To arrive at the El Paraiso water-filling station in Caracas by sunrise, Rigoberto Sanchez wakes before 4 a.m. Hours later, his tanker is in a slow-moving line with a dozen others. Only two of the 10 pumps work and Sanchez will have time for a couple of deliveries if he’s lucky. If he’s luckier, the military won’t intercept him.
“They hijack our trucks, just like that,” said Sanchez, leaning on a rusty railing. “Once that happens, you’re in their hands, you have to drive the truck wherever they want you to.”’
Venezuela’s military has come to oversee the desperate and lucrative water trade as reservoirs empty, broken pipes flood neighborhoods and overwhelmed personnel walk out. Seven major access points in the capital of 5.5 million people are now run by soldiers or police, who also took total control of all public and private water trucks. Unofficially, soldiers direct where drivers deliver — and make them give away the goods at favored addresses.
President Nicolas Maduro’s autocratic regime has handed lucrative industries to the 160,000-member military as the economic collapse gathers speed, from the mineral-rich region of the Arco Minero del Orinoco to top slots at the state oil producer to increasingly precious control over food and water. Maduro has promoted hundreds of officers since he became president in 2013 — there are some 1,000 active and retired generals, admirals and officers in public office, and military officers hold 9 of 32 cabinet posts.
Last week, the president named Evelyn Vasquez, an official of state utility Hidrocapital, as the head…
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