5 Min Read
CARACAS, Nov 12 (Reuters) - For Venezuelan hospital security guard Yurymay Diaz to buy a full cart of groceries and put aside enough money to buy new shoes for her daughter, it took two special bonus payments worth nearly 20 times her monthly salary.
The two $100 deposits to the 48-year-old mother of two in September and October did not come from the Caracas hospital where she works, but rather from funds seized by the United States from the government of President Nicolas Maduro.
Diaz is one of 62,700 health sector workers to receive payments through an effort by Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido to channel seized offshore funds to those on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic who also struggle under the country’s crippling economic crisis.