When we think of Venezuelan women, we think of gorgeous, sexy, very attractive women who are always looking their best, dressed to the nines and turning heads everywhere they go. Yes, Venezuelans have a reputation of being obsessed with beauty, and they sure have made a name for themselves with seven Miss Universe titles, including the current queen, María Gabriela Isler, and 21 international beauty pageant titles, seven more than the next runner-up, the United State; proving that in a country where toilet paper has become a luxury, being beautiful is a basic need.
But that has changed quickly thanks to the restrictive currency controls the government has imposed, which have deprived local businesses of the cash to import foreign goods, including a very valuable source of most women’s gorgeous bodies: breast implants. "The women are complaining," Ramón Zapata, president of the Society of Plastic Surgeons, told AP. "Venezuelan women are very concerned with their self-esteem." Venezuelans once had easy access to implants approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. But doctors say they are now all-but impossible to find because restrictive currency controls have deprived local businesses of the cash to import foreign goods. It may not be the gravest shortfall facing the socialist South American country, but surgeons say the issue cuts to the psyche of the image-conscious Venezuelan woman.
Beauty-obsessed Venezuelans face a scarcity of brand-name breast implants, and women are so desperate that they and their doctors are turning to devices that are the wrong size or made in China, with less rigorous quality standards.
He revealed that women call his office asking for the implant size they’re looking for, and when they can’t find it, they choose the second-best option, which is almost always a size up. However, there’s another option, which doctors don’t really recommend based on the quality. We’re talking about Chinese implants. Since China is Venezuela’s main trading partner, their goods are given priority for import. Their implants are a lot cheaper compared to Europeans, which can cost as much as $600 (according to AP, that’s about the same as the annual minimum wage in Venezuela), and the Chinese cost around $200, but they’re not subjected to government inspection or clinical studies.
Venezuela is thought to have one of the world's highest plastic surgery rates, and the breast implant is the seminal procedure. Doctors performed 85,000 implants here last year, according to the International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery. Only the U.S., Brazil, Mexico and Germany - all with significantly larger populations -- saw more procedures.
No one is giving the frustrated women much sympathy, especially not the government. The consumerism of plastic surgery has always jibed awkwardly with the rhetoric of socialist revolution. The late President Hugo Chavez called the country's plastic surgery fixation "monstrous," and railed against the practice of giving implants to girls on their 15th birthdays.
Unable to find the devices in doctors' offices, some women are turning to the Venezuelan equivalent of the bartering website Craigslist, where sellers post pictures of black market implants of unknown origin sitting in sealed packages on kitchen tables, complete with stories of spouses who changed their minds and reassurances that the pouches remain sterile.
For the doctors trying to manage their patients' expectations, the shortages are no less grave than Venezuela's other hardships. Dr. Miguel Angel Useche's, says women sometimes save for years for their operations, and to be told they must wait longer can be unbearable.
