The Caracas city government forced hundreds of street vendors off the main avenues of Caracas in January, resulting in a mass migration of rats to neighboring residential areas. The rodents had fed on the tons of garbage generated daily by the informal vendors, said residents. “Giant rats are entering gardens and even the fourth floor of buildings in our district,” said Carlos Godoy, member of the residents' association of La Campiña. In Catia, to the west, a neighborhood group conducted a study that “found up to 70 rats per inhabitant.”

The rodents “emigrate when the source of food is exhausted, but to associate this increase with the clean-up of the pedestrian thoroughfares would require a study that the authorities haven't yet done, and they should act quickly to prevent the many diseases carried by rats,” Diego Díaz, president of the environmental group Vitalis, told Tierramérica.