Political unrest intensifies in Venezuela as power cuts and shortages spark looting

Venezuela’s political crisis shows no sign of abating as sporadic looting is reported and protests against the government of President Nicolas Maduro intensify.

Looting On the Rise As Venezuela Runs Out of Food,… https://t.co/2NzcV3UJhwpic.twitter.com/c0RODmM8FA

— Erika de la Vega (erikup24) <a href="https://twitter.com/erikup24/status/725486603016138753">April 28, 2016</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> <b> </b> Power cuts, drought, low oil prices and an opposition move to seek a referendum to oust the government is piling pressure on Maduro. <b> </b> The president appears unmoved:"Let's respect them, let's let them do their stuff. I've said this, everything that they're doing has no political viability and the revolution will continue here and we will have this president at least until 2018 - with all the great social programmes. Let's not waste our time, let them do their own stuff." <b> </b> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">RT WellingMichael: Looting has increased in <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Venezuela?src=hash">#Venezuela</a> as scarcity of products is at a all time high this year. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/M?src=hash">#M</a>… <a href="https://t.co/W5SQWDoDSr">pic.twitter.com/W5SQWDoDSr</a></p>&mdash; Tito (titoaav) January 31, 2016

In an effort to minimise the energy crisis Venezuela is moving its time zone forward by 30 minutes to lengthen the hours of daylight in the evening, when demands on power are higher.

Energy crisis in Venezuela leads to looting, 2-day workweek https://t.co/xGnGjL7muopic.twitter.com/cPQY7vTrMP

— Santa Cruz Sentinel (@scsentinel) April 27, 2016