Violent looting in Venezuela was planned | World News |Axisoflogic.com

Archive image of governor of Bolivar state, Francisco Rangel | Photo: franciscorangelgomez.info/

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said on Friday that a supermarket looting incident in Bolivar state was planned. A fruit and vegetable worker died near the violence as a result of a gunshot wound to the chest, local media reported.

The incident comes as Venezuela is facing shortages of key goods, with the government arguing that business sectors are causing most of the shortages in order to delegitimize the government and to make large profits.

Maduro said that he was sending the Liberation of the People Operative (OLP) to Bolivar state to catch those he blamed for the crime, which he described as "mercenary groups, paramilitaries, and infiltrators."

He said that during the violence a publicly owned Yutong bus was also attacked, and he called on Venezuelans to be alert to "violent groups who try to provoke chaos in the country."

According to the local newspaper El Correo del Caroni, Gustavo Patinez was shot 60 meters from the main site of looting. Four shops were looted and wrecked, and a cereal transport truck was also attacked.

Bolivar state authorities arrested 60 people.

Bolivar governor, Francisco Rangel also told press that the lootings were "political," "planned," and not a result of hunger. Despite suffering serious shortages, with many products overpriced at a parallel market rate that is 100 times the official exchange rate, extreme poverty and hunger levels remain very low in Venezuela. Extreme poverty dropped to 4.5 percent last week, nearly half that of neighbouring Colombia.

Rangel also explained that a "gang" of 40 people on motorbikes fired their guns in the area and incited people to rob the shops.

Over the last two years sectors of the Venezuelan opposition have organized violent blockades, known as "guarimbas.” The blockades saw 43 people killed last year, but also stopped food trucks from reaching populations and stopped people from getting to hospitals, schools, and work. Numerous public buses, bus stops, and food trucks have also been destroyed, usually by being set on fire.

Businesses also often force people to line up to buy basic foods, though organized communities have found that the lines are often unnecessary and add to a general feeling of insecurity, economic chaos, and distrust in the political stability of the country.

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