Post by scumbuster on Jun 5, 2016 7:56:01 GMT -5
CARACAS -- There were 81 incidents of looting in Venezuela during the month of May, according to a local NGO.
With worsening food shortages causing about three such instances a day, the country seems to be reliving the 1989 “Caracazo”, a two-day looting fest, only this time in slow motion, with the main difference being that, if in 1989 all of the looting was concentrated in only two days and mostly in Caracas, nowadays there is looting every day, several times a day, and all over Venezuela.
According to the government of Nicolas Maduro's narrative, Venezuela is going through severe scarcity because of the opposition's “economic war.” The opposition points out that it is the government which caused the shortages, through excess public spending (which caused liquidity to quadruple in two years), price and currency exchange controls, expropriations and nationalizations of agro-industrial firms, which paralyzed imports (Venezuela imports about 90% of all the food it consumes) as well as domestic production.
May’s looting doubles the total for April, which was of 41 incidents, according to the latest report from “Observatorio Venezolano de la Violencia” (Venezuelan Violence Observatory), which was published Friday, as Caracas was recovering from violent incidents Thursday afternoon in which looting became an anti-government riot bent on reaching the Miraflores Presidential Palace. The rioters were stopped six blocks from Miraflores by National Guard firing tear-gas grenades.
More and more looting is expected, according to NGO head Roberto Brice.
The CLAP committees, recently created by the government to sell subsidized foodstuffs, are already being targeted, the report says. The committees have been criticized for allegedly selling food only to card-carrying members of the PSUV ruling party, a charge the government has denied.
The figures include recorded incidents and “attempts,” which are usually “frustrated” by the arrival in force of National Guard or Police, but not before the store or truck being looted is alleviated of much of its goods.
And if there were lootings in 18 of Venezuela’s 23 states, six definitely took the cake: Aragua, Anzoategui, Carabobo, Guarico, Miranda and the greater Caracas area, which sits in part in Miranda and part in the autonomous municipality of Libertador.
So, most looting took place in states with pro-Maduro governors, except Miranda, where the governor is noted opposition politician Henrique Capriles.
Two impoverished states, were there had been no previous recorded instances of looting -- Yaracuy and Delta Amacuro -- joined the action, with one incident each.
Already on Thursday, the security consultancy firm of Crisis Group had warned of a worsening security situation in Venezuela, in which increased scarcity was resulting in more looting.
laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=2413631&CategoryId=10717
With worsening food shortages causing about three such instances a day, the country seems to be reliving the 1989 “Caracazo”, a two-day looting fest, only this time in slow motion, with the main difference being that, if in 1989 all of the looting was concentrated in only two days and mostly in Caracas, nowadays there is looting every day, several times a day, and all over Venezuela.
According to the government of Nicolas Maduro's narrative, Venezuela is going through severe scarcity because of the opposition's “economic war.” The opposition points out that it is the government which caused the shortages, through excess public spending (which caused liquidity to quadruple in two years), price and currency exchange controls, expropriations and nationalizations of agro-industrial firms, which paralyzed imports (Venezuela imports about 90% of all the food it consumes) as well as domestic production.
May’s looting doubles the total for April, which was of 41 incidents, according to the latest report from “Observatorio Venezolano de la Violencia” (Venezuelan Violence Observatory), which was published Friday, as Caracas was recovering from violent incidents Thursday afternoon in which looting became an anti-government riot bent on reaching the Miraflores Presidential Palace. The rioters were stopped six blocks from Miraflores by National Guard firing tear-gas grenades.
More and more looting is expected, according to NGO head Roberto Brice.
The CLAP committees, recently created by the government to sell subsidized foodstuffs, are already being targeted, the report says. The committees have been criticized for allegedly selling food only to card-carrying members of the PSUV ruling party, a charge the government has denied.
The figures include recorded incidents and “attempts,” which are usually “frustrated” by the arrival in force of National Guard or Police, but not before the store or truck being looted is alleviated of much of its goods.
And if there were lootings in 18 of Venezuela’s 23 states, six definitely took the cake: Aragua, Anzoategui, Carabobo, Guarico, Miranda and the greater Caracas area, which sits in part in Miranda and part in the autonomous municipality of Libertador.
So, most looting took place in states with pro-Maduro governors, except Miranda, where the governor is noted opposition politician Henrique Capriles.
Two impoverished states, were there had been no previous recorded instances of looting -- Yaracuy and Delta Amacuro -- joined the action, with one incident each.
Already on Thursday, the security consultancy firm of Crisis Group had warned of a worsening security situation in Venezuela, in which increased scarcity was resulting in more looting.
laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=2413631&CategoryId=10717