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Venezuela fingerprints shoppers to tackle shortages

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In Venezuela shoppers continue to suffer shortages of the most basic goods, from shampoo to insect repellent. Economists put this down to a tightly controlled economy and policies enacted by the late President Hugo Chavez more than a decade ago. His successor, Nicolas Maduro, however, has found a novel way to help control the problem: fingerprinting. RFI visited a government run supermarket to find out if it’s working.

A customer puts his finger on a fingerprint scanner to buy goods in a supermarket in Caracas
A customer puts his finger on a fingerprint scanner to buy goods in a supermarket in Caracas Reuters/Carlos Garcia Rawlins
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