Venezuelans Protest over Pork Shortages During Christmas Celebration

Hundreds of Venezuelans took to the streets to protest a shortage of pork meat for traditional Christmas special meal.

The country`s president Nicolas Maduro had earlier promised to provide subsidized pork meat to his people as they celebrate Christmas but the case wasn’t so in many parts of the country thereby causing the tempers to rise.

Local media and Twitter users posted images of hundreds of people standing on streets and burning trash in the country`s capital, Caracas late on Wednesday complaining about the failed pork deliveries.

In response to people`s tempers, the country`s president went on state TV to address his people about the issue and attacked Portugal stating that Venezuela had ordered pork from Portugal but the deliveries were not made until Christmas day.

“What happened to the pork? They sabotaged us. I can name a country: Portugal,” Maduro said.

“We bought the pork, signed the agreements – but they pursued the bank accounts of the boats,” he added, without giving further details.

However, Portugal’s foreign minister, Augusto Santos Silva, said his government would check with Portuguese embassy in Venezuela, but added that private companies were in charge of exports in a market economy.

A Portuguese company which has sold pork to Venezuela in previous years, Raporal, said it did not know about a possible sabotage, but added that the government in Caracas still owed Portuguese companies 40m euros (£35.3m) from pork deliveries made in 2016.