President Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela said on Saturday he has halted a plan to restrict the sale of 20 basic food items in Zulia, the country's most populous state.
The plan would have limited the number of packages of items such as rice, milk and sugar that shoppers were allowed to buy.
Critics had said the plan constituted food rationing. The BBC reports it was meant to prevent shoppers from buying the same product more than once in a day.
State officials said it was aimed at preventing people from buying large quantities of price-controlled goods in Venezuela and selling them at a profit in Colombia, where they are more expensive. Zulia borders Colombia.
