Colombians jailed in Venezuela for $15 grocery run

[Bacchus4.0]

http://news.yahoo.com/colombians-jailed-venezuela-15-grocery-173646699.html;_ylt=AwrBJSB0X1ZUu0wA333QtDMD



BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — A $15 grocery run has cost two single mothers from Colombia 48 days in jail, along with the threat of a 14-year prison sentence, as a result of a crackdown on smuggling in Venezuela that is ratcheting up tensions and highlighting growing economic distortions between the neighbors.


Jenifer Rojas and Belsy Alvarez were arrested in early September by Venezuela's national guard walking out of a supermarket in the western city of San Cristobal with bags of rice, pasta, mayonnaise and other staples whose prices are capped in Venezuela and whose sale is restricted to the country's residents.

Along with the cashier who rang up their purchases, they face charges of smuggling and violating the socialist government's new law of fair prices, whose penalties include 10 to 14 years in jail.

The Colombian women were let out on parole late Friday while they await trial and must now appear in court every 15 days as a condition of their release.

[Zorra]

1. Capitalism in Colombia is causing single moms to risk their freedom by

having to cross into Socialist Venezuela in order to buy food?

Poor folks in Colombia must be living in very desperate, deprived circumstances.

[Bacchus4.0]

2. Yeah, risking up to 14 years in prison in Venezuela when buying rice isn't even a crime in Colombia

imagine that

[Man from Pickens]

3. Seriously?

I'm sure now that they could be spending a decade in a Venezuelan jail, these single mothers, the children who now have no one to care for them, and the people of Venezuela who will get the bill for imprisoning the two women and feeding them for 10+ years, everybody's a winner here, right?

FYI poverty rates in both Colombia and Venezuela are very high and not much different from each other. And in both cases there is no good reason for it, given the abundance of natural resources both countries have.

[FLPanhandle]

4. Anyone with a basic understanding of economics could see this coming

Government price controls leads to companies not producing due to losing money, leading to shortages, leading to black-markets, then, of course, authoritarian responses from the same government that caused the problem in the first place.