Venezuela

Caracas

Apart from Haiti I have to say that Venezuela was one of the countries that worried me the most on this continent. And justifiably so. Venezuela has been on a rocky road and in my opinion that has to do a lot with its president Hugo Chavez.

Blessed and cursed by its massive oil reserves, Venezuela has seen enormous growth, but also enormous decline in wealth over its dependency on oil. Especially the oil strike in 2002/ 2003 showed what a huge impact the halting of the industry can have on the country, but also how interconnected the industry is with the politics of Venezuela. Although that can be said about more countries.

All the turmoil of the last decade, sadly enough, has not made this country any safer. On the contrary. It is one of the most dangerous countries of this continent. It is not uncommon for more than a staggering number of 50 people to lose their lives in violence in the streets and slums of Caracas in one weekend. A sometimes even higher number then in Iraq.

Because of these grim statistics and also the pressing advice of local friends I decided to hire an armed bodyguard to watch my back while taking photos here.

But... some of this advice came from local people whom I’d never spoken before in my life. Through Twitter I got many reactions from people living abroad or in Caracas offering their help without hesitation. I took up on a couple of these advices and these people amazed me with their hospitality to a total stranger. These too are the people of this turbulent nation. And these, again, are the people that deserve a place in this Streets photo of Caracas. Yes.. granted, this is not the happiest place of this noisy, polluted and unsafe city. Because that is what is was to me. However, the small human story in it shows the other side too. As is the principle of the Streets of the World project. And it was not hard to find.