Caracas Chronicles

The Local Dispatch features selected stories from local journalists and media organizations who are reporting news from deep inside Venezuela and have no visibility abroad, even when they paint the most accurate picture of what’s actually happening in the country. The Dispatch is published weekly.

How oil and wastewater pollute life in Zulia

Marisabel Díaz, a reporter for La Verdad, has documented the life of Zulia’s fishermen who cast their nets into Lake Maracaibo, only to find them coated in spilled oil, scum, and dead fish. Her lates story shows a fisherman stained with oil from head to toe, clutching a few dollars to buy gasoline to wash his skin, nets, and hooks.

“Some fishermen are risking their lives to make a living, but this contamination and oil spill have destroyed all their equipment,” community leader Yelitza Mora from Maracaibo’s Bolívar parish told Díaz. This report, accompanied by photos of oil-stained boats and polluted waters around Maracaibo and San Francisco, reveals the stark reality: cleaning tools with fuel and soap costs up to $22 per wash.

Meanwhile, urban areas of Maracaibo face their own pollution issues. Crónica Uno reports how sewage floods and sinkholes have emerged in at least three city sectors due to a failed sewage system, making these areas impassable. In the Raúl Leoni neighborhood, over a thousand families, seven businesses, and two schools have endured the stench for 10 months.

Why it matters: The contamination is ruining the lake’s fish, which are turning up “dead, rotten,” according to fishermen who earn just $10 per week. Additionally, constant exposure to sewage causes diarrhea, gastroenteritis, and skin infections among locals, further reducing commercial activity in affected areas.

More information: President Maduro promised to clean Lake Maracaibo last year alongside Governor Manuel Rosales and (currently jailed) mayor Rafael Ramírez Colina, yet conditions continue to deteriorate, impacting local economies and the well-being of the most vulnerable.

Post-election detainees suffer depression and panic attacks

The Venezuelan Prisons Observatory (OVP) reports that conditions in Tocuyito prison are causing anxiety, panic attacks, stress, fainting spells, and other mental health issues among detainees. Relatives told OVP that they were denied family visits because the detainees were reportedly in the infirmary; officials only said they were being given Diazepam, a controlled substance requiring careful oversight and one that can lead to dependency.

Why it matters: The situation with political detainees has spiraled out of control, and Tocuyito prison’s use of tranquilizers hints at an inability to manage its population of 2,000 prisoners, including 60 minors, according to Foro Penal. In another prison under the National Police in Anzoátegui, a 17-year-old detainee has attempted suicide twice, according to her family and the NGO Una Ventana para la Libertad.

More information: The Venezuelan Confederation of the Deaf (Consorven) notes that detainees from the July 28 arrests include an autistic teenager and nine other individuals with disabilities.

In Anzoátegui’s plains, a community has gone six months without water

Santa Bárbara, a sector in Santa Rosa parish within Freites municipality, Anzoátegui, has been without piped water since May. El Tiempo reports that since the submersible pump burned out, no authority has stepped in to resolve the problem.

Why it matters: Santa Bárbara is yet another case of government inaction in response to the public services crisis in the Eastern Region, as reported weekly by the local press. Neither the PSUV mayor nor Hidrocaribe (the regional water provider for Anzoátegui, Sucre, and Nueva Esparta) has responded to residents’ pleas.

Recommended reads:

• Radio Fe y Alegría: The director of Aula Abierta asserts that the budget suffocation and deterioration of Venezuelan universities are deliberate policies under the Chávez regime.
• Portuguesa Reporta: Faced with funding problems and a shortage of cattle, ranchers are having to cull cows at “alarming” rates (even pregnant ones). This  can negatively impact breeding in the short term.
• Radio Fe y Alegría: Over 3 thousand shareholders of Sidor, including retirees and pensioners, have been unable to collect dividends in a decade. Nearly 900 shareholders have died waiting for their payments.
• Noticias Todos Ahora: NGO Gritemos con Brío has launched a campaign to preserve the historical memory of mass protests in Venezuela since 2014.