Second Blackout: "'Horror, fear, despair': Venezuela's oil capital shattered by 'tsunami' of violent looting"

This phase of collapse is why we posted "News You Can Use: Imagine The Venezuela Blackout, But 10 Times Worse". When you see sub-heads like:

In the second city of Maracaibo, the crippling blackout sparked a terrifying rampage that police seemed unable to control

You have passed an event horizon into a new reality that requires new skills and new ways of looking at the world.
First up, Reuters, March 25:
Venezuela blames 'attack' as another crippling blackout hits

Venezuela blamed an “attack” on its electric system for a blackout on Monday, the second to hit the OPEC nation this month, that shuttered businesses, plunged the main airport into darkness and left commuters stranded in the capital.

Power went out in much of Caracas and nearly a dozen states in the early afternoon, stirring memories of a week-long outage earlier in the month that was the most severe in the country’s history.

Service was restored in many areas within hours on Monday and Information Minister Jorge Rodriguez said in a televised broadcast that power was being “progressively reestablished.”...MORE

And from The Guardian, the headline story, March 26:

Horror, fear, despair': Venezuela's oil capital shattered by 'tsunami' of violent looting
In the second city of Maracaibo, the crippling blackout sparked a terrifying rampage that police seemed unable to control

Some liken the damage wrought on Venezuela’s second city to a natural disaster. Others suspect satanic intervention.

“El demonio,” says Betty Méndez, a local shopkeeper, by way of explanation for the wave of looting and unrest that convulsed Maracaibo earlier this month.

Most, however, describe the mayhem in psychiatric terms: a collective breakdown that shocked this lakeside city to its core and offered a terrifying glimpse of Venezuela’s possible future as it sinks deeper into economic, political and social decline.

“Horror, fear, despair,” said María Villalobos, a 35-year-old journalist, weeping as she relived three days of violence that many here call la locura – “the madness”.

“I thought it was the start of a civil war.”
Her husband, Luis González, nodded grimly in agreement as they recalled watching hundreds of looters – some wielding axes, sledgehammers, machetes or even pistols – move into nearby warehouses, shops and even a church to begin a frenzy of wrecking and theft. “It was as if they were possessed,” the 39-year-old driver remembered.

Maracaibo’s “madness” began on the night of 10 March – three days after a catastrophic blackout plunged almost the entire nation into darkness. But it had been long in the making thanks to years of economic and political neglect....MUCH MORE