Baruta

In the municipality of Baruta, east of Caracas, a small group of voters, all over 60, waited outside a polling place for a soldier to grant them access.

Lilia Martinez, a 45-year-old banker in Caracas' Baruta Municipality, stressed that "poverty had reached infrahuman levels before this crisis, and now there is no immediate or near future light of recovery."

The 48-year-old swimming instructor gets running water in the poor Caracas neighborhood of Baruta three days a week.

At Residencias Karina, an apartment complex in the southeastern municipality of Baruta – the power was still off on Monday evening, and residents had come together to share expertise and survival tactics.

Flames rose from the electrical facility in the Baruta area of Caracas early Monday, contributing to a sense of chaos among Venezuelans already struggling with an economic crisis and a bitter political standoff.