Venezuela’s super-rich class still enjoys lavish parties and gourmet cuisine, while middle-class people are searching through the garbage for food, as the Socialist country’s economy collapses.

An article published on Daily Mail says that in the opulent Caracas Country Club, where membership costs an astonishing £77,000 – 458 times the average Venezuelan salary – glamorous women in cocktail dresses were seen relishing a banquet of beef and lobster, followed by a colourful selection of puddings.

At the same time, though, in the Petare slum a few miles away, where 370,000 Venezuelans stay, ordinary middle-class people were searching piles of rubbish to get some rotten cabbage leaves, desiccated limes and scraps of fetid meat to eat.

‘Those rich people are thieves. They are government cronies and they stole the country’s money,’ said Vanessa, 36, who earns £14 a month as an analyst at an electrics company.

‘They don’t want anything to change, or they would lose their high lifestyle.

‘Chávez pretended to be this big Socialist, but he was rich himself. He was a hypocrite. He was a f*****g liar. His legacy is people like me looking for food in the garbage.’