CARACAS: Jose Salazar is waving a fistful of Venezuelan bolivars in the middle of a Caracas street.
"What do I do with this money?" demands the angry retiree and grandfather, one of dozens of Venezuelans who blocked an avenue in the capital Wednesday in protest against the food shortages ravaging the troubled country.
Similar scenes have broken out on an almost daily basis in towns and cities across Venezuela, a once-booming oil producer that has skidded to the brink of collapse as global crude prices have plunged.
Salazar said he was looking for food for his family, but there was none to be found in the supermarkets.
So he joined a spontaneous protest with other residents of Petare, an impoverished neighborhood in eastern Caracas, who were all facing the same predicament and venting their anger against leftist President Nicolas Maduro.
"Get out Nicolas Maduro," and "Referendum!" they shouted -- a reference to the opposition's push to call a referendum on sacking the unpopular president.
"We're hungry. We want food. Expensive, cheap, imported, whatever. It doesn't matter. But we need food," said protester Tairon Rincon.
Police soon broke them up with tear gas and rubber bullets.
But hours later another protest broke out in the middle class neighborhood of Los Ruices.
Similar ones had erupted in the previous 24 hours in cities across Venezuela, including Valera, San Juan de los Morros and Porlamar, according to press reports.
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