With delivery trucks under constant attack, the nation’s food is now transported under armed guard. Soldiers stand watch over bakeries. The police fire rubber bullets at desperate mobs storming grocery stores, pharmacies and butcher shops. A 4-year-old girl was shot to death as street gangs fought over food.

Venezuela is convulsing from hunger.

Hundreds of people here in the city of Cumaná, home to one of the region’s independence heroes, marched on a supermarket in recent days, screaming for food. They forced open a large metal gate and poured inside. They snatched water, flour, cornmeal, salt, sugar, potatoes, anything they could find, leaving behind only broken freezers and overturned shelves.

Just like Venezuela, our society is rotting too. As we have warned before, the exact same things that are happening down there right now are coming here too. It is just a matter of time.

There are all sorts of signs that the thin veneer of civilization that we all take for granted in the United States is starting to crumble as well.

This article was written by Tyler Durden and originally published at Zero Hedge.