North Americans may have a love affair with vintage Chevrolets and brand-new Ford Mustangs, but whatever passion we can muster is nothing – truly nothing – compared to the on-going tryst Venezuelans maintain with their vehicles.
From tricked-out Hondas to suped-up SUVs, Venezuelans have daily dates with their cars. And little wonder: with gas priced at about 12 cents a gallon, local residents say they can choose between buying a can of Coca-Cola and filling their tanks.
One man and his wife told me that they pulled into a gas station shortly after they moved to Venezuela from Colombia. They had only about 10,000 Bs in cash (about $4.50 at the official exchange rate, and about $2 on the black market exchange), and told the attendant to give them as much gas as their money could buy.
The attendant laughed. He filled their tank, then handed them enough change to buy two cups of coffee and a pastry inside the gas station’s convenience store.
Drivers here do not retire their 1970’s-model jalopies in favor of more fuel-efficient rides. Instead, they ease them through the city streets and highways, fenders nearly falling off and exhaust billowing out the pipes. Many of these drivers strap “taxi” signs to the tops of their cars and trek back and forth across the city multiple times each day.
Then, there are the luxury rides. Top-model SUVs with windows tinted reflective silver or black struggle for space on the city’s traffic-choked roads. Shiny, 2007 Ford Mustangs are as common here as soccer-mom minivans in the U.S.
Hummers are so popular that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has questioned whether they – along with whiskey, cigarettes and Barbie dolls – are appropriate for the citizens of a country in revolution.
“We’re one of the countries that consumes the most whiskey per capita in the world. We ought to be ashamed,” he said recently.
“What kind of revolution is this? The whiskey revolution? The Hummer revolution? No! This is a real revolution!”
Later, a government minister suggested that no one can follow the example of Ernesto “Che” Guevara, the Latin American revolutionary,
while driving a Hummer.
Sharp tax increases on luxury import goods in Venezuela are set to become effective early next month.
There’s no word on whether a limit on Hummers will do anything to curb the pollution that chokes the atmosphere around Caracas. After all, with fuel as cheap as it is, those 30-year-old taxis will still be chugging along.
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