Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has announced a mandatory fingerprinting system in supermarkets to combat food shortages and smuggling. He said the system would stop people from buying too much of a single item. The authorities say, up to 40 per cent of the goods which Venezuela subsidises for its domestic market are smuggled to Colombia, where they are sold at much higher prices. The opposition in Venezuela rejected the plan, saying the policy treated all Venezuelans as thieves.