People acting like animals, like horses. They broke the gates.
En las noches del viernes negro, las calles venezolanas revelaron algo más profundo que el deseo de consumo: en ciudades como Caracas, Anzoátegui y Carabobo, multitudes desesperadas irrumpieron en tiendas MultiMax, rompiendo rejas y enfrentándose entre sí por electrodomésticos con descuento, obligando al despliegue de policías antimotines. Lo que el mundo exterior llama una tradición comercial importada se convirtió en Venezuela en un espejo de la escasez acumulada, donde una rebaja de precio no representa un capricho sino una oportunidad que muchos sienten que no pueden permitirse perder.
- La tensión estalló cuando cientos de personas se abalanzaron simultáneamente sobre las 29 tiendas de la cadena MultiMax, convirtiendo una promoción comercial en un escenario de violencia colectiva.
- Videos difundidos en redes sociales mostraron a compradores rompiendo rejas, empujándose con fuerza y peleando físicamente para entrar a los locales, dejando heridos en varias ciudades.
- La policía antimotines fue desplegada en múltiples estados —Anzoátegui, Carabobo, Zulia, Apure y Caracas— en un operativo de control de orden público que normalmente se reserva para disturbios civiles graves.
- Testigos describieron escenas de caos extremo: 'La gente actuando como animales, como caballos', dijo una mujer cuyo testimonio circuló ampliamente en redes.
- La jornada cerró con presencia policial sostenida en los centros comerciales, pero dejó abierta una pregunta incómoda sobre el estado real del poder adquisitivo venezolano.
La noche del viernes negro en Venezuela no transcurrió entre ofertas y carritos de compra, sino entre escudos antimotines y rejas rotas. En ciudades como Caracas, Lechería, Carabobo y Zulia, multitudes se lanzaron sobre las tiendas de la cadena MultiMax —29 locales con descuentos en electrodomésticos y electrónica— con una urgencia que desbordó rápidamente cualquier orden.
Las imágenes que circularon en redes sociales fueron contundentes: personas empujándose con violencia visible, algunas forzando las entradas a golpes, otras peleando entre sí en los accesos. Una mujer que grabó la escena en Anzoátegui resumió lo que veía con palabras directas: la gente actuaba como animales, rompían las rejas, se agredían mutuamente. Su video se compartió masivamente.
En Lechería, la situación escaló hasta requerir la presencia de efectivos con equipo antimotines, un despliegue que en Venezuela —como en cualquier país— se reserva para desórdenes públicos de gravedad. No fue el único punto de tensión: escenas similares se repitieron en varios estados a lo largo de la noche.
Lo que ocurrió no fue simplemente el entusiasmo exagerado de una jornada de rebajas. Fue la expresión pública de una presión económica sostenida: en un país donde el poder adquisitivo se ha deteriorado profundamente, un descuento en un refrigerador o un televisor no es un lujo, sino una ventana que muchas familias sienten que no volverá a abrirse. La violencia, las rejas caídas y los policías desplegados frente a tiendas de electrónica contaron, en imágenes, lo que las estadísticas económicas llevan años describiendo en números.
Riot police in full gear moved into Venezuelan shopping districts Thursday night as crowds surged toward electronics stores, pushing and shoving in a scramble for Black Friday discounts. The chaos unfolded across multiple cities—Anzoátegui, Carabobo, Apure, Zulia, and Caracas—as shoppers descended on MultiMax, a national chain with 29 locations offering reduced prices on appliances and electronics.
The frenzy began as evening fell. Videos circulating on social media captured the raw desperation of the scene: people pressing against one another with visible aggression, some breaking through gates to force their way inside stores. One woman's account, recorded and shared widely online, captured the mood with stark simplicity. "People acting like animals, like horses," she said. "They broke the gates. People being aggressive, fighting each other."
In Lechería, a city in Anzoátegui state, the crowd density and violence became severe enough to trigger a police response. Officers arrived equipped with riot gear, a show of force typically reserved for serious public disorder. The deployment was not isolated—similar scenes played out in other major population centers across the country, each drawing long lines of shoppers willing to wait hours or risk injury for a chance at discounted goods.
What unfolded was less a shopping event than a window into the economic pressures bearing down on ordinary Venezuelans. Black Friday promotions, imported from North American retail culture, had become a flashpoint for something deeper: the hunger for affordable goods in a country where purchasing power has eroded dramatically. A discount on an appliance or electronic device represented not a luxury purchase but a chance to acquire something many families had gone without.
The violence was not random. It reflected a specific kind of desperation—the kind that emerges when scarcity meets opportunity, when people believe that missing this moment means missing out entirely. The gates that were broken, the pushing and fighting captured on video, the need for riot police to maintain order at a retail event—these were not signs of consumer enthusiasm but of economic strain made visible in the most public way possible.
As the night wore on and police maintained their presence, the question lingered over Venezuelan cities: what does it say about a country's condition when a discount sale becomes a flashpoint for civil disorder? The answer lay not in the stores themselves but in the broader collapse of economic stability that had made even a temporary price reduction feel like a matter of survival.
Citações Notáveis
People acting like animals, like horses. They broke the gates. People being aggressive, fighting each other.— A shopper describing the scene at a MultiMax store
A Conversa do Hearth Outra perspectiva sobre a história
Why did a shopping event need riot police? That seems extreme.
Because in Venezuela right now, a discount on an appliance isn't a nice deal—it's a chance to buy something you've been unable to afford. When that opportunity appears, the desperation is real enough to turn a store into a pressure cooker.
But people were breaking gates and fighting. That's not just desperation, that's violence.
True. And that's the point. The violence tells you how far the economic situation has deteriorated. When people are willing to fight each other over a discounted refrigerator, it means normal purchasing has become impossible for most.
Were people actually injured?
The reports focus on the chaos and the police response, but yes—crowds that dense, that aggressive, with people pushing through broken gates—people get hurt. The videos show the physical contact, the aggression.
Is this common in Venezuela now?
Large-scale retail events triggering this kind of disorder? It's a sign of how constrained household budgets have become. A Black Friday sale becomes an event people feel they cannot miss, because they don't know when they'll next have access to affordable goods.
What happens next?
That's unclear. But if discount events continue to trigger this kind of chaos, retailers and authorities will have to decide whether to keep running them at all.