#头条故事会 #
CARACAS, Venezuela — When lunchtime came, Mayel Sequera and Juan González shared a plate of noodles and beans at their home in a low-income neighborhood west of the Venezuelan capital. Their meager lunch was a gift from a nonprofit organization because the couple couldn't afford to support themselves.
Sequera, 72, and González, 74, have worked as tailors and drivers for years, building their two houses and raising their four children. But now, after 50 years of marriage, they rely on donations to buy food, medicine and clothes.
The government raised the total monthly pension from about $4 to about $60 last month. But you have to multiply by 6 to buy a basket of goods.
In Venezuela, pensions are monthly payments to workers who retire after reaching 750 weeks of social security contributions, aged 55 for women and 60 for men.
Since 1995, before Hugo Chávez imposed what he thought socialism in the South American country — pensions were equal to the monthly minimum wage. Workers spend 2 to 4 percent of their wages on Social Security, while employers pay an additional 9 to 11 percent on behalf of workers.
According to the Venezuelan Financial Observatory, which specializes in economic research, last month, as President Nicolás Maduro raised the monthly minimum wage from about $2 to about $30, which was not enough to pay for basic goods, the cost of basic goods in February was estimated at $365, and pensions of Seclares, González and millions of other retirees in similar situations rose.
According to official figures, venezuela has more than 5 million pensioners. Inflation slowed last year, but still reached 686.4 percent, eating up their pensions for years.
Although the country has experienced severe shortages of food and hygiene supplies in the second half of the past decade, prompting people to queue up outside supermarkets to buy anything possible, store shelves are now well stocked and show off imported products. But high prices in dollar terms make it impossible for much of the population to afford goods.
This dynamic has made many older people dependent on remittances from the more than 6 million Venezuelans who have emigrated as a result of the economic, political and social crisis of recent years.
Nonprofits and churches fill in some of the gaps, but it's not uncommon to see elderly people selling candy or begging for money on the sidewalks of the capital Caracas.
Miriam Jiménez, 68, told The Associated Press after picking up a plate of food in the soup kitchen for the elderly in western Caracas, "I have to manage to get the food, but it's not easy because you've arrived, you're on the streets, and a lot of people despise you." "One has to beg on the street. Sometimes, the neighbors would give me something. ”
In other South American countries, pensions range from $230 to $650, but are also typically less than the cost of a basket of basic goods or a monthly minimum wage. In Chile, new president Gabriel Boric promised to raise the amount to $310, though that amount would still fall below the $435 monthly minimum wage.
Luis Francisco Cabeza, director of Convite, a Venezuelan NGO focused on the care of the elderly, said social security for the elderly population should not be just pensions. That should also include access to medicines, health care and entertainment, he said.
He added: "Pensions are a system designed to protect you from accidental injuries in old age. "In Venezuela, the hospital system is in jeopardy, so patients have to carry all their medical supplies for treatment.
Sequera was diagnosed with two types of cancer this year, including one that required surgery on her face. To pay for medical supplies, she sold two of the three sewing machines she used to mend her neighbors' clothes in exchange for money.