Chronicle of the trip to Venezuela suffocated, broken and impatient – 26/01/2019



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Caracas. Correspondent.

If you stop on a central avenue of Caracas, you will see the opaque transparency of a torn country. It works by inertia. Everything seems anachronistic, like a slow film of the 70s. The negligence of the state has left its mark. Even Nicolás Maduro himself contributes to this archaic scenario by repeating on television television clichés in the manner of the seventies on "imperialism", trying to thrill the mbades, their bases, more concerned about everyday food than by the promised revolution.

Venezuela is better suited to Peru than the acidic sarcasm that Mario Vargas Llosa used for his country in Conversación en la Catedral. When was Venezuela messed up? It was with the despotism of so many conservative governments; with Hugo Chávez, the leader who promised a different world; or it was with Maduro and his incompetence and his corruption. Hard to say, but the truth is that it's screwed up.

A protester from a poor neighborhood shows a gas bomb that was launched by the regime's police. (Photo: EFE)

A protester from a poor neighborhood shows a gas bomb that was launched by the regime's police. (Photo: EFE)

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Monday to Friday afternoon.

There is a state of "end of cycle", a mixture of reluctance, resentment and spirit of defeat that clearly observes this envoy. The people only survive. "There is nothing to do, there is little work, the tourists do not come anymore, there are people who travel, I do not know if they are businessmen. , officials, but no one leaves anything, they all say that they do not have it, "said with a half smile two women in the empty airport, while cleaning the arrivals area. In the end, boring sellers of free shops host a thousand times the merchandise or play with the cell phone.

In town, it is not different.

Shops, bars and restaurants lost their customers some time ago. The car fleet is aging laconically before the impossibility of having local spare parts. "Who can pay $ 200 per tire if the minimum wage is $ 6", says José Antonio, driving a taxi imported from China. "Changing a battery is impossible, everything comes from the outside," he says.

The Venezuelan economy has been dollarized by hyperinflation and despite rigid exchange controls. This duality disturbs all visitors. There are almost no bolivars in the street. The state does not print after the sharp devaluation of last year and the currency reform that eliminated five zeros from the local currency.

Venezuelans use the debit card for any purchase. But for foreigners, it is more complicated because very few shops and hotels accept cards from other countries, which requires paying in dollars.

A market in January in Caracas with empty shelves due to the huge scarcity in the country. (Photo: EFE)

A market in January in Caracas with empty shelves due to the huge scarcity in the country. (Photo: EFE)

The problem is how much the value of the dollar takes. The official price is 1,100 bolivars, but at the same time, the foreign currency is paid 2,500 and up to 2,800. As a result, everyone despairs for dollars. This is the only way to overcome hyperinflation, which requires constantly changing product values. "I can give you the price of the dishes today, tomorrow is another," says Diosamel in an Altamira restaurant, trying to fight as much as the crisis allows. "We have a daily inflation of 5 or 6%", he argues.

In this daily collapse, a lukewarm hope for a political alternative that does not end, and no one knows or suspects how that can end. After a year of lethargy, following the bloody crackdown on paramilitary groups and members of the security forces, relaunch of social rebellion with the emergence of a new leader of the oppositionJuan Guaidó, who badumed the interim presidency with the firm intention to call for free and transparent elections.

Many think that it is the exit to which they expected, the revelation of a different option of so much nonsense. They argue that Maduro is stuck by pressure from the international community. Even the leftist sectors, which until recently supported the man who had left Hugo Chávez in power, now accept "interference" from the United States. "I do not like it, but it's the only way out," says Dyosmar while swallowing.

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Even the most popular neighborhoods, those who grew up, hang from the hills of Caracas and were the big beneficiaries of the social plans, today, they rebel against Maduro's power. "If you've seen the steps of a few years ago, there were only whites, middle or upper clbades, today, it's a multiclbadification," explains Dyosmar, who tries to reinforce his thesis that Maduro was no longer supported by the people.

The man points out to me the modest houses that surround Caracas, where were old buildings built by the state, while he was a benefactor, and he says that people no longer want insignificant food boxes that they give once or twice a month. . "It does not help them, they do not bring anything, people want work," he says.

Look also

Venezuela is experiencing persistent lethargy. He moves slowly, as if he was numb. A state that breaks for bloody moments in the streets, with silent battles in fragile slum neighborhoods. Spasms of rebellion. The resentment that shows the teeth. What is different now is that this rebellion does not come only from affluent neighborhoods. Down the hills, with the resentment left by unfulfilled promises. Venezuela is screwed, but he does not give up.

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