Tim Pearce on March 15, 2019
Looters have all but emptied stores and warehouses across western Venezuela as large parts of the country remain without power more than a week after a mass blackout.
The mobs overwhelmed Venezuela’s security forces and broke into buildings. People stole cars, trucks and equipment. Hundreds of businesses in the Venezuelan oil capital of Maracaibo were emptied and left in shambles.
WATCH:
VENEZUELA: Reports of looting in some cities as nationwide blackout, now in its 100th hour, continues pic.twitter.com/wLWp3BkSBL
— BNO News (@BNONews) March 12, 2019
Looters broke through the cinder-block walls of a Pepsi plant and took thousands of cases of beer and soda and 160 pallets of food. They destroyed or stole 22 trucks and five forklifts, Bloomberg reported Friday.
“If people made enough to make ends meet, we wouldn’t be trying to get by like this,” Enrique Gonzalez, an 18-year-old bus conductor, told Bloomberg. “This country has gone to hell.”
Police and other emergency officials have stayed away from the carnage and refused to help businesses and property owners protect their property and assets.
“It’s hard to swallow,” Bernardo Morillo, a 60-year-old mall manager, told Bloomberg. “The national guard stood by as this vandalism happened and the firefighters didn’t even show.”
WATCH:
WATCH: Looting begins in #Venezuela as the people struggle amid no food, no medicine and NO ELECTRICITY. The crisis is growing very acute. pic.twitter.com/4MoprTio6W
— Trish Regan (@trish_regan) March 11, 2019