We are more than a Tropical Paradise

By Andrés Abreu Urdaneta

@andresabreu

aabreu@guayoyoenletras.com

 

 

 

Venezuela, “the little Venice”. 916,445 km² of desert, jungle, snow, beach and cities. A country with more than 30 million people, Venezuela is one of the 10 most biodiverse countries on the planet, the home of 1,417 bird species and over 25,000 species of orchids, our national flower. But we are more than that.

 

We are “the country with the most beautiful women”, we have 7 Miss Universe, 6 Miss World, 6 Miss International and 2 Miss Earth Titles. Also we have a Guinness Record, after Dayana Mendoza (Miss Universe 2008) crowned Stefanía Fernández (Miss Universe 2009), both Venezuelans. But we are more than that.

 

Venezuela also has musicians like Simón Díaz, author of the famous song “Caballo Viejo” (in English, Old Horse) that has 300 versions of a lot of famous singers like Celia Cruz, Gipsy Kings, Plácido Domingo, and so many others. We also are famous for our baseball players like Miguel Cabrera and soccer players like Salomón Rondón and Tomás Rincón. But we are more than that.

 

We have scientists like Jacinto Convit, who invented the vaccine against leprosy and Humberto Fernández-Morán, renowned for inventing the diamond knife. But we are more than that.

 

I could be here talking for hours about the great things of Venezuela, because we have a lot of great things and great people too. But we are more than that, right now we have a lot of problems and we are not that tropical paradise that everyone thinks.

 

According the Mexico’s Citizens Council for Public Security and Criminal Justice, Barquisimeto is the 21st most dangerous city in the world with 46.6 homicides per 100,000 habitants, Ciudad Guayana is the 12nd city with 62.13 homicides per 100,000 habitants, Valencia is the 7th city with 71.08 homicides per 100,000 habitants and Caracas, our capital, is the 2nd most dangerous city in the world with 115.98 homicides per 100,000 habitants. Venezuela has four of the most dangerous cities in the world. That’s a lot.

 

OK, there is a lot of murders in Venezuela. But, those weapons… what? According the Venezuelan authorities, there are between 9 and 15 millions of illegal weapons in the country, which means that the half of the population could have a gun. That’s insane.

 

Venezuelans knows a lot what Goodbye means. According the Universidad Católica Andrés Bello, between 2005 and 2010, 143,000 Venezuelans went out of the country. Now there are more than 1.6 million of Venezuelans out of Venezuela and most of them are young people. For Venezuelans is “normal” to have friends or family living in so many countries. A lot of Venezuelans doesn’t have any school or college friend living in the country. And what is the first reason to leave Venezuela? Insecurity. But there is more than that.

 

Venezuela’s economy is a disaster. The government has expropriated a lot of companies from farms to supermarkets and banks, these companies are not working as they should, are weak. So, domestic production is practically zero. Venezuela imports almost all of its food. It imports because the oil-based economy has squeezed out other sources of production. In spite of that, there is no food at the supermarkets, people have to do line to buy and they can’t buy every day, the government has applied a rule that consists in buy only one day a week by ID number.

 

In the other hand there is the dollar thing, but is so complicated that it needs an article only for that. To make it simple: It’s so difficult to have dollars or any foreign currency.

 

Furthermore, we have no press freedom. Most of the national television channels is from the government. Also, there are a lot of regulations for the television channels, radio stations and all the media. Press freedom is in crisis, there is no paper for the newspapers and working for a newspaper of the opposition is like a crime in this country.

 

The freedom of thought is in crisis too. In 2014 many students has been arrested for being in the streets protesting against the government. Also opposition leaders like Leopoldo López and Antonio Ledezma are in jail, why? Because they think different and Venezuela’s government doesn’t like that.

 

This is just a quick ride around what happens in my country. Yes, we’re in crisis, we are a tropical paradise, but with a lot of problems that we need to fix right now.

 

Maybe next time I could explain more about one of our problems. Meanwhile, I will be dancing in the tropical paradise.