Venezuela's Maduro halts restricted food sale plan

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

Venezuela's Maduro halts restricted food sale plan
By JORGE RUEDA / Associated Press / June 8, 2013

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — President Nicolas Maduro said Saturday that he has put a halt to a plan to restrict sales of 20 basic food products in Venezuela’s most populous state, a scheme critics had deemed rationing in disguise.

Officials in western Zulia state had said the plan to limit sales of items such as cooking oil, flour, chicken and toilet paper — all of which are subject to price controls — could begin as early as Monday at 65 supermarkets. But they never explained exactly how it would work.

Data on purchases would reside on computer servers to guarantee that individuals did not make multiple purchases of the same item in different supermarkets, they said.

‘‘It’s insane this idea, whoever got into their head, of a computer chip for purchases,’’ Maduro said in a speech televised on state TV.

Maduro said he asked Gov. Francisco Arias Cardenas, a socialist ally and former military officer, to scrap the planned restrictions on food sales and Arias agreed.

Read more: http://www.boston.com/news/world/latin-america/2013/06/08/venezuela-maduro-halts-restricted-food-sale-plan/mD7qj2yvQHpzaMMFP2xEeK/story.html

[Judi Lynn]

1. Venezuela's Maduro scraps plan for food restriction

8 June 2013 Last updated at 20:36 ET
Venezuela's Maduro scraps plan for food restriction

Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro says he has halted a plan to restrict the sale of basic food items in the country's most populous state, Zulia.

The scheme would have limited the number of packages of items such as rice, milk and sugar shoppers were allowed to buy.

The authorities said it was aimed at curbing smuggling to Colombia.

~snip~
The plan was devised by the authorities in western Zulia state, which borders Colombia.

It is not clear exactly how it would have worked, but it was meant to prevent shoppers from buying the same product more than once in a day.

The authorities said it was aimed at preventing people from buying large quantities of price-controlled goods in Venezuela only to sell them at a profit in neighbouring Colombia, where they are more expensive.

More:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-22829583

[quadrature]

2. Ven's version of PRISM, I guess .nt

nt