Talking about Covid-19 is as tricky as hell. SO much has been said since January, we have been oversaturated with half-truths, lies, misinformation, and conspiracy theories. Since March (at least in Venezuela) we have been under a quarantine they has called flexible, strict, total, and radical. The truth is that regardless of the terminology the government uses the result has been the same in the streets. Tons of people, poorly protected crammed in closed and open spaces.
At the moment we have (according to official sources) more than 13,000 cases and more than 120 deaths. We no longer have hospitals (as defined internationally), so whatever you hear or read about us being ready, fully equiped or staffed is a big fat lie. For a while, there were almost cero cases or deaths and we were starting to think that we were either the chosen people or covid-19 was a fabrication (no pun intended). The thing is that people did not see the severity of the situation and they were not going to be able to abide by any quarantine restriction anyways, even if the virus was as real and lethal as it has been said.
There are many reasons for this seeming lack of common sense to happen.
- People do not have enough money to buy enough supplies that would allow them to stay home.
- The government has not provided any kind of significant support or compensatory measures (pay checks, relief package, food supplies, delivery systems, etc); No special measures, NO SUPERVISION.
- Transportation was already chaotic before the pandemic and before the collapse of the gasoline refineries. Most bus owners were going backrupt because of the high cost of parts and repairs. Some key parts were hard to find too. With the pandemic, things just got worse.
- Not many people own cars now or have cars that are up and running.
- Most of the economic activity and the key offices and places people need to visit are concentrated in the downtown areas. That forces way too many people to gather in the same area; some of them come from places as far as 7 miles. Add to that the commuters who comes from nearby towns and you have a breeding ground for covid-19.
- After so many years of economic crisis, many people are in pretty bad shape. They can't afford the long walks. They'd rather wait hours under the sun for the chance to take any thing on four or more wheels, even if they have to travel standing up.
- The whole country ran out of gasoline. Even if the bus owners managed to have their units repaired and running, they would not be able to fill the tanks. On top of that, gas prices were dollarized last time we got some tankers from Iran. That has caused an escalation in the prices of anything from fares to food. Some people walk miles and stay in lines just to get some items a bit cheaper.
It is the same image around any bus stop
Or store. The store these people are standing in line for is at the end of the block and then to the left. They were having an argument with one of the employees because they had received orders form the police to "disolve" the line or else the police was going to close the store. Neither of the two things happened. As for the store, it is a fabric store.
The Protests
You walk any Venezuelan town and every day you'll see people blocking the streets, defying authority and virus because of their desperate situations with lack of basic services such as domestic gas, electricity, water, or garbage collection (for this one they burn piles of accumulated garbage in the middle of the streets).
These two examples I captured this week. The average home must wait for months after they've run out of gas for a cilinder to be replaced. The official answer is simply that the filling stations are not dispatching, that they have to wait. For years this government made a big deal out of our alleged leadership in gas reserves. So much for having the No1 reserves in the world when people have to go back to cooking using fire wood.
Av Blanco Fombona
Calle Bolívar
In some cases, depending on the leaders of the protests (conections, etc.) and the violence involved, they get their gas the next day. In most cases, they get dispersed by the police and go back home empty-handed.
They know, however, that they are wasting their time trying to convince these people that they should not be risking their lives, exposing themselves to a lethal virus, protesting an indolent government and mediocre government officials, and facing brutal police force. They are already risking their lives by staying home without money, medicines, food or fire to cook them.
This is just warming up
