Reporter’s Diary from Venezuela
This
is the personal view of the correspondent on today’s life of
Caracas.
Translated
by Scott
Day
one…
Our
Air France flight was grounded in Paris for 5 hours; no one wants to
land in Venezuela in the middle of the night, due to the “dangerous
criminal situation.” The airliner is half empty, the passengers,
judging by nervous conversations, are only Venezuelans. A taxi
driver, while leaving the airport, locks the doors, and sweetly warns
that after dark, bandits scatter spikes on the roads and rob the
stranded cars. “Oh, don’t worry, Amigo, I have an old car.
They are not interested in old, cars.” That’s where you
understand why Caracas is ranked first in the ranking of the most
dangerous cities in the world. It’s too late for supper, but I at
least want to exchange my US dollars for Venezuelan bolivars. I
ask my cab driver. He violently shakes his head: “No, no, no. I do
not mess with such things, it’s illegal!” “Whatever,” I laugh
at him. “Tomorrow, someone will take the dollars, maybe even with
my hands torn off.” I was wrong…
The
following morning, no one at the hotel wants to look at my dollars.
The hotel employee tells me to go to one of the official “exchange
stores” but honestly adds: “only Americans, or complete jerks go
there.”
In
Venezuela, the official dollar exchange rate is 200 bolivars, and the
“black market” exchange rate is 2,715. And if you exchange your
currency in a bank, then according to this calculation, a bottle of
ordinary water will cost 330 rubles, and a modest lunch in an
inexpensive cafe—7,000 rubles per person. Judging by the stories on
the Internet, in Venezuelan people should simply kill each other for
dollars, but this is not the case. There is also other things
different from perception. On western news, it is shown that
demonstrators fight with police daily, tens killed, hundreds wounded,
the sea of blood. But in Caracas, all is quiet. In an afternoon,
people are sitting in cafes and idly sipping rum with ice, while
maintenance crews sweep the streets. It turns out that the world ‘s
leading TV new sources (including CNN and the BBC) show some fantasy
film about Venezuela. “Demonstrations?” yawns Alejandro, a street
vendor selling corn. “Well, Saturday there will be one, sort of. On
one end of the city will be a rally of opposition supporters, and on
the other, Maduro supporters. The police keep them separate to
prevent fights.” Amazing. You browse the Internet, you turn on the
TV, and you see the revolution, the people dying on streets to
overthrow the “evil dictator Maduro.” And you come here, and
nobody cares.
Then
it got even better. Never in my life have I had so many adventures
while trying to exchange one currency for another. The country has a
problem with cash money, long queues waiting for the ATM, and even
the street dealers of “currency” have no “efectivo,” as they
call cash. I wander inside a jewelry store and ask if they want some
“green.” The answer is “No.” Everyone acts like law-abiding
citizens. I am told that police recently started arresting people for
private exchange, that’s why people don’t want to associate. One
owner of the jewelry store almost agrees. “What do you have?
Dollars? No, I won’t take that.” “Why now?” “I take only
the Euros …dollar, man, is the currency of the aggressor, they try
to tell us how to live!”
Damn
it! I have money in my pocket, and I can’t even buy lunch! Finally,
a certain woman, nursing a baby in a workplace, very reluctantly
agrees to exchange 2,200 bolivars for a “buck.” I want to curse
her out, but I have to live somehow. Bolivars seem like a beautiful,
unattainable currency, which hides all the benefits of the world,
that’s why they are so hard to get. I’m nodding in agreement. The
woman calls somewhere, and asks to wait. After 15 minutes she tells
me that “there is a problem.” Of course, money is not to be
found. Her man couldn’t withdraw them from the ATM, everywhere the
ATMs are on a strict daily rate. “President Maduro is fighting for
the strengthening of the national currency,” explained the nursing
mother. “We all use our cards to pay for everything.” I don’t
know how it works, but yesterday an exchange rate was 3,200 bolívars
for 1 dollar, and today the “bucks” fell to 2,700. I have started
to realize that in the very next few days I’ll starve to death with
dollars in my pocket. A unique fate, perhaps, that has never happen
in history.
