The World - News from Feb. 28, 1989

Angry mobs across Venezuela set fire to cars and buses, battled police and guardsmen and looted hundreds of stores to protest increases in gasoline prices and transportation fares. The riots injured more than 100 people, most of them in the Guarenas shantytown 30 miles east of Caracas, and caused damage estimated in hundreds of millions of dollars, according to various reports. No official figures were available on deaths or injuries. Sackings continued in downtown Caracas at nightfall. “It is a popular uprising,” Police Inspector Jose Lara Montilla told a reporter. The price increases, including a doubling of bus fares and a 100% increase in gasoline costs, come amid a deep recession and heavy foreign debt.