"The economy in the village is not easy," laments Jose Gregorio Mejia, a Venezuelan mechanic, as he wipes his hands on oil-covered clothes. He needs surgery but the local hospital in Biscucuy, a coffee-growing region in the western Portuguesa state, does not have the materials to do the operation. Shortages of fuel and electricity, hospitals in ruins and impassable roads: outside the relative comfort of Caracas, years of economic crisis have taken their toll on rural Venezuela. IMAGES AND SOUNDBITES ARRANGED IN SEQUENCES