In
the next kiosk cash for gold place I am offered a plastic debit card
loaded with local money, and then I would try my luck withdrawing
bills from neighboring ATMs. “Or, maybe not, if you’re not
lucky.” Well, of course. By the way, an attempt to buy a SIM card
for the phone also fails. They don’t sell them to foreigners, you
need a Venezuelan ID card. Yes, and I have nothing to pay for it. The
feeling is that the dollar is a gift that no one wants. Sadly, I walk
by stores. People come out of there with packages of eggs, bread,
packs of butter. The range is not like in Moscow, of course, but
again, if you believe the news on TV, Venezuela is suffering from a
terrible famine, supermarkets are empty, and people are fighting each
other for food. Nothing like that. There are queues, but not
kilometers long. In general, television stations in the United States
and Europe (and ours too) created their own Venezuela, drawn like a
terrible cartoon. I walk into a cafe at random. “Will you accept
dollars for lunch?” I ask hopelessly. “Yes, at the rate of “black
market” they whispered to me. “But the change will also be in
dollars…sorry, no bolivars at all…we’ve been hunting for them
ourselves for weeks.”
My
first day in Venezuela is over. How unusual. I’ve been here for 24
hours, and I’ve not held a Bolivian bill in my hand. Oh, but there
will be more…
Day
two…
60
liters of gasoline here cost five cents, and a basket of basic food
products — 50 rubles (about 90 cents).
“The
gas station,” my driver reaches into his purse and takes out a
banknote of 2 Bolivar. The exchange rate of the Venezuelan currency
changes every day, and today it is 2 580 bolivars per one dollar. In
Russian money, that is 10 cents. “We must now fill a full tank,”
says the taxi driver. 60 liters of gasoline cost 1 bolívar, but we
give the 2 bolivars bill, because there is no 1 bolivar bill. I
can’t believe that is a full tank of fuel costs FIVE CENTS? “And
how much can you even fill at this price?” “Once a day for every
citizen. And it’s enough for me.” All the way to the center city,
the driver scolds President Maduro, and tells me how much he loves
America, and how it will be good when the “guy with mustache” is
finally overthrow by the Americans. I start to think that I don’t
feel sorry for Maduro at all. He really corrupted en entire country
with such generous handouts. And they are willingly take, but no one
says “thank you,” just that they want more and more.
On
the street there is a long line into a “social supermarket,” a
place you can buy 400 types of goods at the solid low prices. These
shops were established by the late President Hugo Chavez “to fight
inflation and protect the poor.” The stores are funded by the
Venezuelan government. The buyer comes with a passport, gets a
number, and waits in line until they are allowed to enter and buy a
certain set of products. The selection isn’t very impressive, only
the essentials: chicken, bananas, pineapples, sausages, milk. A box
of these food items costs of equivalent of 50 rubles. CNN and the BBC
show videos of Venezuelans wrapped in rolls of toilet paper and sadly
wandering across the border with Colombia. The toilet paper is found
in absolutely every store, and without any problems. I am once again
simply amazed: Western TV news is something from Hollywood, they are
not reporting but making fantasy blockbusters. On the BBC website I
read that hungry Venezuelan children after school go to take a look
at the street vendors cooking meat. I’ve been all over the town.
Restaurants, cafes, eateries, during the lunch hour are crowded, and
people look well-dressed. The mass hunger, the Western media paints
for us, doesn’t exist in reality.
I
take a few pictures inside the supermarket, and I am immediately
approached by the workers or “Maduro followers.” “It’s
forbidden to take pictures here.” “Is this a military facility?”
