Help Venezuela using Social media

#SOSVenezuela#PrayforVenezuela#tuitazoVzla

@MafaldaVnzl@maracaibomike

And you? What would you do if you were Venezuelan?

1. Why are Venezuelans protesting?

2. Is the Bolivarian Revolution improving the life of the poor?

3. Open questions

1. Why are Venezuelans protesting? 1

Do other countries have the same problems? Same levels of severity?

Would you consider these normal?

Venezuela: Main issuesThe level of scarcity is such that it strongly affects daily life

Scarcity

Insecurity

High quality of life

Unemployment

Economic Crisis

Political Violence

Abuse of authority/power

Corruption

Barricates

Protests

National Government

Failed Health Care System

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70

Figures in %

How long would you be willing to stand in line in order to buy a gallon of milk?

Would you protest if you had to fight against a crowd of people in order to buy basic goods such as toilet paper, milk, chicken and corn flower? … Products that have simply become a rare luxury?

How would you feel if the groceries stores were filled with empty shelves'?

Would you protest?

Do you or a loved one depend on medication to survive?

Would you protest if you thought that you or your loved one might be in danger of dying without this medication?

It’s not only diabetics but also the ill and injured who lose their lives daily due to the lack of medicine and other resources in Venezuela.

“Every 72 minutes a diabetic patient dies in Venezuela.Today, Juan A. Calzadilla, was one of them”.

(Figures from the Venezuelan Society of Endocrinology).

Patients protest by the main entrance of a hospital in Valencia:

“We need help. There are no reagents, all hospital equipment is damaged. There is no water on the fifth floor. No working restrooms”.

Do you think this is normal? Would you protest if it were happening in your country?

“It is not normal to have medicine shortages but to have plenty of rifles, teargas and weapons”.

Could you imagine his desperation? Would you protest?

“I am a type 1 diabetic and need an insulin shot at least 3 times a day. I have not been able to buy any insulin for 3 weeks now”.

Would you accept this? Patients are cared for on a hospital’s bare floor because there are no beds.

Would you protest?

(City Hospital Dr. Enrique Tejera).

Would you accept this? Newborns are placed in cardboard boxes at birth because there are no beds for them.

Would you protest?

(IVSS in Maracay)

Would you accept a failed health care system? Patient is being treated at the University Hospital of Los Andes.

Would you protest?

Venezuelan doctors also protest. They are unable to do their jobs when they lack the medications and other means to mend and heal their patients.

“Doctors must condemn shortages in hospitals”

But there are other reasons that made us take to the streets in protest.

Petare is a slum near Venezuela’s capital, Caracas. Pro-government supporters (Chavistas) consider this place their social base; a place that belongs to those for whom they created their socialist revolution.

This is what the signs read:

“Petare. We could all get murdered here. This fight is for all of us. Support us!”

“I protest against insecurity. Maduro needs to go”

Bassil da Costa, murdered on February 12 2014 by a Government Colectivo. Crime unpunished

Chavistas claim that the protests only take place among the middle and upper level class.

However, YouTube videos show demonstrators from low class neighborhoods explaining why there are no protests in their area:

“Los colectivos” (Government paramilitary forces) have terrorized our community. We are forced to go to places such as Altamira or Chacao (middle to high class areas) to protest where there is ample space to demonstrate”.

25,000 were killed in 2013Independent organizations estimate that there were nearly 25,000 people killed in 2013; a figure 5 times larger than the one reported in 1999 when the Chavista regime took over the country.

Now let’s put these figures into context:

The total population in Venezuela was last estimated at 30 million people. Great Britain’s population is also of 58 million approx. In 2013, Great Britain’s police reported 532 murders

In Germany, with a population of 80 million habitants, there were only 281 reported murders. In Spain, there were 364 reported murders. (population: 47 million)

Roberto Redman. Assisted Bassil on Feb. 12 after getting shot. He was murdered a few hours later. Crime unpunished

The murders into context

Country Murders (year)Population

Venezuela 24.673 (2013) 30 million

Venezuela 5.000 (1998)

Great Britain 532 (2012) 58 million

Germany 281 (2012) 80 million

Spain 364 (2012) 47 million

The murder rate in Venezuela is now 5 times higher than it was in 1999 when the Chavista regime took over the country.

@MafaldaVnzl

#tuitazoVzla

Geraldine Moreno, murdered by the Bolivarian National Guard on February 21. Crime unpunished

The causes of the violence in Venezuela are different from other countries in Latin America.

They are not caused by drug trafficking or the organized crime but common crime

Roberto Annese, murdered on March 28 by the governmental repression against protestors. Crime unpunished

According to data provided by The Venezuelan Observatory of Violence in 2013 24,673 Venezuelans died.

Adriana Urquila, pregnant journalist, murdered walking on the streets of Caracas. Murderer, Yonny Bolívar, is a criminal associated with the regime. Crime unpunished.

Impunity is also at a high level: 92%“In Venezuela, you could get shot 20 times for your cellphone, your car… anything”.

Situations like the one described above occur in places where there is no law. It is rare to see someone try to steal someone's cellphone or car in countries where crime is actually punished. Most criminals are aware of the possible punishments and that these would involve prison time.

Daniel Tinoco, murdered on March 11 by government officials who utilized a fake ambulance to ambush protesters. Crime unpunished.

