All It Takes Is a $100 Bribe to Fill Your Car Up With Gas in Caracas
Lines start before midnight and break up well after dawn. Few make it to a pump.
Vigilance at the head of the line.
Photographer: Carlos Becerra/Bloomberg
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Editor’s Note: There are few places as chaotic or dangerous as Venezuela. “Life in Caracas” is a series of short stories that seeks to capture the surreal quality of living in a land in total disarray.
The night began with a fight.
First, a half-dozen or so men got out of their cars and started thumping hoods with the palms of their hands. Then a guy in a camouflage T-shirt emerged from a black sedan with a baseball bat, swinging it as he paced up and down the row, threatening to break windows. Someone else shouted that he had another weapon, a gun, and was willing to use it.