CARACAS: Desperate Venezuelans looted delivery trucks and clashed with police as a botched plan to introduce new banknotes left people without cash — the latest shortage in a spiraling economic crisis.
Late on Friday President Nicolas Maduro blamed opposition politicians for the unrest, claiming that there were pictures and videos of some opposition members of the National Assembly involved in “attempts of vandalism and some acts of violence.”
He warned that “parliamentary immunity does not reach that far,” but did not give any names.
Maduro mentioned that rioters had torched two state banks in the town of Guasdalito, near the border with Colombia.
He blamed unnamed opposition leaders who were also part of a “contraband mafia” for the incident, and warned that they “will be captured and put behind bars in the next hours.”
Faced with world-high inflation that has made its money increasingly worthless, the government is trying to introduce new bills in denominations up to 200 times higher than the old ones.
But the plan went off the rails when Maduro ordered the 100-bolivar note removed from circulation before the new bills arrived.
Formerly the highest denomination bill, the 100-bolivar note was worth about three US cents, and accounted for 77 per cent of the cash in circulation in Venezuela. Angry protests erupted around the country as the chaotic reform left people without money to buy food or Christmas presents.
In the second city of Maracaibo in the west, groups of protesters hurled stones at police, reports said. In the eastern city of Maturin, dozens of people blocked off a major avenue and looting broke out.
“I went by the market and it was being guarded by the military. A chicken truck was looted,” Juan Carlos Leal, a farmer in Maturin, said.
In the eastern city of Puerto la Cruz, “people rioted because they wanted to take out money and they weren’t allowed to,” said Genesis, a local baker.
“The police fired in the air to calm the riot. Everyone dispersed and the police ordered all shops to be closed,” said Genesis, who asked not to be identified by her surname for fear of reprisals.
Protests were reported by users on Twitter in several Venezuelan states.
Local media in the western city of Santa Barbara said four people were injured when the drivers of a security truck transporting money opened fire on people trying to break into it.
In the capital Caracas, thousands of Venezuelans from around the country queued to rid themselves of 100-bolivar notes at the only place still accepting them: the central bank. — AFP
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