“Leave or we’ll call the police.” “Listen, everywhere on TV
they tell us that there is hunger in Venezuela. I want to prove that
the reality is different.” “We are not interested, we just work
here: leave immediately!” I started to understand perfectly well
why Nicolas Maduro lost the information war. Hugo Chavez was often
praised even in private conversations, but even Chavez supporters
find little positive to say about Maduro. When people protested
against Hugo’s endless nominations as the head of state, he used to
meet them with the open arms, smiling and saying : “Guys, what’s
the problem? I’m your President, I love you, let’s sit down and
talk!” Maduro doesn’t have this image of being one of the guys.
He is not able to communicate with the public, and his assistants,
like the employees of the social store, can only push and ban and
threaten with the police.
On
the streets, provincial farmers sell fruits and vegetables: mango,
tomatoes, cucumbers. All about the same price of 25 rubles per
kilogram. Here, a dozen eggs from street vendors is 4,800 bolivars or
about 130 rubles, and that is not cheap. During the peak of oil
prices, when a barrel of oil was sold for $150, Venezuela lived on
the principle of a rich fool. To develop domestic production? No,
what is that nonsense? We can buy every triviality abroad. Even the
managers of the oil production weren’t local, they hired
specialists from Europe, and paid them a lot of money. Food imports
into the country reached 95 percent. And now the situation is not too
different. When I order my meal in a cafe (incidentally, still paying
in dollars, all attempts to change dollars to bolivars failed), I get
excellent pork. “Where is it from?” “From Colombia.” “And
chicken?” “From Brazil, that’s why it’s so expensive.” Even
flour for bread comes from neighboring Guyana. Chavez and his
successor Maduro wanted to be “people’s presidents,” handing
out money left and right. But then oil prices collapsed, food
shortages began, and people rebelled. People demand as before: cheap
food in supermarkets, gasoline for nothing, and they don’t want to
hear anything more or less.
In
the TV world, Maduro is portrayed as a dictator and executioner,
although in Venezuela, he is openly scolded for being meek; they draw
cartoon of him, and insult him as much as they can. But who cares
about the truth? Much more colorful to show the suffering for the
toilet paper.
Day
three…
“I
got robbed by a COP for my phone. I’m talking on the cell phone
outside, he walks over to me, pokes in my side with his gun. “Give
me your mobile.”I don’t understand immediately, and automatically
continue the conversation. He cocks his gun, and says, “Kill.” I
give him my phone. It’s still good, I love being robbed by cops.
They are not bandits from the “Barrios,” the poor neighborhoods
in the mountains, who can shoot you first and then rummage your
corpse’s pockets. I’m lucky, I’ve lived in Venezuela for 27
years and this was the first time I was “hop-stopped.” A lot of
people get robbed every year.
I
am talking to Mikhail, a citizen of Russia living in Venezuela since
the beginning of the nineties. He helps me move around Caracas and
instructs me on how to visit the local slums. “You don’t have
protection? Oh, who would doubt that. Then leave your watch, phone,
and camera at the hotel. Take some money for a taxi, you also have to
have some cash in case you get ambushed, otherwise they might get
offended and kill you. Sometimes, people get shot in an arm and a
leg, that survivable.” After such a nice story, I still go to the
“Barrios.” It is there that the supporters of President Nicolas
Maduro mainly live. According to CNN and BBC, impoverished people in
Venezuela are revolting against the government. Nothing can be
further from the truth; it’s a wealthy middle class that goes to
demonstrate. Maduro is applauded in poor neighborhoods, because the
President gives their residents free food sets enough for a month and
gives free (!) apartments. Formally, they belong to the state, but
people live in them for generations.
“I
will cut a throat for the President,” a heavily-tattooed man smiles
menacingly, and introduces himself as Emilio. “Who else would give
me food and a ‘roof ‘ for free? He is our father and benefactor.”
