A Venezuelan man killed a teenager and successfully sold his body parts as salted capybara meat, local media has reported.
Abel Davis Hernández, 27, killed 17-year old Liu Eduard Cabrera Rodríguez back in March 2016 and has since been dubbed the “Güires Monster.”
The murder reportedly took place after Rodriguez refused to give Hernández two iguanas, at which point Hernández killed him and dismembered his body, and proceeded to sell the salted body parts at a local market in the Los Güires town of Delta Amacuro state, claiming it was “chigüire,” or capybara, meat. Capybaras are the largest members of the rodent species family, long considered edible meat in Venezuela.
Hernández had avoided authorities for over a year by using his brother’s identity card but was successfully captured by the country’s security forces last Thursday.
“This capture was executed by Deputy Edgar Colina, commander of the Zodi-61. Thanks to his intelligence work, we were able to capture this killer who was being requested for the crime of homicide motivated by futile and ignoble motives,” said Lt. Col. Mario Chacón Arroyo in a statement.
The incident is just one of many shocking incidents to take place in Venezuela, as the socialist country faces the worse humanitarian crisis in its history.
Last October, parents of multiple late prisoners in the western state of Táchira, Venezuela, also claimed the government did nothing to stop a notorious cannibal, known as the “People Eater,” from killing and eating their children—and forcing other prisoners to eat human flesh or face the same fate.
A starving population has also led to other extraordinary incidents of people searching for food, which include people eating stray dogs and stealing zoo animals in order to feed themselves.
Last month, dictator Nicolás Maduro also announced his intention to introduce rabbit farming across many of the country’s major cities to solve the crisis as one of a number of “creative solutions within our socialist, productive vision.”
Venezuelans have come to refer to the growing threat of famine in the country as the “Maduro diet,” although members of his government have denied that their population is starving.
Data recorded last year found that a majority of Venezuelans go to bed hungry, while 15 percent of people scavenging for food in the garbage just to survive. An annual survey on Venezuelan living conditions revealed in May that nearly 75 percent of respondents lost an average of 19 pounds unintentionally in the past year, and 82 percent of households live in poverty.
However, these figures are likely to have rapidly worsened as the country’s economic predicament continues to worsen. According to latest exchange rates, Venezuela’s monthly minimum wage of 97500 bolivars is now down to $2.37, equivalent to just over one cent an hour.
Follow Ben Kew on Facebook, Twitter at @ben_kew, or email him at bkew@breitbart.com