Money has become so worthless in Venezuela’s collapsing economy that street sellers are crafting it into baskets, hats, and other art.
Wilmer Rojas, a father of three, is one of the street vendors trying to make money from the bank notes.
He even makes purses.
‘You can use magazine paper or newspaper pulp, but currency notes are better because they are not worth anything, they are all the same size and you don’t have to waste time cutting them.”
With 2, 5, and 10 bolivar notes “you can’t even buy a piece of candy,” he said.
It can take up to 800 notes to make a bag or purse.
Rojas has yet to sell his creations, but he is hoping to follow in the footsteps of artisans in downtown Caracas, where similar bags sell for as much as 300,000 bolivars.
That’s enough to buy a kilo of meat—at this week’s prices, anyway.
On Wednesday, neighboring Colombia called for international assistance to handle the massive influx of refugees fleeing Venezuela’s economic crisis.
For now at least, one artist has found a way to make a living selling illustrated notes to foreigners.
Jose Leon is a 26-year-old designer, who uses the notes as a special kind of canvas, drawing faces of Star Wars characters over the images of the famous historical figures on the notes.
Foreigners pay up to £14 ($20) a piece of one of his creations, increasing the note’s value by nearly 5,000 percent.
Venezuela’s rampant inflation and economic catastrophe are the results of the systematic dismantling of the market economy and government corruption under the Chávez regime, according to some analysts.
“He would go out and say, ‘Expropriate that building,'” said Hodgson. “He nationalized industries and farming areas. He started his pet projects, like the Chavista communes.”
After 14 years in power, the socialist leader died in 2013. Nicolás Maduro, a member of Chávez’s socialist party, then took the reigns of power, promising to continue Chávez’s policies.
