People are swarming along both banks of the Guaire River, which flows through the Venezuelan capital. Some unsuccessfully search for gold in the muddy waters of the river, others swarm on the shore in mountains of garbage, in search of food. All of them are united by the catastrophic economic situation in the country.
Every day, Augusto Rengil is forced to walk barefoot along the poisonous river bed, poisoned by sewage. It is unlikely that any signs of life can be found here other than bacteria and microbes. The Guaire River is the filthy cesspool of Caracas. All the excrement of the city sewer drains here, so the water has a muddy brownish color, and a sickening smell fills the city blocks adjacent to the river.
Augusto Rengil is not a fisherman; he searches in the dirty waters of the river for gold, silver, or any other metal of at least some value.
“You'd be surprised at the amount of precious metals that end up in sewer drains. But to find it, you need to shovel tons of muddy soil,” Renhil told the publication, standing knee-deep in water.
Working next to him is 23-year-old Thomas Melo.
“We chose this place not by chance. There is a good descent to the river and there is no strong current. We usually work in a group of five people, and what we find in the water we share among ourselves like brothers,” says Melo.
At this time, his comrades dump the silt from the bags onto the shore and begin to carefully sort through it with a knife in search of precious metal.
After falling oil prices, an institutional crisis and rampant inflation, Venezuela found itself in a dire economic situation. Many Venezuelans find themselves without work and, in order to somehow feed their families, are forced to do whatever they want to earn extra money.
According to the latest survey conducted by Encovi, in 2016, 81.8% of the country's population lives below the poverty line.
Augusto Rengil is 21 years old, married with a son, and for the past four years he has been forced to tinker daily in the dirty waters of the river in search of precious metal.
Context
Mexico, Venezuela, Cuba under Trump's gun
El Pais 10/18/2017The mayor of Caracas is accused of plotting a coup
El Universal 02/21/2015Putin sells grain and weapons to Maduro
El Mundo 12/08/2016Everyone is silent about the Castro dictatorship
El Nuevo Herald 09/03/2017 “A gram of gold costs 180 thousand bolivars (72 euros) and can be found in five to six hours of continuous work. We usually find earrings and gold chains,” said Renhil, proudly holding a piece of gold chain weighing more than two grams in his palm.A hundred meters away from him, three or four more groups of prospectors are working. Plastic bottles, bags, and pieces of disposable tableware float around them. The young guys assure that there are no quarrels or fights for territory between them, and they are ready to accept everyone into their ranks.
Not far from them is the Miraflores Palace, where the residence of the President of Venezuela is located. Important decisions for the country are made here. Recently, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro announced an increase in the minimum wage. Now it is 250 thousand bolivars (100 euros).
Maduro was forced to take such a step due to the growing discontent of the popular masses, devaluation national currency, rising prices for basic food products. Thus, one kilogram of meat costs one third of the minimum wage, and the price of a loaf of bread reaches 10 thousand bolivars (four euros).
In such conditions, the work of a miner is good business.
Vladimir Perez is 25 years old, seven of which he devoted to his “craft” in wastewater.
“I make good money. I have enough for life and family. But, I would gladly choose something else. I am constantly haunted by a nauseating odor and skin diseases. But the most dangerous thing in our profession is the rain, after which there is a high probability of landslides that can cover you,” says Perez.
The Guaire River flows along the Francisco Fajardo Highway, which divides the Venezuelan capital into two parts. On one side of the city live the Chavistas, supporters of Hugo Chavez. This is the poorest part of the city, where the main government authorities are located.
On the other side is the opposition, offices of large banks and companies.
In both parts of the capital you constantly come across mountains of uncollected garbage and food waste. When the city is shrouded in twilight, supermarkets, shopping centers and restaurants throw leftover food and expired food into landfills. Many people rummage through trash cans in search of food to survive.
“When the question concerns life or death, you have to eat leftovers from the master’s table,” says the young man, devouring a discarded cake on both cheeks. “Yes, Venezuela used to be rich, but now we are very poor.”
To combat food shortages and looting, the Venezuelan authorities have created street committees charged with distributing essential goods. The original idea was to make food items such as rice, corn flour and cooking oil accessible to low-income families. However, tens of thousands of people living on the streets and without registration were deprived of subsidized products. In addition, due to the shortage of products, corruption and profiteering reached enormous proportions.
On a street corner, Adriana rummages through trash cans for food. Her friend stands nearby and holds her one and a half year old daughter. The girl's body is covered with scabs due to lack of hygiene and poor nutrition.
