Mob burns Venezuelan man alive over $5 as justice fails

[Kontinuum]

The mob didn’t know at first what Roberto Bernal had done, but he was running and that was enough.

Dozens of men loitering on the sidewalk next to a supermarket kicked and punched the 42-year-old until he was bloodied and semi-conscious. After all, they had been robbed of cell phones, wallets and motorcycles over the years, and thought Bernal had a criminal’s face.

Then a stooped, white-haired man trailing behind told them he’d been mugged.

The mob went through Bernal’s pockets and handed a wad of bills to the old man: The equivalent of $5. They doused Bernal’s head and chest in gasoline and flicked a lighter. And they stood back as he burned alive.

“We wanted to teach this man a lesson,” said Eduardo Mijares, 29. “We’re tired of being robbed every time we go into the street, and the police do nothing.”

Vigilante violence against people accused of stealing has become commonplace in this crime-ridden country of 30 million, once one of the richest and safest in Latin America. The revenge attacks underscore how far Venezuela has fallen, with the lights flickering out daily, and food shortages fueling supermarket lines that snake around for blocks.

The ebbing price of oil has laid bare years of mismanagement. The economy is unraveling, and with it, the social fabric.

“Life here has become a misery. You walk around always stressed, always scared, and lynching offers a collective catharsis,” Violence Observatory director Roberto Briceno-Leon said. “You can’t do anything about the lines or inflation, but for one moment, at least, the mob feels like it’s making a difference.”

Reports of group beatings now surface weekly in local media. The public prosecutor opened 74 investigations into vigilante killings in the first four months of this year, compared to two all of last year. And a majority of the country supports mob retribution as a form of self-protection, according to polling from the independent Venezuelan Violence Observatory.

Amid the general haze of violence, Bernal’s killing didn’t even stand out enough to make the front pages or provoke comment from local politicians. Venezuela now has one of the highest murder rates in the world, and it’s hard to find a person who hasn’t been mugged.

https://apnews.com/49be3c89fe3d4ef99...rule-law-fails

Getting better and better every day.
edit: Actually it's from a year ago (May 19, 2016). My bad.

[Video Games]

Shoulda just made a fiverr account.

[Blueobelisk]

It seems like the quantity of money stolen isn't what matters, but these people are sick of criminals constantly robbing them and getting away with it in their not-so-good country.

It may seem extreme to us, but leave the safety of your first world country and try to live in the conditions these people are living in and then try to judge them.

[De Lupe]

Well...

Fuck...

*Removes Venezuela from travel list*

[shrunken]

socialist utopia.

this does happen in other places in central & south america as well though. I'm reminded of a motorcycle thief in Haiti that was caught by a mob and had a tire wrapped around his neck and ignited. He managed to get free of it. The mob grabbed him and put the tire back on to finish the job.

[Cybran]

socialist utopia.

Communists have short attention spans.

[Aeluron Lightsong]

socialist utopia.

this does happen in other places in central & south america as well though. I'm reminded of a motorcycle thief in Haiti that was caught by a mob and had a tire wrapped around his neck and ignited. He managed to get free of it. The mob grabbed him and put the tire back on to finish the job.

More like a Dictator is in charge over Venezulia.

[NED funded]

State capitalism!!!

Either way, by now it should be obvious that Socialism doesn't work.

[death87]

and people derail the thread to bash a political policy.

[Deleted]

Communists have short attention spans.

Instead of handouts maybe he should have invested that money into infrascture, job creation and other industries. But then again that would have run against the socialist motto of distribution of misery.

[Forogil]

Instead of handouts maybe he should have invested that money into infrascture, job creation and other industries. But then again that would have run against the socialist motto of distribution of misery.

True - but according to the ones I know from Venezuela at least Hugo Chavez had some basic intelligence. Maduro on the other hand...

[Deleted]

Well, it is good that we have people in misery so that we can feel good about political affiliations that we have made

[Deleted]

This is the same country who arrested bakers wasn't it? It's an absolute shithole

[King Shark]

It seems like the quantity of money stolen isn't what matters, but these people are sick of criminals constantly robbing them and getting away with it in their not-so-good country.

