Venezuela: geen verbetering

[Karel Martel B]

Venezuelan funeral homes are struggling to find coffins, with production crimped by a shortage of brass, varnish and satin, complicating the process of burying the dead in one of the world's most murderous countries.

...

Coffin production has dropped some 50 percent in recent months, said Ricardo Guedez, member and until recently president of the National Chamber for Funeral Companies.

That's partly because manufacturers have been unable to import materials, struggling to obtain dollars because of the government's strict currency controls.

There is also a shortage of brass because of slumping output at state steel mill Sidor, which late President Hugo Chavez nationalized in 2008.

Demand for funerals is driven by one of the world's highest murder rates, which has long been Venezuelans' main gripe with the socialist government. Castro said 70 percent of the corpses her company receives are murder victims.

Many of the dead are killed in shanty-town gang fights or are victims of robberies in wealthier areas.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/...=lifestyleMolt