Venezuela's poorest struggle to take care of their dead
https://apnews.com/16cb4162663152bc9dd669cb3474bb42
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Death has become an overwhelming financial burden for many of Venezuelas poorest, who already struggle to find dignity in life. They scrape together food and shelter needed to get through each day, and a relatives death can become the breaking point.
The cost of transporting a body and buying a casket and burial plot for a funeral can run into the hundreds of dollars, or more. In Venezuela, most earn the minimum wage of roughly $3 a month as hyperinflation devours pay.
Some overcome the financial burden of a relatives death by renting caskets, a cheaper option than buying. Others turn to amateur morticians, who embalm bodies at home and convert wooden furniture into coffins.
For many in Maracaibo, Venezuelas economic crash in the last five years hit especially hard. Once a center of the nations vast oil wealth, production under two decades of socialist rule has plummeted to a fraction of its high, taking down residents standard of living.