New Indignity in Venezuela: Dead Bodies Cost Too Much

How bad is the economic situation in Venezuela? Even death is too expensive, or so reports Reuters in a look at how one 27-year-old had to resort to burying her father in an unmarked common grave. Angelica Vera knew a funeral was financially out of her reach and planned to follow in the footsteps of many other Venezuelans and cremate her father at roughly one-third the price of a traditional casket burial. But in this oil-rich country, natural gas is scarce, and the cemetery in the state of Zulia lacked it, meaning it couldn't facilitate a cremation. Even if the gas is coming—Reuters interviewed some who described a 10-day wait—leaving a body in a morgue is cost-prohibitive, too: One extra day is equivalent to more than a month's salary at the minimum wage. Read the full story here. (Another victim: A vet school's horses.)