heor she can make purchas-es.To buy diapers, parents

must present their baby’sbirth certificate, as well astheir own IDs.The idea is to stop peo-

ple from hoarding sup-plies and selling them atseveral times the price onthe black market. Grocerytrafficking is a real thingin Venezuela.

THE MARXIST

SOLUTION

Six years ago, a Vene-zuelan man hired León torun a ranch near San Juande los Morros, a city ofabout 30,000 a fewhours’ drive southwest ofCaracas, the country’scapital. The ranch sup-ported hundreds of cowsand other livestock.The government con-

fiscated all but 100 acresseveral years ago, Leónsaid, and divided theranch into smaller parcels.It awarded those parcelsto people who had no ideahow to farm, León said.The new arrivals sold

off the animals and any-thing else that came withthe property, and thenabandoned the land, Leónsaid. Today, only one ortwo still live on the prop-erty. León said he can’twork the land now be-cause it doesn’t belong tohim or the ranch’s origi-nal owner. So it sits emp-ty.Neither León nor the

landowner could do any-thing about the expropria-tion, the result of theeffort by the late Presi-dent Hugo Chávez — whoin many ways still rulesVenezuela, though hedied nearly three yearsago — to break the gripthat Venezuela’s rich hadon the country’s criticalresources.Chávez often accused

the Venezuelan “oligar-chy” of idling their prop-erty in order to sabotagethe economy and under-mine his government. Sothe National Assemblypassed laws that gave himauthority to expropriateprivate property deemedidle or not being usedappropriately. That powerpassed to Chávez’s hand-picked successor, currentPresident Nicolás Madu-ro, after Chávez diedMarch 5, 2013.The laws have been a

flashpoint for growingbitterness between thewell-off and the poor, theproducers and the “pueb-lo.”“They try to half-solve

one problem with anotherproblem,” León said.Efforts to contact Vene-

zuelan government offi-cials for comment on thisstory were unsuccessful.

SURVIVING

Some 80 miles south ofSan Juan de los Morros onHighway 2 lies Calabozo,

a dusty city next to a ma-jor reservoir in the heartof the Venezuelan plains.Calabozo is the home of

ranchers Rolando Sosaand his wife, JeannetteMontoya, who tell a storyalmost exactly like Le-ón’s.But they don’t share

León’s optimism for thefuture.Sosa and Montoya still

seethe with anger at thegovernment. In 2008,they said, a group of peo-ple they believe had thefavor of the Chávez gov-ernment made a claimagainst a small section oftheir land, saying it wasidle.Sosa and Montoya said

they fought the claim, butthat only resulted in thegovernment confiscatingall of their ranch, leavingthem just the house andthe fenced yard around it.The people who were

awarded the ranch let theland and livestock go towaste, Sosa said.Finally, after six years

of fighting, the govern-ment returned about 40percent of the land toSosa and Montoya, withrestrictions on how theycan use it. Animals wereemaciated. They said partof the land had beenburned, and equipmentwas broken.They’ve restored order

since then. Sosa maintainsa small but healthy-look-ing herd of cattle. Thegrass appears decentlyirrigated. The yard andhouse are tidy and pleas-ant.But it hasn’t been

enough. Discouraged bytheir prospects, both oftheir sons followed thepath of many young Vene-zuelans and moved out oftheir native country. Theirdaughter will move to theUnited States soon, theysaid.The family’s breakup

was the hardest pill toswallow.“The human capital of a

ranch and those whoknow best how to run a

ranch are your children,”Sosa said. “There was noreason to do all the dam-age they caused us. Aboveall, the damage to ourfamily. The human part,right?”

‘ECONOMIC WAR’

In Caracas, LisandroPérez pounded his deskwith his left fist.“The government must

put these people in jail!”he shouted.Pérez was talking about

Venezuela’s businessleaders. He believesthey’re breaking the FairPrice Law, a piece of leg-islation passed by theNational Assembly thatrestricts sellers’ profitmargins to 30 percent. Asevidence, he cites seem-ingly overnight doublingor tripling of prices onthings such as flour orcooking oil.“They want a profit of

80, 90, 100, 150 percentwithout concern for the

FROM PAGE 1C

VENEZUELA

Alejandro Cegarra McClatchy

A boy runs through a farm in Guarico, Venezuela, on Sept. 30, 2015. Over the past decade, the government hasconfiscated land from operators of large farms and split them among the local population. Many of the confiscatedfarms are no longer productive.

SEE PAGE 5C

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population,” he said. “Intruth, they aren’t interest-ed in the needs of theVenezuelan. The onlything that interests them,fundamentally, is theirown profits.”Pérez is principal at the

José Gregorio Hernándezelementary school inCaracas’ 23 de Eneroneighborhood and a lead-ing figure in the UnitedSocialist Party of Vene-zuela, whose memberscontrol most of the coun-try’s government. Hisoffice, a narrow, neutral-colored triangle just in-side the school’s frontdoor, is an homage toChávez and the socialistrevolution the late presi-dent started.A 2014 calendar,

topped with a photo ofChávez in a Caracas rain-storm at the last majorpolitical rally where heappeared, hangs on Pé-rez’s wall. The messageon the photo is a popularrhyme around Venezuelathese days: “Chávez vive.La patria sigue.” Itdoesn’t have quite thesame ring in English:“Chávez lives. The father-land continues.” A doll ofSimón Bolívar, Venezue-la’s principal foundingfather, sits on his desk.Many of the business-

people Pérez accuses ofeconomic sabotage aremembers of Fedecamaras,a nationwide coalition ofbusiness leaders. Besidesraising prices, Pérez said,Fedecamaras membershave been hiding andexporting their productsto stir up discontent witha government they hateand will do anything toremove.This is what the Vene-

