Venezuela’s socialist government is quickly running out of cash. CNN Money reports that country is down to its last $10 billion and most of that is spoken for already:

Venezuela only has $10.5 billion in foreign reserves left, according to its most recent central bank data.

For rest of the year, Venezuela owes roughly $7.2 billion in outstanding debt payments…

“The question is: Where is the floor?” says Siobhan Morden, head of Latin America fixed income strategy at Nomura Holdings. “If oil prices stagnate and foreign reserves reach zero, then the clock is going to start on a default.”

The problem is that nearly everything Venezuela consumes is imported, meaning the government needs cash to purchase supplies of food and medicine. And people in Venezuela are already going hungry. This week Father Jose Palmar, a priest who opposes the socialist government, called on people to separate and label food they throw away to make it easier for people who are foraging through trash to survive. From the Pan Am Post:

“Try to preserve food waste so that people who eat out of garbage cans can praise the Lord,” Palmar wrote.

The priest also recommended that people not mix leftovers with other garbage. Instead, deposit the waste in one bag, tie it and write “food” on the outside.

Meanwhile, state-run media now admits the country has a problem with food but says the problem isn’t socialism:

The facts are clear — Venezuela does have a food crisis. Mainstream U.S. media, however, blames the socialist government that has radically improved the country’s standard of living instead of right-wing U.S.-backed opposition forces intentionally sabotaging the economy…

Overall, Venezuela’s millionaire opposition are profiting handsomely from the country’s food crisis while blaming it on the socialist government that’s trying to eliminate it.

After a dozen years of socialist control which has now become something closer to dictatorship, a government mouthpiece is blaming the lack of food and medicine on capitalism.