These are the stories of the people hit hardest by looting in Venezuela’s second city: small business owners who have no chance of surviving an event like that, helpless against the anarchy unleashed in Zulia due to the national blackout.
Venezuela’s second city spent the first 50 hours of blackout trying to survive under the intense heat. But once food and water began to run out, the looting started. All kinds of businesses are being destroyed by a mob made of desperate people and common thugs.
On July 2017, 20 people were detained by National Police in Maracaibo during a demonstration. All of them were raped and tortured. Just one dared to tell what happened, and now some of the policemen involved are in jail.
Hugo Chávez’s humor was always crass, but the guy had the charisma to sort of pull of a shtick. Under Nicolás Maduro, attempts at comedy have devolved into sheer cruelty — with mirth supplanted by insult.
Protesting in Venezuela can be hazardous to your health, but that doesn't stop the daily struggle of those fighting for their rights while the infrastructure collapses.
It seems like poor management and corruption won’t only affect Zulia inhabitants. The entire country loses money when oil production in that state declines because of the electric crisis.
Maracaibo mayor Omar Prieto raided Las Pulgas market in Maracaibo last week. What will this do for people? What will it solve? Nothing. The government apparatus works like a smooth machine in at least one way: people blame, hate and root against the wrong culprit all the time.
It will take several generations of educated citizens to fix our country, but schools are forbidden to increase tuition fees, and still parents can’t afford private education anymore. Also, teachers leave the classrooms to make more money elsewhere, and students drop out because of the high cost of uniforms and school supplies.
Long lines are back. They never left entirely, but they did become a rare sight. After Maduro’s paquetazo, panicked citizens are buying everything they can. Food, medicine, gas and cash are scarce, but fear and anguish are not.
As if Maracuchos didn’t have enough already: constant blackouts, non-existent garbage collection service, extrajudicial executions and now, overflowing sewage, all under the not-so-watchful eye of chavista mayor Willy Casanova.
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