LATE-STAGE SOCIALISM: Mad Max violence stalks Venezuela’s lawless roads.
In one video apparently showing a looting and uploaded to social media, people are seen gleefully dragging live chickens from a stranded truck.
The looters use tree trunks and rocks to stop vehicles, and are particularly fond of “miguelitos” – pieces of metal with long spikes – to burst tires and halt vehicles.
A ring-road round the central town of Barquisimeto, with shanty-towns next to it, is notorious among truckers, who nickname it “The Guillotine” due to the regular attacks.
In some cases, crowds simply swarm at trucks when they stop for a break or repairs. Soldiers or policemen seldom help, according to interviews with two dozen drivers.
Yone Escalante, 43, who also takes vegetables from the Andes on a 2,800-km (1,700-mile) round-trip to eastern Venezuela, shudders when he recalls how a vehicle of his was ransacked in the remote plains of Guarico state last year.
“Social media” is as close as this Reuters report gets to the words “socialism” or “socialist.”
Related: Colombia and Brazil clamp down on borders as Venezuela crisis spurs exodus.
Isn’t border control racist?