By Carlos Camacho.
A sugarcane field fire in the Ranchos de Aragua section has killed eleven individuals, mostly minors, including 18-year old twins, and injuring another 13. Firemen from Aragua state and civilian defense workers are responding.
Initial reports which said the victims were scavenging for food hunting rabbits and taking sugarcane in the field, a sadly common activity amongst lower-income Venezuelans, suffering as they are from an acute food shortage, have been confirmed by the Maduro-controlled Attorney General, Tarek William Saab.
The Venezuelan sugar industry reported a downturn after a series of nationalizations began by socialist leader Hugo Chavez which placed sugarcane fields and sugar factories under Cuban control.
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Several minors were trapped in the burning field. Of the injured, ten are adults and three are minors. Two injured minors were evacuated to the Hospital Central in Maracay, they are Jose Gregorio Carrasquel and Kelvin Rodriguez. They only have 12 years old.
The fire broke out in the fields of Canaveral Agricola El Lago, Cagua Parrish, Sucre municipality, Aragua state in the center of Venezuela. The investigation police are interviewing neighbors, although the regime says the fire could have been accidental.
Twins Otniel Jose and Jose Otniel are, so far, the only adult victims. Young Erickson Omar was a baseball prospect and had been playing the game since he was four. He had fourteen years old.
