In Lara state, the street protests and demonstrations against the Nicolas Maduro regime have been constantly, first by the farmers and now by the bus drivers of Carora, capital of the Torres municipality, who took to the streets to demand that they are allowed to work.
“The virus is in the streets and hunger is in our homes, so between the virus and hunger, may the virus kill me,” exclaimed Wilmer Toro, organizing secretary of La Alternativa Transport Line.
During the mandatory quarantine, only police and military vehicles have been allowed to refuel, with doctors, farmers, and other workers getting only 5 to 15 liters of gasoline, and sometimes being forced to buy the fuel in the black market in dollars.
There are more than 200 bus drivers who are unable to carry the daily sustenance home because of fuel restrictions. In the municipality of Torres, they have not been able to get gasoline since the COVID-19 quarantine began.
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Toro says is inconsiderate of the government to just order people to shelter in place without any gasoline, or even basic without services such as water and electricity.
“They are telling us to quarantine, but with hunger, nothing is achieved. In each family, we are an average of five members and we are all in need, they can’t send us home to die of hunger,” Toro said.
Jaime Torres, president of Jacinto Lara Society, said that the first weeks of quarantine were able to hold out at home, but now it is impossible because they no longer have anything to eat, while they wait for answers from the local government, headed by Mayor Edgar Carrasco.
