Ten thousand dollars in cash, wrapped in a bag, taken from an apartment that the earthquake had turned into rubble. That was what one of the four CICPC agents had in his hands when residents of the Vallarta residences, in Playa Grande, La Guaira, surrounded him and snatched it away.
They were not ordinary thieves. They were police officers sent to safeguard the belongings of the victims of the double earthquake on June 24, which has already left 1,943 dead, more than 10,500 injured, and nearly 250 buildings collapsed. Instead of protecting, they decided to line their pockets with the money of those who lost everything.
The director of the CICPC, Douglas Rico, expelled them “permanently and irrevocably” and turned them over to the Justice system. While the country counts its dead, there were those wearing uniforms who decided to steal from the rubble.