Maduro deliberately does not touch such people, which is why crime in
Caracas gushes over the edge. I am advised not to stop on the street
to look at anything, but just to keep going, otherwise bandits will
have time to look closely at me. That’s why they have constant
robberies on the streets, plus the police and the national guard can
easily take away your favorite things. No one can be happy about all
these. “I love Russians,” told me the businessman Carlos while
conversing over coffee near the Plaza de Bolivar. “But you’d
better send Maduro economic advisers. Teach him a lesson! He doesn’t
know anything about economy. He has one recipe for everything, to
give more money to the poor, more free apartments, free food, free
gasoline, to build a full communism here. But with this, sorry, any
state would collapse.”
The
opposition rally in the Western part of Caracas is huge, at least 100
thousand people gathered. The protesters are friendly to me, Russia
here is respected. It is not considered an enemy. Zero aggression at
all… and then I wonder about what I see on CNN, videos of the
opposition being rolled into a pancake by tanks. The police keep the
neutrality, it disappears from the streets, to not give a cause to
provocateurs. People are happily waving flying in the sky military
helicopter. Many-in t-shirts with the American flag, a man passes by,
holding a hand-written poster with the altered slogan of Donald Trump
-“Make Venezuela great again.” “Do you love the U.S.?” “Yes,
adore it!” “I remember you already had a pro-American President
in 1993, Carlos Andrés Pérez. He sharply raised the price of
gasoline, 80% of the goods were imported, he drove the republic into
billions of IMF debts. People went to demonstrations, and Pérez
drowned them in blood, killing 2,000 people…then he fled to
America.”
The
man freezes, with his mouth open. Finally, he gets the gift of speech
back. “I hope this time the pro-American President will be
different.” “Are you sure?” “Sorry, I have nothing to say.”
Asking the girl from the opposition how she feels about the US: “The
US is our neighbor, let them change the power here.” “In
countries where the US changed power like Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan,
hundreds of thousands people were killed. Are you ready for this?”
Again,
she pauses and sighs. “No, no, no. We are not Africa or Asia. All
will go peacefully. Venezuelans will not kill each other.” Where
the opinions splits is the question of whether the free gasoline and
free food packages will remain with an American-instilled government.
Many are sincerely sure that the “freebies” will remain under a
new president. How else? The minority that recognizes that state
gifts will be canceled say that they at least “we will be free.”
As I said, the protesters are mostly well-dressed, well-off people.
By the way, the leader of the opposition, Juan Guido, also has no
real economic program promising to “quadruple the oil production.”
No one thinks that after that price will fall four times. In short, I
get a feeling that neither the President, nor the opposition, know
anything about the economy in Venezuela.
The
demonstrations in support of Maduro take place at the other end of
the city, to prevent the opponents from fighting. “You Americans
are insolent!” screamed an old woman in a red t-shirt rushing
towards me. “Bastards! You should be handed on a first tree! Cheers
to socialism!” “I’m Russian, grandma.” The old lady recoils.
“Sorry, please.” “Don’t get that upset, senora.” Many
people gathered here are joyful, dancing and singing.
A
soldier stands in front of me and doesn’t allow me to take any
pictures. Not just me, but also other passers-by. “You can’t take
pictures here.” “Says who?” “President Maduro.” No, Maduro
is definitely doing everything he can to be disliked. Those gathering
here are poor, blue-collared workers and farmers from the suburbs. I
am interested , honestly, were you brought here on the busses? “Yes,
he did!” says one grandfather, proudly displaying a portrait of Che
Guevara. “But I would walk here for Maduro! It’s a lie that we
were paid to be here.” Other people applaud him happily. I shake
hands. “Russians are welcome! Venezuela loves you, you’re home.”
The
day of rallies is over. The maintenance crews came to the sidewalk,
strewn with plastic bottles, crumpled packs of cigarettes, and other
debris left after by a cloud. At the entrance of an old house, old
people drink coffee. “They say that today some general has defected
to the side of the opposition,” says one of them. “Some
significant person.” “What’s this guy’s name?” “Who
knows?” Venezuela is split in half. And the situation there may
change at any moment.
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