PRESIDENT Nicolas Maduro announced on Thursday that his government had taken over warehouses around the country crammed with medical goods and food that “bourgeois criminals” were hoarding for speculation and contraband.

The government accuses businessmen and wealthy opponents of trying to sabotage the economy to bring down the president while profiteering from hoarding, price-gouging and smuggling across the border to Colombia.

Mr Maduro gave a live broadcast from one warehouse seized in Aragua state, where 14 million syringes and 2 million surgical gloves were among a massive hoard of medical equipment bound for Colombia.

“There’s enough medical equipment here to cover Aragua’s needs for a year. This is the criminal bourgeoisie. They are going to pay with jail, I swear it,” he said, standing in front of piles of boxes and wheelchairs.

“The bourgeois parasites are harming the people’s health,” he added.

The president said that the goods had been bought with dollars obtained from the state’s foreign exchange executive and were due to be sold in Colombia.

The government has cracked down on smuggling recently, including closing the border at night and arresting 1,266 people.

State governors in the border states of Zulia and Tachira also displayed warehouses packed with scores of tons of food and fuel bound for the contraband trade.

Mr Maduro announced that he would use decree powers to increase the maximum jail sentence for smugglers to 14 years.

He would set new “fair price” controls for basic goods from November 1 and curtail informal reselling of food and medical essentials.

foreigneditor@peoples-press.com