[b]In Venezuela, it makes no difference whether your car consumes 6 or 30 litres per 100 kilometres because the state spends billions of dollars in petrol subsidies and nowhere else in the world is fuel as cheap as it is in Venezuela.

A motorcycle taxi driver who spends up to 10 hours a day riding through the traffic chaos of Caracas, a city of over 6 million inhabitants at first does not understand the question of how much he spends to fill up his motorbike's tank with around 10 litres of petrol.

Eventually, however, he digs into his trouser pockets and grins as he shows a small coin. It is 1 bolivar - worth 23 US cents according to the official exchange rate. But most people exchange their money on the black market, and their bolivar is worth less there, meaning 1 litre of 95-octane petrol goes for a laughable 1 US cent.

It does not come any cheaper, anywhere in the world. It is no wonder that, in wealthy neighbourhoods of Caracas such as the elegant Altamira, it is mostly powerful, huge SUVs and luxury cars with engines of up to 4 litres that stop at the petrol stations of state oil giant PdVSA. There are no large price displays like the ones seen elsewhere in the world.

"Petrol prices are a joke," says Henrique, a taxi driver, who drives a comparatively small Ford Fusion with a 6-cylinder engine and 3 litres of engine capacity. In poorer areas such as Barrio Petare 20- and 30-year-old Chevrolets and the equally dated Toyota Landcruiser wind through the alleys as taxis.


Read more at: http://www.brecorder.com/articles-a-letters/187/1243817/[/b]