The BBC spoke to relatives of those buried in the Cementerio del Sur, the largest burial ground in the capital of Caracas, who now need to stand guard at their loved ones’ tombs to protect them from looters.
“I come here every week, or every two weeks. I keep watch. I worry I’ll arive one day and she’ll be gone,” Eladio Bastida, whose wife is buried in the cemetery, told the BBC. “When I buried her, you could just walk in here. but lately you can barely reach her grave, because every tomb has been opened and the remains taken out.”