“I learned to recognize the quality of food by color and smell,” says Adriana, digging into leftover fruit and fried chicken.
The economic crisis has affected everyone - both Chavistas and oppositionists.
“I left my family so as not to be a burden. I used to have good job. Now you can’t live on the minimum wage,” says a 23-year-old young man, who did not want to give his name, sadly.
The city's Monte Bello (beautiful mountain) area doesn't actually look pretty, despite its name.
Under the Francisco Fajardo highway bridge, on the banks of the Guaire River, a group of homeless young people gathered. They cook rice and chicken over a fire.
“There are six of us living here. We do not allow strangers to come to us and protect each other. We eat what we can find in the landfill,” says Herman. “I used to live on the other side of the river, I had a place to live, a wife, I could take a shower every day... but my wife left me.” I feel comfortable here, but to be honest, I was better at home.”
The noise of passing cars is constantly heard above us, and the air is saturated with the smell of exhaust fumes. In the depths of one of the niches of the bridge, several mattresses are piled on top of each other. To get there you need to climb up a pole, which requires some dexterity.
“Blanquito is not with us today. They say that yesterday in a fight he stabbed a man and the police are looking for him,” says German.
Violence in the capital of Venezuela has reached unprecedented proportions, and the Venezuelan authorities are powerless to change the situation. In 2016, there were 5,741 murders in Caracas. This is the highest figure in the last decade. Many of them were victims of organized crime gangs. Others found their death in the waters of the river as a result of criminal clashes.
InoSMI materials contain assessments exclusively of foreign media and do not reflect the position of the InoSMI editorial staff.
This week, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff was removed from office. Impeachment. It's not just Brazil that's shaking. Many countries in South America are shaking.
Leftist ideas, dreams of justice, of socialism swept this continent in the 90s. Hugo Chavez, the famous president of Venezuela, set the template for socialist transformation. Indeed, his policies in Venezuela were successful. Elimination of illiteracy, thousands of free medical centers, subsidies for food and housing.
Chavez's policies were followed by other countries on the continent, such as Argentina. Subsidies for public transport, travel cost a penny. Electricity is almost free.
These successes made it possible to talk differently with Washington. The United States imposed the Washington Consensus on Latin American countries. In fact, it is an external control mechanism. He was rejected. The US proposal to create a single market from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego was torpedoed. The Americans were shocked. They were losing their patrimony.
What was the basis for this policy? Where does the money come from? First. Export of raw materials, oil in the case of Venezuela. The prices were high. Hugo Chavez called Bush the devil, but continued to sell oil to the United States. Second. Focus on rapidly growing China.
But China has slowed down its economic growth. And prices for raw materials have fallen. Public finances were in a deplorable state. It has become impossible to fulfill enormous social obligations.
Hugo Chavez wanted to eradicate poverty. What is the result? Speculation and smuggling. Export of cheap food products to neighboring countries. Theft of free gasoline by tankers. Black currency market. Also, corruption. It is everywhere, and we have enough. But so...
Dilma Rousseff was removed from her post. Who? Of the 513 members of the Brazilian parliament, 367 are accused of corruption. Two-thirds. Of the 67 members of the impeachment committee, 37 are accused of corruption and other crimes. And these people are fighting for the purity of power in Brazil.
There was too much populism, haste, and irresponsibility in the leftist policies of Latin American leaders. Now we see even greater inequality instead of justice, poverty and misery instead of prosperity.
As for the fight with Washington, the Americans are simply waiting for the inevitable. They do not need to make any excessive efforts, as, for example, once in Chile, when leftist President Salvador Allende was overthrown. They themselves will come to bow.
The leftist experiment in Latin America is failing. Emergency political methods did not lead to justice.
The shootout happened at night, but the bodies were not removed for a long time. Six killed - two gangs did not divide the area. While the shooting was going on, the police did not intervene, although they were nearby.
The participants in the massacre hid in the labyrinths of the barrio - this is what they call the slums surrounding the city from the mountains. The streets leading up are not cordoned off - too dangerous. The police are not welcome here; the risk of getting shot around the corner is extremely high. Passers-by carefully step over the corpses. They have nothing to fear: they are already used to this here.
Only after the shootout was reported on television did the main forces move to the site. Special forces, anti-terrorism groups and the military finally comb the area, but, naturally, find no one. The participants in the massacre lay low and, right during the raid, posted terrible footage of the night showdown on the Internet.
It’s easy to die in Caracas - you can get hit by a stray bullet, become a victim of robbery or kidnapping in absolutely any area. There are wanted notices at the city morgue. The stories are like carbon copies: he went out into the street and disappeared.
