This is Caracas before Night 4 of the blackout: a ghost town where behavior is increasingly similar to those of apocalyptic novels and movies. Ordinary citizens feel completely abandoned by the State and have no clue of what to expect. The US dollar takes over the survival economy, cash only.
On the afternoon of March 7th, the power went off in all states. In many parts of the country, there has not been a minute of electricity since then to the noon of March 10th. Here is what we know of what could happen in a country that used to export electricity and still has the largest oil reserves on Earth.
Venezuela has been under a nationwide power outage for over 15 hours. There's little information coming out of the country right now.
Three Venezuelan scholars abroad, all of them specialists on the mechanics of Latin American authoritarian political systems, offer their different perspectives on the complexities, risks, and possibilities of the dictatorship’s disintegration.
She fears for her life. She deserted the National Guard and now, she’s desperate to keep running. This conversation with her in the Colombian border is a sample of the state of mind within the Venezuelan Armed Forces: disappointment, economic strain, and distrust among the ranks.
The possibility of military intervention in Venezuela was ruled out this week. But if it resurfaces later, it would need support in the international legal order: the lack of a clear legal basis for a military action can affect the legitimacy of its ends.
Even after the PR fiasco of Univision’s Jorge Ramos detention, the official pressure against the remains of free press continues both in Caracas and the countryside. Blocking Internet, closing radio stations and harassing correspondents is the new normal.
At Plaza Venezuela, the most crowded station in the Caracas Metro, three Metro lines and the people who come from an interurban train converge where all basic services are failing and a suffering mass tries to survive an everyday commute that looks like a nightmare.
Venezuela’s collapse has forced the fragmentation of thousands of families, some of which are monoparental. When adults migrate without their kids, a whole array of abandon, mistreatment and tragedy appears.
On July 2017, 20 people were detained by National Police in Maracaibo during a demonstration. All of them were raped and tortured. Just one dared to tell what happened, and now some of the policemen involved are in jail.
We’ve been able to hang on for 22 years in one of the craziest media landscapes in the world. We’ve seen different media outlets in Venezuela (and abroad) closing shop, something we’re looking to avoid at all costs. Your collaboration goes a long way in helping us weather the storm.
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