It may seem extreme to us, but leave the safety of your first world country and try to live in the conditions these people are living in and then try to judge them.

Burning someone alive is beyond the pale. Beat the ever loving shit out of his ass, sure. But setting him on fire? Come on now.

[zoefschildpad]

Communists have short attention spans.

What do you mean? that's exactly what happened.

And then oil prices dropped, revenue fell and all those programs ran out of money.

[Vash The Stampede]

It may seem extreme to us, but leave the safety of your first world country and try to live in the conditions these people are living in and then try to judge them.

Nope sorry, killing isn't something I do, no matter the condition. I can't say the same for Americans though, if they found themselves in a similar situation.

State capitalism!!!

Either way, by now it should be obvious that Socialism doesn't work.

Yes cause Venezuela is the only country doing socialism, and therefore no better reason to avoid socialism.

Like it or not, socialism is in America's and Europe's future. Europe is already testing out Basic Income for the future where we lose our jobs to automation. Venezuela didn't fail due to socialism, it failed cause the price of oil dropped dramatically. Which for me was great cause I went from paying $3+ per gallon to $1+ per gallon. To fix this they literally printed money, which means run away inflation. Which means when you buy things from other countries your currency is now worth less. To fix this the government put a limit on how much products can be priced, which resulted in a black market.

Venezuela was just too dependent on oil export. I'm sure almost anyone can tell you that oil prices are not dependable. Even in the next 10 years as electric cars are more frequently used, the price of oil will likely go down even further. That's like if America was dependent on entertainment as an export, or Greece on tourism. You don't want to be dependent on just one thing.

[NED funded]

Nope sorry, killing isn't something I do, no matter the condition. I can't say the same for Americans though, if they found themselves in a similar situation.


Yes cause Venezuela is the only country doing socialism, and therefore no better reason to avoid socialism.

Like it or not, socialism is in America's and Europe's future. Europe is already testing out Basic Income for the future where we lose our jobs to automation. Venezuela didn't fail due to socialism, it failed cause the price of oil dropped dramatically. Which for me was great cause I went from paying $3+ per gallon to $1+ per gallon. To fix this they literally printed money, which means run away inflation. Which means when you buy things from other countries your currency is now worth less. To fix this the government put a limit on how much products can be priced, which resulted in a black market.

Venezuela was just too dependent on oil export. I'm sure almost anyone can tell you that oil prices are not dependable. Even in the next 10 years as electric cars are more frequently used, the price of oil will likely go down even further. That's like if America was dependent on entertainment as an export, or Greece on tourism. You don't want to be dependent on just one thing.

Venezueala was already experiencing economic problems when the price of the barrel of the oil was above 100$. Also, the entire point against socialism is that goverments don't know how to efficiently allocate resources, it being dependent in one commodity is once again the failure of socialism.

[Khaza-R]

The situation there is extremely bleak. Expect violence like this to become common place soon

[Deleted]

and people derail the thread to bash a political policy.

Why shouldn't they, when it's the #1 reason behind the country's miserable state?

And before someone goes with the "it's not socialism, it's the stupid people" -- don't you find it odd that socialism has failed every time in world history, meaning that not once has it been pursued by people who would actually be smart and honest enough to run a country? If socialism always fails because of corruption and idiocy, doesn't it mean that only corrupt and idiotic people support socialism?

[Vash The Stampede]

Venezueala was already experiencing economic problems when the price of the barrel of the oil was above 100$. Also, the entire point against socialism is that goverments don't know how to efficiently allocate resources, it being dependent in one commodity is once again the failure of socialism.

Being dependent on one commodity isn't the fault of socialism, that's the fault of a stupid leader. If anything it makes sense to fault capitalism since the prices are based on trade value. This is why people are starving and why the dependence on oil prices caused this.

Like I said already, no one country can go 100% into socialism alone. All countries more or less need to be on the same page. Each has to be slowly moved to socialism for it to work. And that's exactly how we'll approach it. Venezuela was making so much from oil, that it thought socialism was a good idea. Except oil prices dropped dramatically and every other country in the world is still capitalist.

You can see this with social medicine and soon Basic income. All first world countries are moving towards socialism.