SAT 강사 예슬샘과 함께 읽는 뉴욕 타임즈! - 베네수엘라

Venezuelans Ransack Stores as Hunger Grips the Nation

With delivery trucks under constant attack, the nation's food is now transported under armed guard. Soldiers stand watch over bakeries. The police fire rubber bullets at desperate mobs storming grocery stores, pharmacies and butcher shops. A 4-year-old girl was shot to death as street gangs fought over food. 

Venezuela is convulsing from hunger.

배고픔에 신음하고 있다

Hundreds of people her in the city of Cumana, home to one of the region's independence heroes, marched on a supermarket in recent days, screaming for food. They forced open a large metal gate and poured inside.They snatched water, flour, cornmeal, salt, sugar, potatoes, anything they could find, leaving behind only broken freezers and overturned shelves.

And they showed that even in a country with the largest oil reserves in the world, it is possible for people to riot because there is not enough food.

rubber bullet: 폭동을 멈추기 위한 고무탄

convulsing: 소동을 일으키다

snatched: 잡아채다, 낚아채다, 달려들다

cornmeal: 맷돌로 간 옥수수가루

freezers: 냉동고

overturned: 넘어뜨리다, 쓰러뜨리다

shelves: 선반

reserves: 저장고

riot: 폭동, 소동

ransack: 약탈하기 위해 구석구석까지 뒤지다; 마구 휩쓸다

grip: 지배하다, 사로잡히다

In the last two weeks alone, more than 50 food riots, protests and mass looting have erupted around the country. Scores of businesses have been stripped bare or destroyed. At least five people have been killed.

This is precisely the Venezuela its leaders vowed to prevent.

In one of the nation's worst moments, riots, spread from Caracas, the capital, in 1989, leaving hundreds dead at the hands of security forces. Known as the "Caracazo," or the "Caracas clash," they were set off by low oil prices, cuts in subsidies and a population that was suddenly impoverished.

looting: 약탈행위

scores: 다수

stripped: 벗겨지다

vowed: 서약하다

security forces: 치안부대, 테러 등에 대비하는 군대, 경찰

clash: 충돌

subsidies: 보조금

impoverished: 가난해진, 빈곤에 빠진, 힘을 빼앗긴

The nation is anxiously searching for ways to feed itself.

The economic collapse of recent years has left it unable to produce enough food on its own or import what it needs from abroad. Cities have been militarized under an emergency decree from President NIcolasMaduro, the man Mr. Chavez picked to carrry on with his revolution before he died three years ago.

"If there is no food, there will be more riots," said Raibelis Henriquez, 19, who waited all day for bread in Cumana, where at least 22 businesses were attacked in a single day last week.

bind: 묶음

successors: 후계자 

militarized: 군비를 갖추다

decree: 법령, 판결, 명령

But while the riots and clashes punctuate the country with alarm, it is the hunger that remains the constant source of unease. A staggering 87 percent of Venezuelans say they do not have money to buy enough food, the most recent assessment of living standards by Simon Bolivar University found.  In April, it found that a family would need the equivalent of 16 minimum-wage salaries to properly feed itself.

punctuate: 힘을 주다, 강조하다

alarm: 경고

unease: 불안, 근심, 걱정

staggering: 깜짝 놀라게 하는, 엄청난, 막대한

assessment: 평가

living standard: 생활 수준

It has not always been clear what provkes the riots. It it hunger alone? Or is it some larger anger that has built up in a country that has crubled? Ines Rodriguez was not sure. She remebered calling out ot the crowd of people who had come to sack ehr restaurant on Tuesday night, offering them all the chicken and rice the restaurant had if they would only leave the furniture and cash register behind. 

They balked at the offer and simply pushed aside, Ms. Rodriguez said.

"It is the meeting of hunger and crime now," she said. As she spoke, three trucks with armed aptrols drove by, each emblaczoned with photos of Mr. Chavez and Mr. Maduro. The trucks were carrying food. "FInally they come here," Ms. Rodriguez siad. "And look what it took to get them. It took this riot to get us something to eat.

provoke: 성나게 하다, 분개시키다

crumble: 부수다, 가루가 되다, 무너지다

sack: ~을 부대에 담다, ~을 봉대에 담다

balk: 주저하다, 뒷걸음질치다

patrol: 순회자, 경찰순찰대

emblazon: 꾸미다, 장식하다; ~을 칭찬하다, 높이다