COVID-19 lockdown sparks entrepreneurial spirit in Venezuela

When coronavirus quarantines shut down street vendors in Venezuela's capital, Dioselis Bello pushed her hot dog cart inside her house and reopened for business. Like many struggling to get by, she can't survive long without working.

Now, customers walk up to her front window to order a traditional Venezuelan arepa, or perhaps a hamburger or soup. Bello says business isn't like it was when she worked her portable griddle on the bustling street, but she's happy to earn a living.

Cook Jose Antonio Subero works making 'arepas' from La Flaca food cart set up inside the home of the cart's owner Dioselis Bello as customers wait on the other side of the burglar bars in the Santa Rosalia neighborhood of Caracas, Venezuela

Edward Sepulveda signals to drivers that there are hotdogs and hamburgers for sale at a residence in the San Agustin neighborhood of Caracas, Venezuela

Food items, cigarettes and candles sit for sale behind the burglar bars of a private residence, where a couple on a bed calculates their sales in the Santa Rosalia neighborhood of Caracas, Venezuela.

Isabel Quevedo, 42, started selling candy, bread, cigarettes and soft drinks from the window in her house after suddenly being laid off from a clothing store that closed due to the pandemic. That has allowed her to feed herself and her grandson.

A similar entrepreneurial spirit led Rosmer Diaz, a 28-year-old government employee, to convert the his public apartment building's trash deposit - a ground-floor room the size of a large closet - into a small shop selling food and household necessities.

Hamburger and hotdog vendor Pablo Emilio Buitrago makes a burger for a customer from his food stand inside his girlfriend's home in the San Agustin neighborhood of Caracas, Venezuela.