“I am on duty at the morgue every morning and am never without work. In July, 600 people were killed in Caracas alone. It’s almost like the war in Syria,” says journalist Daniel Alejandro Blanco.
Crime reporter Daniel Blanco, who was the first to report the night shootout, promised to help us organize a meeting with the leader of one of the groups.
The salary of a police officer (translated into US dollars - 40 per month) is a bad argument for putting yourself in front of bullets. Law enforcement officers often do not react at all to isolated cases of violence.
“There are hatches everywhere, they were open that day. My daughter was thrown into this hatch and the lid was closed. And no one did anything. The killer still lives in our house, on the sixth floor. The police didn’t even open a case,” says Osmarlin Morales.
The child Osmarlin became a victim of a mentally ill neighbor. But today, the killer of her daughter in the window opposite is not as scary for her as the empty shelves of the refrigerator.
Victoria can no longer be returned, and three-year-old Aurelio sleeps all day from hunger. The child's father went to the store yesterday.
Huge queues gather at the entrance to the supermarket. People take their places at night. It's already daytime, but the store is still closed. The products were not delivered and it is unclear whether they will deliver them or not. Only one thing is clear: even if there is something to buy there, there will definitely not be enough for everyone.
What authorities call “temporary supply difficulties” are in fact tens of millions of people across the country suffering from constant hunger. The so-called basic products: bread, flour, cereals, eggs and milk are delivered extremely irregularly even to the capital. Rumors about the arrival of each party immediately spread throughout the area.
“272 is my number, but no one guarantees that I will get to the store today. Yesterday I was in the middle of the first hundred, and my turn never came, but today there are more people,” says the woman.
300 bolivars per loaf – fixed price. According to the official exchange rate, this is 30 US dollars, but in reality local money costs 90 times less. Shops, banks, and the government are guided by the shadow exchange rate.
This time there is nothing to buy except bread. But those who wait still rejoice like children. Everything that is not in stores can be obtained on the black market, where speculators trade completely openly at their prices, which differ tens of times from the state ones.
“I sell products that I get through our friends in supermarkets before they hit the shelves. We sell bread 10 times more expensive than in the store, meat – 20 times, but even here it is rare,” admits black market seller Gabriel Manolas.
Speculation is a criminal offense in the country, but here the law is the same: nothing can be removed, the police strictly monitor this. Shopping on the black market is the privilege of the rich. A teacher's monthly salary can only buy five packs of chips for 25 thousand bolivars (that's about $20). Alexa taught dancing at school, and now she dances for adults, in fact, for food.
Yulia's children grow up in one of the poorest barrios. Electricity - two hours a day, water is dirty. There is no food.
“I haven’t been able to find a job for two years now. The six of us live on my mother's pension, with this money I can cook three dinners. Every day I ask myself: what will they eat today? - says Yuli Rodriguez.
While the older ones wander around the urban jungle in search of food, Yuli takes the younger ones to summer school. Sometimes you can get food stamps there.
Entrance is strictly based on the lists; getting on them is a great success: the screening process is strict, and those most in need are chosen. These children eat once a day.
At first there was also a drawing circle here. But almost immediately main theme The work turned out to be food: the children, without saying a word, drew meat, bread, and corn. After that, the administration decided to spend all the money on food.
“I saw a girl who had not eaten for three days. She was so exhausted that she could not speak. We gave her hot soup, and she began to eat it so quickly that she burned her entire mouth and began to cry. She cried in pain, but continued to eat. This is the most terrible thing I have seen in my life,” says Andrea Gomez, coordinator of the international charity foundation.
We returned to the slums two days after the shooting that began our mission to talk with those whom the local police could not or would not find.
The San Agustin district is an impoverished outskirts of Caracas, one of the most unsafe places in the city. A meeting is scheduled here with one of the leaders of the local criminal group.
This is the area of the so-called malandros - armed robbers on motorcycles who, as a rule, kill their victims. The morals of these people are fully demonstrated by the way they deal with their enemies, and by the fact that they film footage of the violence and post it online themselves.
The shot is a sign of greeting. The leader of the gang, Jose, is 26, the rest are younger, but all are armed. Malandros rarely live to old age.
“This is a beautiful pistol - a Colt. It used to belong to a policeman, but now he doesn't need it. I have a bullet for any stranger. But you are from Russia, we will not shoot at you,” says Jose, the leader of a gang in the San Agustin district (Caracas).
