Looting, Protests, Coronavirus And Venezuela
In recent days Venezuela has suffered very localized situations of violence and protests, that at least in two or three cases, have ended up in looting. There might be different elements that ignite looting such as poverty, hunger, hatred, psychological distress, criminality, and all of them are relevant to analyze causes but not to use as an excuse to foment or to protect those committing the criminal act.
As to Venezuela, at the beginning of the quarantine announced by President Nicolas Maduro on March 14, 2020. — 42 days of real social distancing very similar to the one implemented in Spain or Italy but much earlier and much more in comparison to the lax social distancing in the US — the very first days, there were several twitter trending topics with the hashtag “saqueos” — all of them referring to events that happened in other countries, or in other moments or some of them not really presenting solid evidence of looting at all.