Venezuela: a lottery to fill up

Like a feeling of déjà vu in Venezuela, facing the queues in front of gas stations. The country is once again experiencing gasoline shortages, even though it is itself an oil producer. To avoid these endless waits, the governor of the state of Mérida, in the Venezuelan Andes, has set up a... bingo. Every morning, drivers listen on the radio where they can refuel.

Vehicles line up to refuel at a gas station in a Caracas neighborhood on Jan. 19, 2021. AP - Matias Delacroix

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With our correspondent in Caracas, Alice Campaignolle

It was five o'clock in the morning on May 31 when Jehyson Guzman, the governor of the state of Merida, read the numbers coming out of an abacus, operated by a collaborator. This is not a morning lotto, but a draw for fuel distribution.

For 10 days, it has been routine, every morning two numbers are assigned to each gas station in the region, numbers that correspond to the last digit of the license plates. The goal? Avoid long queues.

But why did you choose bingo? Douglas Rivas, a regional official, told WasoTv, a local channel: "Everyone has played bingo before, and everyone knows that a ball that comes out at bingo is random, that there is no way to cheat. If I had made a statistics system, or even an Excel, there would certainly be people to tell me 'there is fraud'".

Gasoline shortages have multiplied in recent weeks in Venezuela, which is an oil producer. One of the main reasons would be the shutdown of two of the largest refineries in the country, due to technical problems. No official announcement has been made however. This crisis could last the whole month of June.

>> Read also: In Venezuela, to fill up with gas, it takes a whole day

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