The Venezuelan economy collapsed since Tuesday (8/21) after the country launched a new currency to deal with economic collapse.
Thousands of businesses are temporarily closed to adjust to the new "sovereign bolivar" currency, and tens of thousands of workers choose to stay at home.
The new banknote was launched by President Nicols Maduro on Monday, renaming the old bolivar currency, and revaluing its value.
The government said this move would overcome soaring inflation, but analysts said it could actually make the crisis worse. The banknotes began circulating on Tuesday.
This new currency cuts the value of the old currency called the 'Mighty Bolivar,' with five zeros, or per hundred thousand: One million old Bolivars are valued with 10 new Bolivars.
That means a cup of coffee in the Caracas capital that last month had to be bought for 2.5 million in old currency, now the price with a new currency called the sovereign Bolivar, is 25 Bolivars.
However, many residents in Caracas told the BBC that there were restrictions on withdrawing the new currency from cash machines, with a maximum of 10 Sovereign Bolivars (a value equivalent to one million Mighty Bolivars).
Cities all over Venezuela are almost in turmoil because people are trying to get the new banknotes.
Venezuela's black market that uses the dollar is even frozen due to currency changes, due to confusion and economic uncertainty.
The government also announced new economic policies to accompany new currencies, such as raising the minimum wage by 34 times from the previous level starting September 1, raising VAT and cutting fuel subsidies that have been very high.
President Maduro also said that the Sovereign Bolivar currency would be linked to petro, a virtual currency that the government said was linked to Venezuela's oil reserves.
But the US has announced a ban on its citizens to engage in trade with petro, and the cryptocurrency site, ICOindex.com, even declared petro as "fake".
"Linking Bolivar to Petro is linking to nothing," economist Luis Vicente Len told the AFP news agency.
At the same time, on Tuesday (21/8, Venezuela was shaken by a strong earthquake along the northern coast felt in Caracas. Many buildings were evacuated immediately.
US seismologists reported the earthquake was magnitude 7 with the epicenter in eastern Venezuela, while Venezuelan authorities recorded an earthquake measuring 6.3 on the Richter scale.
Reuters news agency reported, eyewitnesses in the coastal city of Cumana told how residents immediately ran into the streets. There have been no reports of casualties so far.
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