2 ways to buy gasoline in Venezuela:
The first: Dollarized gasoline. A liter costs 50 cents. You can fill up your car any day you want, as long as the gas and electricity are available at the station. Sometimes, in a municipality, only one of the gas stations has electricity, causing long lines to form to fill up your car. For example in this case:
https://video.nostr.build/44d0aecd6b9be04d90e1d46a30e8a5855289c23e2acd3fdf5510278184a5f5f0.mp4
Second way: Subsidized or "free" gasoline. Obtaining this gasoline is somewhat complicated. I will explain the procedure in the municipality where I live, but I assume that similar procedures apply in other municipalities.
To begin with, filling up with subsidized gasoline is organized by the terminal of the last digit of the car's license plate, that is: Mondays for license plates ending in 1 and 2. Tuesdays 3 and 4. Wednesdays 5 and 6... and so on. But, (there is always a but) not all cars will be able to fill up with gas since they only give out 200 tickets.
For each gas station, there's a coordinator whose job is to organize and distribute the 200 tickets. These tickets aren't distributed on the same day, but rather a week or four days in advance. For example, today is Saturday. The coordinator texts people through a WhatsApp group and lets them know that on Monday at 6 a.m., they'll be distributing tickets for those scheduled to fill up on Thursday, i.e., those with license plates 7-8. This results in people lining up at the designated location from 2 a.m. to avoid missing out on gas, as approximately 400 people arrive to get a ticket, but only 200 are distributed.
These procedures lend themselves to various "traps." Some coordinators often sell tickets for $5. Others take advantage of the privilege and give tickets to family and friends, who in turn sell the free gas they purchased. Others (non-coordinators) arrive much earlier and then sell their space in line.
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