'Kennels': Venezuela's dangerous answer to transport chaos

Packed inside a barred pick-up truck that looks like a mobile cage, passengers are risking their lives in Venezuela's perilous solution to a public transport crisis.

Far from banning the "kennels", as they are known, due to a spate of fatal accidents, governors and mayors are even launching their own fleets, free of charge.

In the Libertador municipality hometown of President Nicolas Maduro, himself a former bus driver, the words "Loving Caracas" can be read on the transport trucks. But that belies the reality of a situation in which 55 people have died since April using improvised transport methods such as the "kennels".

In May, 16 people died in Merida in one accident. Danger aside, the trucks are uncomfortable to ride in.

"They're as ugly as can be. It's like riding in a livestock cage, you get bumped here, bumped there," Jose Miguel, a 20-year-old bricklayer from the Caracas suburb of Los Valles del Tuy, told AFP.

"It's a joke!" he added. "Damn it, if you're going to provide a bus service, how can you use a kennel!"