Caracas: Swindlers are pretending to be victims of flooding that has killed dozens and left thousands homeless in Venezuela to try to cash in on a government offer of apartments for people whose homes have been damaged, an official said on Saturday.
Jacqueline Farias, an official appointed by President Hugo Chavez to govern Venezuela's capital, condemned the alleged tricksters, saying "those people whose houses are falling apart or in danger on being destroyed are the ones who should be in the shelters".
"People who need new houses, but are not at risk, are appearing in shelters and taking up space for protecting those who are at risk," she added.
Farias did not elaborate on the purported scam.
Floods and landslides unleashed by torrential rains over the last two weeks have killed at least 34 people and forced more than 5,000 Venezuelans from their homes, Justice Minister Tareck El Aissami told state television. More than 74,000 Venezuelans have fled their homes and taken refuge at 300 shelters, he said.
State of emergency
El Aissami said the most recent victims were two people who were killed when a mudslides crushed their vehicle as they drove along a highway in the western state of Tachira.
The government has declared a "state of emergency" in the capital and three states: Miranda, Vargas and Falcon. But rains also pounded the western states of Zulia, Trujillo, Merida and Tachira on Saturday, El Aissami said.
The heavy rains, officials say, have continued past the usual end of the region's wet season. Falcon has been hit hardest by the floods.
"It has not stopped raining in Falcon or other regions," El Aissami said.
People have attempted to take advantage of natural disasters in the past.
Following devastating floods and mudslides that thundered down from the mountains towering over Caracas and the adjacent state of Vargas in December 1999, some people posed as victims of the disaster that killed more than 15,000 Venezuelans and left tens of thousands more homeless.
Chavez complained that some of those who received newly constructed apartments from the government later sold them and used the cash to move into cheaper dwellings.
The floods and mudslides currently ravaging Venezuela are forcing Chavez to accelerate plans to build more low-income housing for the poor. Despite its immense oil wealth, Venezuela is struggling with a severe housing deficit.
More than 1 million of Venezuela's estimated 28 million inhabitants do not have adequate housing while millions more live in dangerous, labyrinth-like slums.
"During these recent days, it's rained like never before in Venezuela. Just so we have an idea: We've reached twice the level of rainfall recorded in December 1999," Chavez wrote in a newspaper column published on Saturday. "We're facing an extremely complex situation of national emergency."