2. Social Housing: Has the Bolivarian Revolution benefited the poorest in Venezuela? 2

Affordable Social Housing in Venezuela

When Hugo Chávez and his Bolivarian Revolution came into power in 1999 he vowed to prioritize the provision of affordable dwellings and shelter for the poor; but in reality, partly because the stormy financial climate that the revolution brought, combined with rampant corruption, bad management and scarcity of building materials and technology, not enough new homes have been built in its fifteen year regime. With an ever increasing housing shortage the government, in desperation, has resorted to promote illegal home invasions and expropriations, in most cases without paying out any compensation.

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This tower in down town Caracas is nicknamed "Torre de David" after David Brillembourg, the tower's main investor who died in 1993. During the banking crisis of 1994, the government took control of the building and it has not been worked on since. The building lacks elevators, installed electricity, running water, balcony railing, windows and even walls in many places.

Venezuela's massive housing shortage led to occupation of the building by squatters in October 2007. Residents have improvised basic utility services, with water reaching all the way up to the 22nd floor. They can use motorcycles to travel up and down the first 10 floors, but must use the stairs for the remaining levels.The residents live up to the 28th floor, with many bodegas and even an unlicensed dentist also operating in the building. Some residents even have cars, parked inside of the building's parking garage. Seven hundred families comprising over 2,500 residents live in the tower today.

In May 2014 the tower was featured in the BBC World News documentary, Our World.

Centro Financiero Confinanzas

Venezuela's world famous illegally ocupied building.

A very substantial amount of government resources are spent on propaganda at election time; leading the poor to believe that their need for proper homes will be fully fulfilled. Sometimes many of the ones with the least resources are threatened and told that they may lose their right to a home if they do not vote for them. In Venezuela many don't consider their vote to be secret.

Many of the of dwellings that the government does manage to build every year are plagued with structural problems, some lacking essential services like electricity and running water, poor quality foul and surface water sewers and access roads.

The Rancho, Venezuela's Chanty town Dwelling.

The vast majority of the poor in Venezuela live in overpopulated "barrios" or shanty towns. Shanty towns are settlements built with whatever they can lay their hands on; concrete and clay hollow blocks, corrugated metal, sheets of plastic, vehicle parts, canvas, fabrics and cardboard. These dwellings are called ranchos and are usually found on the periphery of cities, public parks, near main roads and motorways or city trash dumpsites. Shanty towns dwellings do not comply with any building regulations or planning, which makes them prone to collapse. Shanty towns are extremely dangerous places to live in; overcrowded, they lack proper basic services, and are riddled with disease and sky high crime rates.

Again, much has been said about how the Bolivarian Revolution strives to improve services and the quality of life of those who live in shanty towns, but this couldn't be further from the truth; protests in shanty towns are on the increase; they feel that the government has prioritised aid to other nations and neglected their own people, who gave them most of their votes. In order to try and silence the discontent, the government resorts to violence by sending in its armed militia, creating fear among protesters.

Apart from way below standard of services like running water, electricity and sewers, one of the mayor problems affecting the barrios is the terrifying crime rate. Most of the murders that occur in Venezuela take place there. Only in 2013 there were 25,000 recorded murders in Venezuela, a country with only 30m. people. The figure is overwhelming when compared with figures in the developed countries: in the UK, as an example, in 2012 just 532 murders were recorded. The UK population is 58m. The ever increasing crime rate figures only shows that the safety of Venezuelans is not a government priority. The crime rate will certainly be much higher this year.

The Housing Deficit in Venezuela

Only in 2012, and after thirteen years of Bolivarian Revolution 2.15m people were still living in shanty towns, with another 5.3m living in overcrowded inadequate dwellings.

With a deficit of 7.5m. homes, and the figure growing fast every year, it's highly unlikely that the Bolivarian Revolution under Nicolas Maduro will be able to fulfil the electoral promise made by Hugo Chavez in 2012 to provide proper housing for all Venezuelans by 2019.

Look up in youtube “Revolución bolimalandra.”

Listen to this man. He obviously does not belong to the upper class. He describes life in the low class “barrios” and critizises the bolivarian revolution calling it “remaldición bolimalandra.”

He calls the bolivarian revolution “remaldición bolimalandra” (criminal revolution)

Because it is easier :

To get marijuana than flour

To get a gun than a gas cylinder

To get cocain than many medicines

To get teargas than oxygen for asthmatics .

His conclusion: this revolution is the worst that has happened to Venezuela, it has casted us down. Venezuela has fallen to the ground.

(Google: scribd the bolimandra revolution

To read the full text in english.)

Many other videos form people who belog to the lower clases

Famous is the video of Yeiker Guerra, el chico de Petare (the guy from Petare) but there are many many more.

Interesting too are the videos of @Juliococo (in youtube : Juliococo - Julio Jiménez Gedler) a man who belongs politically to the left wing but opposes and denounces firmly the Maduro Regime. He considers himself a disident in the name of left wing principles and he is an activist who travels throughout Venezuela arganizing assemblies in the barrios to discuss politics with common people. Unfortunately we don´t have those videos with english subtitles.

Julio Jiménez Gedler

@juliococo

Open questions

¿Are there free media in Venezuela?

¿How deep is corruption?

¿Is the Government refraining or encouraging human rights violations?

¿Are there democratic elections in Venezuela?

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Translation: @Zanerebel@Llaneroloco@MafaldaVnzl

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