CARACAS, Venezuela — Hundreds of Venezuelans took to the streets in poor parts of Caracas to protest a shortage of pork for traditional holiday meals in the latest symptom of social discontent during a brutal economic crisis.
President Nicolás Maduro’s socialist government had promised to provide subsidized meat to Venezuelans, but it did not materialize in many parts of the nation and frustration boiled over.
Local news media and Twitter users posted images of hundreds of people gathering in the streets and burning trash in Caracas, the capital, late Wednesday. The protests continued on Thursday, in what some social media users called the “pork revolution.”
Mr. Maduro, who has claimed that his government is the target of a foreign-led “economic war,” went on state television to blame Portugal for failing to deliver pork imports in time for Christmas.
“They sabotaged us,” Mr. Maduro said. “I can name a country: Portugal.”
“We bought the pork, signed the agreements, but they pursued the bank accounts of the boats,” he added, without giving details.
Portugal’s foreign minister, Augusto Santos Silva, denied that the government had sabotaged pork deliveries. “We live in a market economy,” Mr. Silva told the Portuguese radio station TSF. “Companies are in charge of exports.”
Mr. Maduro has frequently blamed opposition parties, the United States and other foreign powers for an economic and social crisis in which millions are suffering from hyperinflation, crumbling infrastructure and shortages of basic products.
“With or without sabotage, no one will take away the happiness of Christmas from the people,” Mr. Maduro said.
