Economic Crisis Deepens as Venezuela Votes

As the presidential election in Venezuela looms, the country's persistent economic crisis continues hitting impoverished communities in the western of the country, where families grapple with daily hunger and poverty.

In Maracaibo, Zulia's capital, Venezuela's largest oil-producing state, Anais Diaz, a mother of nine, aspires to a better life for her children but is hampered by overwhelming financial obstacles.

Of Diaz's nine children, her six-month-old twins have been diagnosed with malnutrition, while the two-year-old is underweight.

On the shores of Lake Maracaibo, the largest lake in Latin America, in a neighborhood of stilt houses, Anabel Camejo's family depends on what her husband fishes to feed their six children.

Camejo, 22, said that two of her children are in a nutritional recovery program for being underweight.

Both Diaz and Camejo rely on local foundations that provide meals and medical assistance to the area's most vulnerable families.

Venezuela votes for its next president on July 28 - and the dire straits in which many live will be top of people's minds. Despite a recent economic recovery that has been much touted by the Maduro government, many families are going hungry and depending on aid to feed themselves.

Over the last ten years, Venezuela's gross domestic product has declined by some 73%. Although Maduro relaxed currency controls and other regulations to boost the economy in 2019, Venezuela suffers the second-highest level of hunger in South America, after Bolivia, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization.

Some 5.1 million people out of close to 30 million are not getting enough to eat, the UN says.