How Venezuela went bad

It’s hard to say when things went from bad, to worse, to nightmarish in Venezuela.

 

But what we can say is that the nightmare is here.

 

Reports coming from state-controlled media don’t tell half the story. These days, Venezuelans turn to Twitter to report and find seemingly endless instances of violence and looting. Last week, 400 people were arrested after 20 stores were looted in the city of Cumana, a Caribbean coastal town. Venezuelans called it “el Cumanazo.”

 

The watch group Observatory for Violence says there could be as many as 10 lootings a day as desperate people search for everything from toilet paper to rice to detergent to beer. There is little water, and a lack of electricity has led to rolling blackouts. There is only violence. Last month, a mob killed a man for $5 as it looted a supermarket.

 

The government, for its part, is refusing aid from other countries.

 

“[President Nicolas] Maduro still has his minions running around the world trying to convince people that there’s no crisis,” says Brian Dean, a partner at ACG Analytics.

 

Read More: How Venezuela went bad – Business Insider