Several people were killed and more than a dozen injured in socialist Venezuela on Thursday after they tried to loot stores for food so they would not starve to death.

AFP News reports that in the town of Arapuey, looters desperately tried to get food and clashed with the military, which resulted in approximately 100 arrests. According to the local press and the opposition party, four people were killed and 15 injured after violence erupted over attempts to loot food.

Four people are killed and 15 injured in violence linked to food looting in Venezuela, according to members of the opposition and the local press https://t.co/IyGFPxco2I pic.twitter.com/EFdPdYnbkB — AFP news agency (@AFP) January 12, 2018

Key takeaways from AFP’s report include:

Universities in Venezuela say that 30.2% of Venezuelans face poverty, 51.5% face extreme poverty.

The Venezuelan government says that 18.3% of Venezuelans face poverty, 4.4% face extreme poverty.- READ MORE

Venezuela’s socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro has raised his country’s minimum wage by a further 40 percent, meaning public sector employees will now earn around two dollars a month in his seventh and final major hike of 2017.

“We have good news regarding the protection and stability of all the workers,” said Maduro in a televised address. “I am announcing the rise of the national minimum wage by 40 percent for all our doctors and public sector workers.”

The move means that working Venezuelans will now receive a basic salary of 248,510 bolivares, equivalent to $2.02 a month. On top of that, they are also handed an increased food ticket worth 549,000 bolivares worth $4.46, meaning their total income amounts to around $6.48.

Over the course of 2017, Maduro instigated seven separate minimum wage hikes in order to fight back at what he describes as an “economic war” led by the United States and other Western powers against his regime. – READ MORE