Looting, theft in Venezuela’s earthquake zone add to tragedy

LA GUAIRA, Venezuela - Not even the cables inside the small store remained intact.

The earth had barely stopped shaking when the looting and theft began in the area most devastated by Venezuela’s double earthquake.

Outbreaks of looting have hit the coastal state of La Guaira – neighbouring Caracas – much of which is now a vast mountain of rubble after June 24’s disaster.

In a video circulating on social media, a group of people pass around boxes of appliances from a collapsed store.

Other videos appear to show looted boxes perched on car roofs or on top of motorcycles.

Online accusations are also circulating against police and military personnel who critics allege have been stealing from homes or even from the dead.

A branch of a major pharmacy chain was ransacked, as were supermarkets and other businesses, residents say.

Some attribute this situation to so-called disaster opportunism but others point to the hunger and destitution of those who have lost everything in a country already in chronic crisis before the quakes.

“Is it fair that our people are devouring each other?” lamented 71-year-old Maria Esther Bernal, who rented shops to Chinese merchants, all of which were looted. “They even took the wiring.”

She said a Chinese man had died in a store next door.

“They were stepping over his body to loot. It was a supermarket,” she said.

Venezuelans have not hidden their anger at the slow and meagre aid coming from the authorities after the twin earthquakes that killed at least 1,450 and left tens of thousands more missing.

They are demanding not only rescue efforts in La Guaira but also improved security and assistance with food, water, and medicine.

Rescuers work on the rubble of a collapsed building near a damaged vehicle in La Guaira, Venezuela, on June 28. PHOTO: REUTERS

The government militarised the state and restricted access to those with a safe-conduct pass that must be obtained from the military in Caracas.

“There’s nothing here,” 72-year-old Zulay de Carvajal tells AFP. “They stole everything: our clothes, shoes, utensils, pots, cups, glasses.”

“We found a disaster,” said her son, Gregory Carvajal, 37. “We were removing bodies, and at that moment, they were looting. People were going crazy, looting, taking everything.”

In another neighbourhood of La Guaira, similar looting broke out.

Some have been siphoning fuel from cars; others are impersonating firefighters to take advantage of the disaster.

There are reports of all kinds of crimes.

A video circulating on social media shows a man expelling a soldier and another official from his home after finding them scavenging around.

“They keep taking things, I can’t stand it,” protests the person recording with their phone.
The officials told him they were only checking if people were inside.

“Get out, get out, they’ve looted everything.”

La Guaira had already been devastated in 1999 by rains and massive landslides that swept away whole neighbourhoods and left more than 10,000 dead.

And at that time, there were also outbreaks of crime, said Marino Alvarado, a former coordinator of the human rights NGO Provea.

“It’s not surprising that we can find three situations that also happened during the landslides,” he said.

“Crime; two, police abuse, which is now beginning to be denounced; and three, police or military officials also participating in the looting.”

After one of the Farmatodo pharmacy chain’s branches was looted in La Guaira, the company cleaned the premises with the help of the community.

A primary care clinic now operates there. AFP