Venezuela

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A woman sits with her belongings and her bird as she evacuates from her home after nearby homes fell due to heavy rain in Caracas, Venezuela, Tuesday Nov. 30, 2010. Flooding and landslides unleashed by torrential rains have killed at least 30 people in Venezuela, forced thousands from their homes and idled an oil refinery. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

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People sit with their belongings as they evacuate from their home after nearby homes fell due to heavy rain in Caracas, Venezuela, Tuesday Nov. 30, 2010. Flooding and landslides unleashed by torrential rains have killed at least 30 people in Venezuela, forced thousands from their homes and idled an oil refinery. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

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People look for their polling station during congressional elections in Caracas, Venezuela, Sunday, Sept. 26, 2010. (AP Photo/Leonardo Ramirez)

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A voter wearing a t-shirt that reads in Spanish: " Now the battle is for YES", adjusts his sun glasses next to soldiers who line up outside a polling station during congressional elections in Caracas, Venezuela, Sunday, Sept. 26, 2010. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

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A soldier looks for his polling station at a public school during congressional elections in Caracas, Venezuela, Sunday, Sept. 26, 2010. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

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Soldiers wait in line before casting their ballots at a polling station during congressional elections in Caracas, Venezuela, Sunday, Sept. 26, 2010. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

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Voters wait in line to cast their ballots during congressional elections outside a polling station in Caracas, Venezuela, Sunday, Sept. 26, 2010. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

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Voter turnout was high at this polling station in Caracas and across Venezuela on Sunday. Five years after boycotting the last round of legislative elections, the opposition is unified and is accusing the government of widespread corruption and an assault on democracy. (Associated Press)

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Voters wait in line outside a polling station in Caracas, Venezuela, on Sunday, Sept. 26, 2010, to cast their ballots during elections for the National Assembly. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

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Shacks made of wood scraps and corrugated zinc dominate a slum of Caracas, Venezuela, but the government says it has halved the country's poverty rate. (Associated Press)

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Fidela Hernandez, 46, uses a washing machine last month after filling it with water, bucket by bucket, in La Pedrera, one of the most impoverished slums in Caracas, Venezuela. The slums have been growing, driven largely by migration of people from depressed rural areas to Caracas. (Associated Press)

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In this image courtesy of Globovision Television News, people surrounds the wreckage of an airplane of a state airline Conviasa after it crashed about 6 miles from the eastern city of Puerto Ordaz, Venezuela, Monday, Sept. 13, 2010. The plane was carrying 51 people, and officials said at least 33 people survived.(AP Photo/Globovison)

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Ms. Isasi-Catala measures a track of a wildcat, possibly a jaguar, which have distinctive round toes. She is carrying out the first comprehensive study of the spotted cats of its kind in Venezuela. (Associated Press)

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Argentina's national soccer team coach Diego Armando Maradona listens to a question from the press prior to his meeting with Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez, unseen, at Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas, Venezuela, Thursday July 22, 2010. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

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ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTOGRAPHS Work has changed at Inveval, an industrial valve company in Caracas, Venezuela, that the government expropriated. Now it is limited to refurbishing valves rather than manufacturing them.

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An advertisement that reads "all the store on sale" runs across the storefront in Caracas, Venezuela, where a drop in oil prices has roughly cut in half the amount of goods the country can afford to import.