Venezuela merchants face arrest for defying Maduro’s reforms

Venezuela merchants face arrest for defying Maduro’s reforms

Franklin David was arrested last week in this impoverished town outside Caracas for doing what his family says he has done almost every day for the past 25 years: selling car parts.

In a surprise raid, about two dozen armed police officers flanked by Santa Teresa del Tuy’s mayor and journalists showed up at David’s four-story warehouse, Autopartes Guarico 2000, and hauled away the 49-year-old father of three for allegedly raising prices by too much in a country ravaged by hyperinflation.

His already-struggling business, built from scratch during a more prosperous era, was shut . . .