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Venezuela lootings, food protests leave three dead in past week

Published 13/06/2016, 22:12
© Reuters. Bullet holes are seen after a gunfight outside a MERCAL, a state-run supermarket in a slum in Caracas

CARACAS (Reuters) - The recent wave of lootings and food riots in crisis-hit Venezuela has left three people dead in the last week, authorities and a rights group said.

The state prosecutor's office is investigating the deaths of a 21-year-old man in eastern Sucre state on Saturday, another 21-year-old man in the Caracas slum of Petare on Thursday, and a 42-year-old woman in the western state of Tachira last Monday.

All three suffered gunshot wounds during chaotic scenes outside supermarkets, which have become a flashpoint for violence and looting amid scarcities of basics across the South American OPEC member country, according to local rights group Provea.

A policeman has been arrested over the Tachira death.

With basics such as flour and rice running short, crowds chanting "We want food!" are thronging supermarkets daily, presenting a major problem for the struggling leftist government of President Nicolas Maduro.

More than 10 incidents of looting are occurring daily, according to the Venezuelan Observatory of Violence, a local monitoring group.

Venezuela's political opposition is pursuing a recall referendum in an effort to remove the socialist Maduro from office.

© Reuters. Bullet holes are seen after a gunfight outside a MERCAL, a state-run supermarket in a slum in Caracas

Maduro, 53, won election to succeed Hugo Chavez in 2013. The government accuses its opponents of deliberately stirring up trouble and seeking a coup.

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