AP-LT-Venezuela-Gas-Station-Barter
In this Oct. 8, 2019 photo, gas station attendant Leowaldo Sanchez poses with food items he was paid with by motorists: a bottle of cooking oil, a kilogram if rice and a package of corn flour, as he works at the pump in San Antonio de los Altos on the outskirts of Caracas, Venezuela. Bartering at the pump has taken off as hyperinflation makes Venezuela’s paper currency, the bolivar, hard to find and renders some denominations all but worthless, so that nobody will accept them. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)
In this Oct. 13, 2019 photo, a gas attendant fills up plastic bottles with gasoline for a customer at a gas station in Chivacoa, Venezuela. Gas is so dirt-cheap that station attendants don’t even know the price, and empty handed drivers get waved through, paying nothing at all. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)
In this Oct. 8, 2019 photo, motorist Carlos Ortega waits as his car is filled up with gasoline by an attendant, who he paid in cash instead of bartering, at a gas station in San Antonio de los Altos on the outskirts of Caracas, Venezuela. Motorists in socialist Venezuela have long enjoyed the world’s cheapest gasoline, with fuel so heavily subsidized that a full tank these days costs a tiny fraction of a U.S. penny. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)
In this Oct. 8, 2019 photo, gas station attendant Leowaldo Sanchez takes a cigarette as payment from a motorist as he fills the tank in San Antonio de los Altos on the outskirts of Caracas, Venezuela. This barter system, while perhaps the envy of cash-strapped drivers outside the country, is just another symptom of bedlam in Venezuela where a full tank these days costs a tiny fraction of a U.S. penny. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)
In this Oct. 8, 2019 photo, gas attendant Orlando Godoy counts his Bolivars bills in San Antonio de los Altos on the outskirts of Caracas, Venezuela, a country where a full tank these days costs a tiny fraction of a U.S. penny. The smallest bill in circulation, 50 bolivars, is worth about quarter of a U.S. penny, and the largest bill, 50,000 bolivars, equals $2.50 dollars. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)
In this Oct. 8, 2019 photo, gas station attendant Orlando Godoy takes a package of corn flour as payment after filling a motorist's tank, which costs a tiny fraction of a U.S. penny, in San Antonio de los Altos on the outskirts of Caracas, Venezuela. The economy is in such shambles that drivers are now paying for fill-ups with a little food, a candy bar or just a cigarette. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)
In this Oct. 8, 2019 photo, a gas station attendant fills a truck's tank in San Antonio de los Altos on the outskirts of Caracas, Venezuela. Amid the economic crash, President Nicolas Maduro has not substantially raised gas prices, a strategy that was probably reinforced after violent protests recently forced the president of Ecuador to back off plans to end fuel subsidies there. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)