Protests over the 20% hike in gasoline prices – known as the gasolinazo – have raised chaos in several parts of Mexico, as citizens go out to the streets and block highways, petrol stations and installations of Pemex (the state run oil company). More than 250 stores have been looted, amid allegations that paid agitators infiltrated the protests, reports British newspaper The Guardian.

Although the gasolinazo provided the spark for the protests,analysts say social unrest has been quietly building for months. Among the reasons of discontent are the drop of the Mexican peso in the currency market since the election of Donald Trump as U.S president. In the weeks before he takes office, Trump has threatened to tax U.S companies that outsource production in Mexico and other protectionist measures.

Mexico’s economy is not buoyant:  minimum wage is just $4 a day and people are so sensitive to price increases that hikes in the cost of public transportation are one of the principal reasons high school students abandon school, according to the public education secretariat. Mexican population is also tired of bearing with political corruption and a decade long drug war that left around 200,000 death, reports The Guardian.