The Venezuelan government has sent troops to patrol huge lines snaking for blocks outside state-run stores in the center of Caracas, the capital. Some states have barred people from waiting outside stores overnight, and officials have warned that shoppers who cheat the rationing system will be arrested.”
CARACAS, Venezuela — Mary Noriega heard there would be chicken.
She hated being herded “like cattle,” she said, standing for hours in a line of more than 1,500 people hoping to buy food, as soldiers with side arms checked identification cards to make sure no one tried to buy basic items more than once or twice a week.
But Ms. Noriega, a laboratory assistant with three children, said she had no choice, ticking off the inventory in her depleted refrigerator: coffee and corn flour. Things had gotten so bad, she said, that she had begun bartering with neighbors to put food on the table.
“We always knew that this year would start badly, but I think this is super bad,” Ms. Noriega said.
Venezuelans have put up with shortages and long lines for years. But as the price of oil, the country’s main export, has plunged, the situation has grown so dire that the government has sent troops to patrol huge lines snaking for blocks. Some states have barred people from waiting outside stores overnight, and government officials are posted near entrances, ready to arrest shoppers who cheat the rationing system.
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Every purchase was entered into a database, ensuring that shoppers did not try to buy the same regulated staples at the chain for at least seven days.
Soldiers patrolled the line outside, police officers were stationed inside and government officials checked identification cards, looking for fake ones that could be used to cheat the rationing system — or for immigrants with expired visas. An official from the immigration and identification service said that offenders would be arrested.
“This is pathetic,” said Yenerly Niño, 18, adding that she had waited more than five hours to buy the three subsidized products because she could not afford to buy them at the higher prices charged by street vendors.
“You do what you have to,” she said. “If you don’t do it, you don’t eat.”
Catalina Lobo-Guerrero and Patricia Torres contributed reporting.
A version of this article appears in print on January 30, 2015, on page A1 of the New York edition with the headline: Oil Cash Waning, Venezuelan Shelves Lie Bare. Order Reprints| Today’s Paper|Subscribe
