"Meat and sugar were scarce in Venezuelan stores this week as merchants resisted price controls.

BY NATALIE OBIKO PEARSON
Associated Press

CARACAS - Meat cuts vanished from Venezuelan supermarkets this week, leaving only unsavory bits like chicken feet, while costly artificial sweeteners have increasingly replaced sugar, and many staples sell far above government-fixed prices.

President Hugo Chávez's administration blames the food supply problems on speculators, but industry officials say government price controls that strangle profits are responsible."
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/16657841.htm
Linked from: http://www.knowledgeproblem.com/archives/001923.html
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So Chavez is Castro's buddy and he can't even get Cuba's cheap sugar?? Since Chavez promised give heating oil to poor Americans, you would think Castro could at least give him some sugar.
Anyways, it doesn't require "industry officials" to say that govt price controls are responsible for punishing the poor by making food expensive and unavailable- everyone knows this except those who want a free lunch- at gun point.