CARACAS, Venezuela—To most Venezuelans suffering food shortages, Lorenzo Mendoza and the company he runs, Empresas Polar SA, are trusted providers of everything from pasta to beer. “You parasite,” President Nicolás Maduro said recently in a televised speech in which he accused Mr. Mendoza and Polar of hoarding products as part of “an economic... But to an embattled populist government, he is a traitor responsible for the scarcities.

Source: Wall Street Journal June 03, 2016 14:33 UTC