Drivers reported staggering queues to fill their tanks in Venezuela’s western states over the weekend, as existing gasoline shortages worsened, impacting at least half of Venezuela’s 24 regions. In some provinces, lines extended for over ten hours, with problems reported on social media in the western states of Falcon, Lara, Barinas, Aragua, Carabobo, Cojedes, Merida, Tachira, Zulia, Guarico, Apure and Portuguesa, metropolitan Caracas and Miranda State, and Anzoategui State in the east. Public transport and commercial distribution networks have also been affected. Government spokespeople blamed the situation ─ which in some states such as Barinas and Merida has persisted with fluctuating severity for nearly three weeks ─ on supply problems of imported catalysts used in the Paraguana oil refinery complex . “The fuel distribution problem across […]