zuelan government hasdubbed “the economicwar.” Never mind longlines; the prices of foodand other necessities haverisen so much that evenpeople making decent

wages can barely affordenough to survive.With the shortages,

prices of corn flour, forexample, needed to makeVenezuela’s essential fooditem, the arepa, oftenreach 200 bolívares for a1-kilogram package.Converted to U.S. dol-

lars, that’s less than 25cents. But it’s 1 percent ofthe 20,000 bolívares —about $22.40 — consid-ered a respectable month-ly wage here. Imaginepaying $40 for a gallon ofmilk in the United Statesand you get an idea ofhow runaway food pricescan strain a budget.Beans, another Venezue-lan staple, require even abigger slice of income at350 bolívares, or 39 cents,per kilo.“Those are prices of

violence. Those are pricesthat they set to fomentviolence in the country,”Pérez said. “The govern-ment must put them inprison. You put half thepeople at Fedecamaras inprison, and the economicwar will end.”

BAD BLOOD

The government hasproduced no evidence of alarge-scale conspiracy tohide or otherwise limitsupplies of essentials. ButFedecamaras has a longhistory of giving the gov-ernment reason for mis-trust.On April 11, 2002, Ve-

nezuelan military leaders,some say with the help ofthe United States govern-ment, orchestrated a coupagainst Chávez, brieflyremoving him from pow-

er. Fedecamaras headPedro Carmona took hisplace. Carmona immedi-ately declared the consti-tution void, dissolved theNational Assembly, dis-missed the SupremeCourt and appointed acabinet of business lead-ers and other sympa-thizers.The coup failed within a

few days under protestfrom the public and mil-itary figures loyal to Chá-vez, as well as politicalleaders of other LatinAmerican countries. Chá-vez returned to power.Carmona fled to Col-ombia.Six months later, Fede-

camaras, now under theguidance of Carlos Fer-nández, was behind aone-day nationwide strikethat ground life in Vene-zuela to a halt but failedto achieve its declaredobjective: the resignationof Chávez.Fedecamaras pushed

another nationwide strikein December 2002.Again, the goal was tooust Chávez. This onelasted two months and cutdeeply into the country’scritical oil production andexports, devastating theeconomy.Again, Chávez’s gov-

ernment survived. Fer-nández was arrested onChávez’s orders andcharged with treason,rebellion and incitingcriminal acts. A judgedropped the treasoncharge and placed Fer-nández under house ar-rest.Santiago Guaramato, a

doctor in the large city of

Puerto Ordaz, agrees withLisandro Pérez that Fede-camaras is at it again,working to undo the gov-ernment of Maduro, Chá-vez’s successor.Guaramato said he’s

never seen Venezuela insuch a bad state. His pa-tients struggle to findmedicines they need, andwhen they do find them,they’re prohibitively ex-pensive.“It’s not spontaneous,”

he said. “This situation —the shortages, the pricesgrotesquely high ... this ismeasured. This is studied.This is calibrated with agoal in mind.”

NO PEACE IN THE

VALLEY

At 10,000 feet abovesea level, Mucuchies feelsa world away from theturbulence that’s makingVenezuela feel like acountry at war.The city of about 6,000

is built on a steep, greenmountainside some 400miles southwest of Cara-cas.It’s quiet here. Instead

of a steady rumble of cars,trucks and motorcycles,you hear wind in themountains and birdschirping. The air is crispand breezy — a contrast tothe stagnant heat in theplains just 50 miles to theeast but more than 9,000feet below.It’s easy to imagine —

wrongly — that the prob-lems plaguing Venezuelahaven’t taken hold here.The farmers in Mu-

cuchies struggle with thesame skyrocketing costsof production and roller-

coaster profits. The gov-ernment distributes seed,fertilizer and other prod-ucts to farmers at con-trolled prices, but manycan’t get enough. Theybuy black market andimported products to fillin the gaps. But thoseproducts keep gettingmore expensive becauseVenezuelans buy themwith their country’s cur-rency, the bolívar, whosevalue has plummetedrelative to the U.S. dollar.José Castillo, one of

many who rotates garlic,potatoes, carrots andbroccoli on the slopesaround Mucuchies, saidthe government lets himbuy enough chemicals for50 of his 1,000 acres. Therest he buys on the blackmarket — at 10 times thecost.Security is another

issue, even in the quiet ofthe mountains. YhovanyQuintero, another Mu-cuchies farmer, said heslept in a tent next to hisgarlic field for 22 nights inSeptember to protect itfrom thieves who’ve beenknown to poach cropsapproaching maturity.

FOOD FOR LIFE

Will Sunday’s electionmake a difference? Sosa

and Montoya say no. Nomatter what voters want,they believe the rulingUnited Socialist Party ofVenezuela will rig theresults.León disagrees. He

thinks Venezuelans are sofrustrated that there’s noway the socialists can stayin control.“There’s a lot of people

who say Venezuela has nofuture. I say yes, there is afuture in Venezuela,”León said. “Why? How?Give confidence to theproducer. Incentivizethem so that they pro-duce. ... What can thegovernment do so thatpeople work? Here’s whatI say: Don’t give themfood. Teach them to pro-duce it.”

Sven Berg covers localgovernment for theStatesman. He lived inVenezuela in 2005 and2006. 208-377-6275,@IDS_SvenBerg

‘‘THERE’S A LOT OF PEOPLE WHO SAY VENEZUELA HAS NOFUTURE. I SAY YES, THERE IS A FUTURE IN VENEZUELA.

Misael León, farmer

VIDEO

Watch video of Venezuelan

ranchers talking about their

struggles and a political leader’s

explanation of the “Economic War”

at IdahoStatesman.com