The 2020-2021 National Survey of Living Conditions (ENCOVI), conducted by researchers at Andres Bello Catholic University (UCAB), found that of the country’s 28 million residents, 76.6% live in extreme poverty, up from 67.7% last year. The report attributed the rise to both the COVID-19 pandemic and chronic fuel shortages, which at least 20% of respondents said meant they could not put gasoline in their cars, a major obstacle to employment. Full Text -> NBCNews

Traducción de cortesía -> La Encuesta Nacional de Condiciones de Vida 2020-2021 (ENCOVI), realizada por investigadores de la Universidad Católica Andrés Bello (UCAB), encontró que de los 28 millones de habitantes del país, el 76,6% vive en pobreza extrema, frente al 67,7% del año pasado. El informe atribuyó el aumento tanto a la pandemia de COVID-19 como a la escasez crónica de combustible, lo que al menos el 20% de los encuestados dijo que significaba que no podían poner gasolina en sus autos, un obstáculo importante para el empleo.

One of the most seriously affected countries is Venezuela, where the nutrition levels of children under the age of five are already comparable to those of the poorest countries on the planet. “They don’t compare to the mainland (American), not even with Haiti. We look more like Africa », said last week, in the presentation of the last National Survey of Living Conditions (ENCOVI) Luis Pedro Spain, director of the Project on Poverty Studies of the Andrés Bello Catholic University (UCAB),. Full Text -> Explica

When measured solely by income levels, some 96 percent of the population lives in poverty, a figure unmatched elsewhere in the region and comparable to poor African countries like Nigeria or Chad, the ENCOVI survey found. “There is no wealth to distribute,” said Pedro Luis Espana, a UCAB sociologist who contributed to the study. “The rise in poverty in Venezuela does not have to do with inequality. The problem has been the abrupt fall in economic output.” Full Text-> Aljazeera

The ENCOVI survey—which was carried out before the pandemic hit—shows that 79.3% of Venezuelan families can’t afford the basic food basket (50 food products) and 96.2% can’t afford the basic basket (the basic food basket plus 312 other basic needs and services). The number of Venezuelan families that simply can’t afford a basic living standard has been going up since 2012, two years before Venezuela entered a recession and way before the economic sanctions came into play.. Full Text -> Caracas Chronicles