There's still a palpable air of shock in Maracaibo.

Venezuela's second city is still clearing up after an orgy of violence and wanton destruction that ripped through more than five hundred shops and businesses during the nationwide power cuts recently.

At the Hotel Brisas del Norte, they reckon more than 450 doors in the five-storey building were ripped off.

Venezuelan looters 'driven' to steal

Even the frames were chiselled out. The level of devastation takes your breath away. All the obvious furniture disappeared - the beds, the chairs, the cosy sofas that filled the lounge room; the televisions in the bedrooms.

And then the looters took it to a whole different level.


The carpets have all been ripped up; cables in walls and ceilings have been yanked out. The water in the swimming pool has even been stolen. The marble desk-top on the reception has gone.

Image: Looters ripped out fixtures, fittings, cables and even the hotel's CCTV system

In one case I saw, they'd punched a hole in the wall and taken out an entire window - and when they found they couldn't take out the windows, they smashed them instead.

They took down the hotel CCTV; they emptied the offices of all computers. They emptied the hotel of everything.

It's as if a human hoover has been through there, sucking up everything in its path, sweeping through every room and staircase, taking the mirrors out of the elevators and then using machetes to hack through the ceilings and walls to get to what lies underneath - and steal that too.

The two staff who took us round were aghast at the images.

Image: Supermarkets were left empty of goods and produce

"This wasn't hunger. This was vandalism. It's like terrorism. They came in with guns and machetes and masks and just took everything. We were like a family here," said Margolis Romero, the hotel administrator.

"Many of the staff lived on the premises and we were the heart of this community," he added.

Maracaibo is used to power cuts. They've been enduring them for years. But this was nationwide and total. The lights never came back on, not for a long week and in some areas longer than that.

On day five of no light, no internet and limited mobile phone service, the mob descended on the hotel and camped there, stripping it of its innards over a day and a half.

The sacking looks frenzied. And this scene is replicated in hundreds of other businesses. In one electronics shop, after stripping it of computers, laptops and phones, the looters set fire to it, reducing it to ashes.

This is where Nicolas Maduro and his regime lost the heart of the Venezuelan people. This is where the poor stood up and wrought a quite terrible revenge for a few days and took what they believe is rightfully theirs.

People picked up guns and weapons and for a while lawlessness prevailed.

In one snippet of mobile phone footage given to us, you can see two police officers desperately trying to stop looters who are running across the road, driving up and down honking horns. There's the sound of gunfire.

We tracked down a number of looters all very frightened about talking publicly.

Image: Vigilantes are guarding shops in Venezuela's second city

But one 47-year-old man told us he'd run into a supermarket, along with "all of my neighbours", and hunted for food. "I couldn't see the food because it was just dark so I just grabbed what I could - a lot of shampoo bottles."

He said he went into a shoe shop and gathered up about 10-15 pairs of shoes but was stopped by a police officer who threatened to kill him if he didn't drop the shoes.

Image: A man who hunted for food in a dark supermarket 'just grabbed what he could - a lot of shampoo bottles'

I asked him if the policeman was trying to recover the stolen items. "No!" he replied with a smile. "I stole and he stole from me."

But this was a man who described himself as honest, who said he'd never stolen anything in his life, who still maintains he is honest.

"This is what Maduro has made us do," he said ruefully. "This is what Maduro has turned us into."

The sacking of Maracaibo may well be a seminal moment when the historians look back and realise this was when the criticism and frustration over the Venezuelan leader finally boiled over.

The poor have in the past formed the backbone of his power base. But what happened in Maracaibo has shown the poor have now got a taste for vicious violence and have had enough of misery and deprivation.

The embattled president's decision to ask his entire cabinet to resign seems to suggest he's searching for supporters as he struggles to maintain control.

Right now there's a sort of calm in Maracaibo. Shop owners have positioned vigilantes outside their stores and on the roofs. One Venezuelan told me: "They're calling what happened the 'appetiser'. Everyone thinks it will happen again."