Divided Venezuelans United on Costly Policy of Cheap Gas

CARACAS, Venezuela — Jesus Vivas drives a 26-year-old clunker with rusted fenders, ripped upholstery and a tattered carpet. With a wheeze, a plume of smoke and a walruslike roar, the wreck he calls a taxi accelerates down congested streets. About the only thing that works well is a new radio, which blares accordion-laced folk music.

But he’s not worried. Operating his four-door Malibu across Caracas, day and night, costs less than $4, thanks to gasoline that, at 17 cents a gallon, is considered the cheapest in the world. “Gasoline prices here in Venezuela are very good,” said Vivas, 25, in the kind of characteristically understated comments Venezuelans make about fuel costs. “We cabbies circulate all over. Here in Caracas it’s cheap, and you can go the whole day.”

The credit, as every Venezuelan knows, goes to government subsidies and price controls — part of a policy that dates back decades and has infused people here with a sense of entitlement to Venezuela’s vast oil deposits. In this famously polarized country, where President Hugo Chavez’s government and a strident opposition never have anything good to say about each other, there is agreement about at least one thing: gas. The country’s policy is unalterable, a hip-hip-hurrah for cheap fuel that is seconded by truckers, industrialists and suburban soccer moms in their SUVs.

“As an oil country, the state has the responsibility to guarantee energy and preserve the price of gasoline as it is,” said Gabriela Ramirez, a pro-Chavez lawmaker in the National Assembly. “You raise the price one bolivar and you affect the economy because the price of bus tickets goes up, everything becomes more expensive.”

Washington Post