Venezuela's food shortages, inflation and crumbling medical sector have become such a source of anguish that a growing number of young women are reluctantly opting for sterilizations rather than face the hardship of pregnancy and child-rearing. Traditional contraceptives like condoms or birth control pills have virtually vanished from store shelves, pushing women towards the hard-to-reverse surgery. While no recent national statistics on sterilizations are available, doctors and health workers say demand for the procedure is growing. (Photo by Carlos Garcia Rawlins/Reuters)

Children fill plastic containers with water from a well on a street, close to a neighbourhood called “The Tank” in the slum of Petare in Caracas, Venezuela, March 17, 2016. Although their nation has one of the world's biggest hydroelectric dams and vast rivers like the fabled Orinoco, Venezuelans are still suffering water and power cuts most days. The problems with stuttering services have escalated in the last few weeks: yet another headache for the OPEC nation's 30 million people already reeling from recession, the world's highest inflation rate, and scarcities of basic goods. President Nicolas Maduro blames a drought, while the opposition blames government incompetence. (Photo by Carlos Garcia Rawlins/Reuters)

A view of electricity wires, in Caracas, Venezuela, 03 April 2019. West Venezuela started receiving electricity intermittently in the states of Zulia, Falcon, Merida and Trujillo after 100 hours without power. (Photo by Miguel Gutierrez/EPA/EFE/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

A giant ham bread, a typical Venezuelan Christmas dish, is seen on a table during an attempt to break the Guinness World Record for the biggest ham bread, in Caracas November 15, 2014. The giant hallaca more than 120 metres long. (Photo by Carlos Garcia Rawlins/Reuters)

Arcelia Aguilar, a resident of “Hogar Jardin De Los Abuelitos”, receives a hug from her niece Maria Aguilar through “El muro de los Abrazos” (The Wall of Hugs) which is a wall made from plastic sheets to protect against the coronavirus, in San Salvador, El Salvador on September 1, 2020. (Photo by Jose Cabezas/Reuters)

Rugby Union, Hong Kong Sevens, Hong Kong Stadium on April 9, 2016: A fan wearing a mask is hugged. (Photo by Bobby Yip/Reuters)

A Ukrainian serviceman hugs his relative after returning from captivity during a POWs exchange between Russia and Ukraine, in Ukraine, Monday December 30, 2024. (Photo by Evgeniy Maloletka/AP Photo)

Colombian-American actress and TV personality Sofía Vergara in the second decade of December 2023 flaunts her figure in a body-hugging dress. (Photo by Sofiavergara/Instagram)