Venezuela's 'millionaires,' the new poor

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Venezuela's 'millionaires,' the new poor

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Elizabeth Torres is outraged, but as a Venezuelan she takes the affront in her stride. "We are a country of millionaires," she says ironically, eyeing a carton of eggs in the market. Price? Three million bolivars.

"You are a millionaire because you have to pay that much, and for that you get 36 eggs, but the minimum salary is 2.6 million! With what you get every month, you can't buy them," she says.

It's the great irony of the country's cruel decline. Sitting atop the world's largest reserves of crude, Venezuela -- once Latin America's richest country -- is now a state of millionaires, but the millions are in bolivars and practically worthless

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"In Venezuela, we are not living, we are surviving," she said.

"If you buy fruit, you cannot buy vegetables. If you buy grains, you do not buy cereal.

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