Toiletries for some, and human rights for none
By: Kelsey Christensen
A whopping one in four young people already living in Venezuela are projected to leave the country to find a better quality of life, reported Fox News Latino.
In the 1970s, Venezuela had a thriving economy due to its massive petroleum supply. The people of Venezuela, overall, lived a comfortable lifestyle with plenty of food and necessities to go around.
Fast forward to modern day Venezuela, the old reality no longer exists.
After the economy tanked in 1983 due to a grand mismanagement of money through government banks, several government leaders attempted to fix the economy through spending restrictions without success.
Chávez Era
In 1999, Hugo Chávez, the former president of Venezuela, won over the country with dreams of a reformed economy and political system. Chávez also promised to savor private businesses and other semi-capitalist structures.
However, soon after Chávez won the candidacy, private businesses disappeared, the oil industry — Venezuela’s largest export — replaced professional workers with citizens who were loyal to the turned socialist regime, and the government spent vast amounts of money on the poor when the country was nearly bankrupt to begin with.
Venezuela had nearly run out of money after the spending spree on the poor, and oil production fell over 25 percent by 2013, according to Business Insider.
But, the country needed to support the poverty population in order to keep their loyalty to the government. So, Chávez and his successor, Nicólas Maduro, who took power in 2013, printed vast amounts of money to fund the poor for their support to the reigme. But, this only furthered the dismay of the economic state, which caused inflation and a downward spiral in quality of living.
Crisis Strikes
In 2014, Venezuela entered an economic recession, and a few years later it declared an economic crisis. And, the people of Venezuela have felt the effects more than ever.
The capital, Caracas, rose to the top in violence statistics. World Atlas ranked Caracas at the highest murder rate in the world for 2015.
A former resident of Caracas, now living in America, said he once saw a young boy shot and killed on the sidewalk for his shoes. This was not uncommon to see in Caracas, he said.
“Lines are fun”
In addition to the violence, the people of Venezuela wait in lines for several hours, sometimes days, to buy their ration of toilet paper, flour and other baking supplies, or formula and diapers. The lines span up to four blocks through the city streets, containing well over one hundred people.
The rations are the direct impact of the Venezuelan government reducing imports to a minimum. Yet, Maduro has said the lines create unity and are fun for the people.
A teenage girl in Mérida, Venezuela participated in the lines so she could purchase tampons for herself. But, she was denied the ability to purchase it after the security identified her as a minor.
After several loud pleas from the girl without response, she pulled down her pants at the checkout counter in front of nearly one hundred people just to prove she was menstruating. After, she was allowed to buy the tampons.
Similarly, toilet paper is rationed to families throughout the month. It can rarely be found in public or restaurant restrooms. Soap is also a jackpot.
Many people fall ill with common diseases, in part from the spread of germs from the lack of hygiene supplies. However, there is a lack of medical supplies in the hospitals and emergency rooms, which has lead to dozens of unnecessary deaths in the past year, said emergency room physicians in Mérida.
A high majority of the poor population manipulates the structure of the rations by buying a product in bulk from supermarkets or similar stores, and selling products such as toilet paper, toothpaste and flour for twice or three times the price to the working and upper-class on the black market.
The illegal vendors are able to raise the prices because the working and upper class simply do not have time or patience to wait in the government-structured lines.
The consequences are grave from the illegal trades because those that do not work pocket the inflated prices, therefore, they are able to earn just as much, if not more, money than a working person.
But, arguably, the worst political situation of all in Venezuela is the government taking away the citizen’s right to protest by shooting and gassing them during their organized protests.
Most of the protests have not been violent in nature, yet still receive a violent consequence.
Average Salaries
The average monthly salary for a working citizen is about 9,000 bolivars, which is equivalent to a little over $10, if the money was exchanged from bolivars to dollars on the streets.
An average Venezuelan would need to work four months to pay for a month’s rent for a small apartment in the cities. And, about seven out of 10 young Venezuelans live with their parents.
This harsh reality has not seemed to get better after college graduation. Even though students receive a college education for nearly no tuition, the education is always standardized through public universities and few jobs a wait.
But, for few, the free education works to their benefit, and they are able to find jobs providing a decent salary.
“Thank God I have the means to buy things like toilet paper and groceries, but I don’t know how the rest do it,” said a Venezuelan woman from the upper class.
Future of Venezuela
Over one-fourth of the Venezuelan population from 15 to 29 years old have said they are thinking about leaving the country, according to a research study by the Andres Bello University.
About a third of that population plans to head for the United States, and the rest said they want to move to Spain or Latin American countries such as Argentina or Colombia.
An 18-year-old journalism student, going by the name Cheman, studied in Mérida, and said he plans to leave for Europe or the U.S. after he graduates.
“This isn’t socialism, it is communism,” he said.
Government propaganda is splattered throughout radio and newspapers, said Cheman. The government requires the radio to air one hour of positive government announcements every day.
If a journalist disobeys this law or speaks poorly of the government publicly, it is not uncommon for that person to be imprisoned or disappear, Cheman and other residents of Mérida said.
Government propaganda is also visually seen on nearly every block with Cháve’s eyes smeared with dark paint on bridges and city walls, sometimes even on houses.
Venezuelans have already started to flea the country in search for work and an economic system that won’t depreciate their money as fast as Venezuela.
An English teacher from Mérida, 20, was studying to be a doctor, but decided to quit her studies because health care is not as good as she thinks it should be in Venezuela. She would not be able to practice at her full potential, she said. She moved to Spain last month in hopes for a better quality of life. She said she might return in a few years if the quality of life returns to what it used to be since her family and friends still reside in Venezuela.
This next decade will determine the fate of the Venezuelan economy based on how the government decides to handle the political and economic structure, as well as the people residing in it.