In Venezuela oil trickles back, but people still struggle to eat : NPR
Vendors sell vegetables at an open market in Caracas, Venezuela, January 21, 2026.
Ariana Cubillos/AP
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Ariana Cubillos/AP
CARACAS — Venezuela’s economy doesn’t give Raul Parra much time to rest.
By day, this 47-year-old is a physical education teacher in a public school. In the evenings, he works a second job as a physical therapist, visiting patients in their homes or treating their injuries in a small apartment he rents with a friend.
“It’s hard to be a teacher in Venezuela,” Parra says as he rolls a massage gun over a patient’s shoulder.
A full-time teacher with a degree in education, Parra is only paid about $160 a month by the Venezuelan government. A sum that barely covers his groceries.
“I have to work several jobs to be able to pay for services, pay my rent and help my parents,” he said.
Raul Parra is a full-time teacher. To make ends meet, he also works as a physiotherapist in a small apartment he rents with a friend.
Manuel Rueda for NPR
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Manuel Rueda for NPR
With teachers, nurses and other civil servants earning less than $200 a month – and inflation reaching 500% last year – Venezuela continues to be a difficult country to make a living.
A prolonged economic crisis caused by mismanagement of the country’s resources and worsened by U.S. sanctions has forced millions of people to leave the country.
Today, however, there are tentative signs of recovery. The United States eased sanctions after Nicolas Maduro left office, and the former president’s allies opened parts of the country’s oil industry to foreign investment.
“January 3 was a big milestone for us,” Parra said. “We believe there is now an opportunity for workers to have better wages.”
Economist Jesus Palacios said a recent U.S. Treasury decision allowing U.S. companies to buy Venezuelan oil could easily increase government revenue and kickstart a recovery.
Oil is Venezuela’s main export and generates more than 80% of the country’s foreign exchange earnings.
In recent years, Venezuela has had to sell its oil at a discount to Asian traders willing to circumvent U.S. sanctions, Palacios says. Oil can now be sold at regular prices.
A new law opening the country’s oil fields to private investors is also expected to increase production, further boosting the economy.
“The economy will probably grow 10 to 12 percent this year,” Palacios said. With more dollars in the country, the national currency, the bolivar, will stop losing its value – and in return that will slow inflation.
Nelly Padilla, a public school teacher, sells ice cream to her neighbors to supplement her monthly salary of $160.
Manuel Rueda for NPR
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Manuel Rueda for NPR
“There are already reports of a weekly decline in inflation,” said Tony Frangie Mawad, who runs the Venezuelan economic site Ecosistema. “The economy is moving in a better direction than last year, when we were close to another contraction.”
In her two-bedroom apartment on the outskirts of Caracas, Nelly Padilla hopes the government will use some of the new oil windfall to improve her wages.
She is a public high school teacher, and like most of her classmates, she earns $160 a month – even though her official salary is worth less than $2. The rest of the money comes from a monthly “economic war bonus” and a food subsidy.
By relying on bonuses and subsidies instead of increasing base salaries, the government avoids increasing pension obligations or severance pay.
“My daughter has diabetes,” said Padilla, who has been a teacher for more than two decades. “So I’m always under pressure to get enough money for his medication.”
Signs of Venezuela’s economic collapse are evident in the Caricuao neighborhood of Padilla, a neighborhood of tall buildings built in the 1960s with public funding.
The parking lots in front of the buildings are dotted with abandoned cars, whose owners have either left the country or no longer have the means to repair their vehicles. Water cuts are frequent due to the age of the infrastructure and the poor management of the local water company.
Caricuao was built in the 1960s with public funds. The neighborhood is going through difficult times today.
Manuel Rueda for NPR
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Manuel Rueda for NPR
To supplement her income, Padilla sells ice cream to her neighbors – which she buys from a local factory. She earns about $40 a month from these sales and another $30 from tutoring a neighbor’s child in math and Spanish.
“We are in a horrible situation,” Padilla said. “This needs to change quickly.”
But not everyone expects a quick recovery.
Ricardo Solano works night shifts at a local bread factory, where he earns nearly $500 a month, if he agrees to work extra shifts on weekends. About a quarter of this amount goes towards rent.
“I feel like the economy here is killing me,” Solano said.
Solano is 33 years old and trained as a chef. But he says restaurant jobs pay less than the jobs he earns at the factory. “It seems like it’s impossible here to save for retirement or buy a house,” he said.
To escape Venezuela’s struggling economy, Solano traveled to the United States two years ago and reached Mexico City. However, he had to backtrack last year after President Trump canceled a program for asylum seekers.
Today, Solano says he would like to settle in a country where there are good job opportunities but where it is easy to obtain legal residency. He is considering Spain or Argentina.
If he leaves, Solano will join more than 8 million Venezuelans who have already left everything behind, in pursuit of a future that Venezuela could no longer promise.
“Here you have your family, your roots,” he said. “But for some people, it’s still too difficult to succeed in Venezuela.”
