As Venezuela's economy crumbles, condoms are going for $755

Condoms are going for $755 in Venezuela.

(Image credit: Chris Hondros/Getty Images)

published 5 February 2015

In Venezuela, people are used to shortages of everything from chicken to flour to medicine, but there's now a new scarce commodity: Condoms.

"The country is so messed up that now we have to wait in line even to have sex," Jonatan Montilla told Bloomberg. "This is a new low." Since December, condoms have been hard to find across the country, and when they are tracked down, they're incredibly expensive; on MercadoLibre, the auction website that Venezuelans use to purchase scarce items, a 36-pack of Trojans is going for 4,760 bolivars, or $755. In Venezuela, the minimum monthly wage is 5,600 bolivars.

Shortages are at a high due to a collapse in oil prices, and Bloomberg reports that if oil doesn't recover in this country that imports most of what it consumes, there is a three-in-four chance of default in the next 12 months. The lack of condoms is extremely worrying for health officials, as Venezuela, where abortion is illegal, has some of the highest rates of teen pregnancy and HIV infection in South America. "Without condoms, we can't do anything," says Jhonatan Rodriguez with the nonprofit health group StopVIH. "This shortage threatens all the prevention programs we have been working on across the country."

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

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