Caracas Chronicles

We’re keeping track of lynchings and lootings in the country, as we’ve done for the past three months. Since we last updated the map in April, the country has seen a sharp spike in social conflict. Food riots and lootings have gone from sparse occurrences to widespread unrest all across the country. The creation of the Local Committees of Supply and Production (CLAPs), charged with packing price-regulated food products and dividing among citizens, has deepened the general dissatisfaction and worsened the supply problem. as people consider them inefficient and discriminatory.

More often than not, protests demanding the government for a solution to the severe shortage of food have not only made increasingly violent crowds clash against an ever more repressive official response, but have also ended in disaster with dozens of people wounded, arrested or killed, shops and businesses vandalized and looted, and general chaos resulting in military intervention.

Cases like Cumaná, with a balance of 150 people arrested and five deaths; Aroa, with 27 people arrested and humiliated by the authorities; El Tigre, counting 14 arrests and most recently, Maturín, where the count was nine people arrested and at least three wounded, are evidence of the growing seriousness of the situation. While some of these people have been released already, many are still held by the authorities, with no regard for due process or respect for their Human Rights.

Meanwhile, lynchings have substantially dropped since May, but there’s been at least ten cases reported by outlets during that time, most of them involving mobs and one of them nearly ending with the victim’s incineration.

A reminder: this map isn’t meant to be exhaustive, since we only include events that have been verified and reported by media outlets. We have not included protests or demonstrations. The news report that accompanies each incident is linked to the georeferenced spot on the map.