Reuters | Mayela Armas, Vivian Sequera: With the United States weighing a response to a gasoline shipment from Iran to Venezuela, people waiting in line outside service stations in the country�s capital said they were eager to fill their tanks, regardless of how the fuel arrived.

OPEC members Venezuela and Iran both are U.S. adversaries. A Trump administration official said last week the shipment via five tankers - which are still underway to fuel-starved Venezuela - was �unwelcome.�

Some Venezuelan opposition politicians have criticized the shipment due to concerns over socialist President Nicolas Maduro�s ties with Iran.

But Franklin Luzardo, a restaurant wait-staff manager who during the coronavirus-related quarantine has been making ends meet doing deliveries, said getting gasoline is what matters.

�I�m not interested in the origin,� Luzardo, 56, told Reuters Tuesday at a gas station in eastern Caracas, where he arrived Monday night. �Without gasoline, the car stops, and that�s the bread on our table.�

Gasoline shortages have grown acute in recent months due to U.S. pressure on suppliers, part of Washington�s �maximum pressure� campaign on Maduro, who has overseen an economic collapse and stands accused of corruption, human rights violations and rigging his 2018 re-election.

Shortages have plagued Venezuela for years due to the collapse of the country�s 1.3-million-barrel-per-day refining network thanks to underinvestment and mismanagement by state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela.

�We shouldn�t have had to end up importing gasoline from Iran,� said Coromoto Alvarez, 61, a retired nurse who arrived at a PDVSA gas station in Caracas� La Bandera neighborhood at 3 a.m. Tuesday.

The shortages have hindered food delivery and left doctors struggling to reach hospitals.

�I don�t care if the gasoline comes from Iran, just that we get it,� said Carmen Rivero, a 35-year-old economist waiting at the La Bandera station. �Without gasoline, food distribution fails, people cannot work.�


Reporting by Mayela Armas and Vivian Sequera in Caracas Writing by Luc Cohen; Editing by Leslie Adler