Four people were killed and 15 injured in violence linked to food looting in Venezuela, according to members of the opposition and the local press.
It brought to six the number of deaths tied to desperate food shortages in the oil-rich but crisis-riven country since December.
In the town of Arapuey in the west of Venezuela, for several days now looters have targeted shops and stores and clashed with soldiers, said Carlos Paparoni, an opposition lawmaker.
He said around 100 people have been arrested.
Gaby Arellano, another opposition lawmaker, said the area has been “overtaken” by soldiers and police, with shop owners doing what they can to defend their property.
Venezuela is in the throes of a deepening crisis caused by falling oil prices, spiralling inflation, and corruption that has decimated the economy.
In the past several days looting and attempted looting has broken out in a number of towns and cities.
A 19-year-old Venezuelan was shot dead on Wednesday when hundreds of people looted trucks carrying flour and chicken in the western city of Guanare.
On December 31, a young woman, also aged 19, died after being shot in the head, allegedly by a soldier, while waiting in Caracas to buy meat distributed by the government.
Hyperinflation is expected to top 2,300% this year in Venezuela.
Local universities say 30.2% of Venezuelans face poverty and 51.5% extreme poverty while the government puts the figures at 18.3% and 4.4%, respectively.
The information ministry did not respond to a request for information about the latest disturbances to rock the nation.
Looters plundered a truck carrying corn, a food collection centre, and a state-run supermarket, according to Paparoni, and a vet who witnessed the mayhem.
A video on social media also showed around a dozen men running into a lush pasture, chasing a cow, and then apparently beating it to death.
“They’re hunting. The people are hungry!” says the narrator of the video, who filmed the incident from his car.
Paparoni said some 300 animals were believed to have been killed.
Reuters could not verify the information.
Zuley Urdaneta, a 50 year-old vet in Merida, witnessed the looting of a truck along the highway.
About two hours later, he said some 800 people converged on a food collection centre and proceeded to plunder it.
“They knocked down the gates and looted flour, rice, cooking oil, cooking gas,” said Urdaneta. “The police and the National Guard tried to control the situation by giving out what was left.”
Looting has been increasing in the provinces since Christmas.
“What we’re living is barbaric,” said opposition lawmaker Juan Guaido in a tweet referencing the slaughter the cattle. “The dehumanising regime of Nicolas Maduro is turning a blind eye to the tragedy that we Venezuelans are living.”
Maduro’s government accuses political opponents and business-friendly foreign powers of trying to foment a social uprising against him by stoking inflation and hoarding food.
