Venezuela Locks Down States to Tighten Fight Against Coronavirus

(Bloomberg) -- Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro ordered a quarantine in the capital and six states starting Monday, strengthening measures to prevent the spread of coronavirus in the country.

“Either we quarantine or the pandemic could tragically and painfully take down Venezuela,” Maduro said on state television. With 7 new cases on Sunday, for a total of 17, there are no deaths confirmed yet.

Besides Caracas, the quarantined states will be Miranda, La Guaira, Zulia, Tachira, Apure and Cojedes. In these regions, work is suspended, excepting health-care, food distribution, police and military security, and transportation.

“We should not leave our houses, except to cover essential needs,” Maduro added.

These are some of the strictest measures against the virus taken so far in Latin America. It was too early to tell how Maduro, long under a heavy challenge for the nation’s leadership, will fare in the unpredictable spread of the coronavirus. But in announcing the quarantines, he sought to project the image of firm control over the entire nation facing crisis.

Maduro declared a state of emergency on Friday night, indefinitely suspending schools from Monday, as well as mass gatherings and requiring subway and commuter train users to wear face masks. Movie theaters and restaurant services are suspended; establishments can only sell takeout.

Venezuela also temporarily suspended flights from Europe, Panama, the Dominican Republic and neighboring Colombia, essentially cutting off the nation from most of the world, with only a handful of remaining air connections, including to Turkey and Cuba.

Colombia closed borders with Venezuela on Saturday.

The 46 hospitals prepared to treat coronavirus cases are controlled by military forces wearing face masks. Soldiers partially blocked several highways leading to Caracas with checkpoints. These measures aren’t foreign to Maduro’s administration, which rules as a police state, often supervising, threatening and detaining critics without regard for the rule of law.

Caracas’ streets remained fairly quiet on Sunday, with the exception of crowds gathered outside supermarkets and pharmacies, where Venezuelans shared tips on how to make face masks out of paper towels and face wipes. Most restaurants and stores remained closed

Venezuela’s intelligence police and other state security officials made rounds outside Caracas’ grocery stores and street markets. They threatened businesses with penalties if they let customers inside without wearing masks, and in some cases, forced people to erase the photos they had taken in their phones of the long lines.

--With assistance from Fabiola Zerpa and Patricia Laya.

To contact the reporter on this story: Alex Vasquez in Caracas Office at avasquez45@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Patricia Laya at playa2@bloomberg.net, Ian Fisher, Linus Chua

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