Junk gasoline in Venezuela causes vehicle fires and explosions

Venezuelan citizens denounced that the poor quality of gasoline distributed by Nicolás Maduro's regime in the country's most populated state is causing cars to catch fire.

So far this year alone, at least 26 vehicle fires have been reported in Zulia state (northwestern Venezuela). Experts have attributed this to the fact that the fuel sold by state-owned PDVSA service stations is being adulterated. Engelbert Atencio, commander of the Fire Department of the city of Maracaibo, stated that during April, 12 vehicles were reported to have been incinerated.

More and more citizens are expressing concern and highlighting the bad smell, the cloudy color and even the particular gasoline temperature.

"Generally gasoline is a cold liquid, but this one we have been buying for more than a month is hot, smells bad and is black. It comes with a lot of sediment and even with water, because I had to lower the tank of my car and I took water out of it. What is happening is that the gasoline is burning the batteries, the spark plugs, the engines and even the whole cars; this is scary," said José Quintero, a public transport driver.

Miguel Sarmientos, the owner of an auto repair shop in the state, said that of every 15 cars he services, 14 are due to gasoline problems. "Before four, five cars used to arrive here, now we are full because the gasoline is burning even entire engines (...) The filters are black, the cables are burning. I have never seen such a disaster in the 40 years I have been a mechanic," he said.

Angel Suarez, an electronics engineer in automation and process control, said the problem is the high sulfur content in the fuel. However, to date, there is no certainty as to the actual cause of the fires.

"We are working to pass the information to PDVSA because they are the competent ones to get to the bottom of what is happening," said the Maracaibo Fire Department commander.

The regime's "solution"

PDVSA, the state-owned oil company and the only company in charge of refining and distributing gasoline throughout the country released a video with what appears to be an absurd solution to the problem.

"Smell it," is heard in the video in which they pass the gasoline into transparent containers so that it can also be seen and "verify the quality" of the product being sold at the service stations.