Nicolas Maduro #conspiracy bbc.com
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro says the owners of an unnamed chain of shops have been arrested for artificially creating long queues.
Mr Maduro said the owners had reduced the number of employees working on cash tills in order to create queues and "annoy the Venezuelan people".
He has accused Venezuela's business elite of boycotting his government.
The opposition blames the socialist policies of the past 16 years for the worsening economic crisis.
"Yesterday we detected that a famous chain of stores was conspiring, irritating the people," said Mr Maduro.
"We came, we normalized sales, we summoned the owners, we arrested them and they're prisoners for having provoked the people," he said.