Poor transport, blackouts: Daily life in Venezuela's Maracaibo In the once-thriving heart of Venezuela's oil industry, Maracaibo, the buses no longer run. Instead, people squeeze onto a dinky tourist train to take them home. Transportation decay, creaking power and empty supermarket shelves: in a country ruined by falling oil prices, mismanagement and political turmoil, the crippled economy has cut a swathe through every stratum of society.