Caracas, Venezuela, Jul 11, 2016 / 23:01 pm
A top Venezuelan prelate slammed president Nicolás Maduro's lack of "moral authority" in calling for peace while preventing the Church and other institutions from relieving the country's severe food crisis.
"The interests of the government are not the interests of the country," said Archbishop Diego Padrón of Cumaná, who heads the Venezuelan Conference of Catholic Bishops.
The archbishop made his remarks during his opening speech at the Venezuelan Conference of Catholic Bishops' recent plenary assembly.
Venezuela's socialist government is widely blamed for the crisis. Since 2003, price controls on some 160 products, including cooking oil, soap, and flour, have meant that while they are affordable, they fly off store shelves only to be resold on the black market at much higher rates.