{"id":2687,"date":"2018-12-06T04:20:26","date_gmt":"2018-12-06T04:20:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/?p=2687"},"modified":"2018-12-06T04:20:26","modified_gmt":"2018-12-06T04:20:26","slug":"without-gas-for-cremation-even-dying-is-a-struggle-in-venezuela","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/2018\/12\/06\/without-gas-for-cremation-even-dying-is-a-struggle-in-venezuela\/","title":{"rendered":"Without gas for cremation, even dying is a struggle in Venezuela"},"content":{"rendered":"

CARACAS\/MARACAIBO, Venezuela (Reuters) – Angelica Vera of Venezuela\u2019s western state of Zulia planned to cremate her father\u2019s remains after he died of cancer in November because hyperinflation has pushed the cost of funeral services beyond her financial reach.<\/p>\n

But the cemetery could not offer a cremation because it had no natural gas, which is in ever shorter supply even though the OPEC nation holds some of the world\u2019s largest energy reserves.<\/p>\n

Nor could she afford to leave her father\u2019s remains in the morgue while waiting for gas supplies. Each extra day costs more than a month of minimum wage.<\/p>\n

She resorted to the only available option: leaving her father\u2019s body in an unmarked common grave at the edge of the cemetery, an area traditionally reserved for unclaimed bodies.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy father died and I could not even hold a wake because I had no way of getting the money,\u201d said Vera, 27, a cashier. \u201cWhat us Venezuelans are living through is denigrating.\u201d<\/p>\n

The decay of Venezuela\u2019s oil industry burdened citizens for months with long gasoline queues and shortages of cooking gas, and has now hit families bidding farewell to loved ones.<\/p>\n

Venezuelans have shifted toward cremations, which cost about a third of burials, but growing demand has crematories struggling to obtain natural gas.<\/p>\n

Members of a dozen families said in interviews they now wait as long as 10 days.<\/p>\n

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So far, common graves have been used primarily in Zulia, where blackouts and gas shortages tend to be most extreme. But decaying services in other states could spread the practice.<\/p>\n

PRICES JUMP<\/h3>\n

Shortages of wood and metal for coffins and cement for graves have complicated traditional burials. Some families wait for crematories to obtain propane gas. But the wait also boosts costs, with annual inflation nearing 1 million percent.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe cost of cremation increased by 108 percent in just one week,\u201d said Ana Hernandez, 36, who is making arrangements to cremate her sister in a cemetery in the western city of Barquisimeto.<\/p>\n

Shortages of medicine, food and basic goods have been constant since the 2014 collapse of oil prices battered Venezuela\u2019s socialist economy. Around 3 million people have emigrated since 2015, according to the United Nations.<\/p>\n

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CARACAS\/MARACAIBO, Venezuela (Reuters) – Angelica Vera of Venezuela\u2019s western state of Zulia planned to cremate her father\u2019s remains after he died of cancer in November because hyperinflation has pushed the cost of funeral services beyond her financial reach. But the cemetery could not offer a cremation because it had no natural gas, which is in ever shorter supply even though… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2687","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2687","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2687"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2687\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2688,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2687\/revisions\/2688"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}