The Malandros keep the entire capital in fear. It is because of them that they put bars on the windows even on the upper floors, and the fences of rich houses are surrounded with live wires. The most unprotected are pedestrians and drivers, whom they usually attack.
“Up here we protect our area from bad people. And we work downstairs, in the city. This is my working tool, there is nothing to hide. Yes, we rob people, sometimes we kill someone, not just for fun, but for money. It’s fair because we do this so that our families can survive,” says José, a gang leader in the San Agustin neighborhood of Caracas.
According to crime statistics, Caracas is the most dangerous city in the world. A few days after this filming, the hero of our report, journalist Daniel Blanco, was robbed and severely beaten in the same area of San Agustin. Now doctors are fighting for his life. We had to spend another week in Caracas.
The First Channel film crew was detained by armed people. This is not the police. These are collectives - sort of vigilantes, only with machine guns. The police prefer not to deal with these vigilantes. The Venezuelan story will continue in a week on the “Sunday Time” program.
Soon there will be one less altar for co-wankers. The 21st century socialism that Chavez built never came to fruition. The opposition has already gained the upper hand in parliament, and soon there will be a referendum on the removal of the country's President Maduro, and, according to all forecasts, he will have to leave.
Today Venezuela is all about queues and wild crime. After the death of Hugo Chavez, the situation changed greatly for the worse. The crime rate has increased. Now you can’t just walk around the city with technology, jewelry, or even a good watch. In terms of the number of intentional murders, Venezuela has previously been at the top of all ratings, but today it claims first place. In the first 3 months of 2016, the number of murders in Venezuela increased by 47% compared to the same period in 2014. The number of kidnappings immediately increased by 170%. And these are just statistics from outside observers. One can only guess what passes by her.
Due to a lack of money, the current President Maduro has reduced spending on the police (now there is almost none), and gangs operate in different areas of the city. There are very few safe areas. People can be robbed and killed in the city center, in the subway, in the park - anywhere. Somehow the authorities control several blocks in the center, where government buildings are located, and blocks in wealthy areas. But to the police (as well as to National Guard) there is no trust for a long time. The attitude towards the army has also changed a lot. Previously, there was always respect, but after the events of 2014, everyone considers them executioners, they went against the people. Any wealthy Venezuelan has personal security.
This time I had to hire security too. Three years ago I rode freely in a regular car with a driver, walking around the slums. But today the car is armored and there are several guards. I go to the subway, go down to the station, and the security guard says: “You see, there isn’t a single policeman at the station today? That means they might kill you.” Passers-by on the street, seeing the camera, do frightened eyes and recommend hiding it.
There are a lot of stories online about how diplomats were robbed, how tourists were kidnapped and ransom demanded. Everyone recommends that in the event of a robbery, not to resist, but to immediately give everything, then there will be a chance to stay alive. RIA Novosti recently wrote that in the city most of criminal groups working against foreigners are coordinated from one center. “These groups include employees of airports, hotels, rental offices - everyone who comes into contact with visitors, so renting cars and showing money is very dangerous,” says a police source.
They can really kill. Caracas, the capital and largest city of Venezuela, in 2015 Once again was recognized as one of the most dangerous cities in the world. There were 119.87 murders per 100 thousand inhabitants. In general, data on the number of murders varies. Some sources write about 134, 160 and even 200 murders. The bloodiest month of 2016 for Caracas was June. During this month, about 400 people were killed in the city, according to El Nacional. The authorities do not publish official statistics on murders.
Today, Caracas is the most dangerous city in the world where there is no war.
My friend Oksana, who lived in the country for a year and a half, told me in more detail about the criminal situation in Venezuela, both in Caracas and in the provinces.
Security in Venezuela is a very sensitive topic; many foreigners do not pay enough attention to it. Or they didn’t pay attention until, for example, in 2014, they killed a German tourist right at the entrance to the Eurobuilding hotel (they were tracking him from the airport, presumably after seeing something valuable) and an Egyptian right at the exit from the airport. For me personally, it was a shock when my boyfriend, with whom we were driving around Caracas in a car, asked me to hide my iPhone, because, I quote, “motorizados will drive up, a gun through the window, if we don’t give it up, they’ll kill us.” It was wild for me. For Venezuelans, having a phone hidden in your underwear is a chore.
No scarier than the creature than “motorisado” or “choro” - a bandit on a motorcycle (at one time, “Bera” motorcycles were sold cheaply under a preferential program). For any Venezuelan, the most terrifying sound is the sound of a returning motorcycle. On motorcycles it is easy to surround the car you like in order to steal it or simply rob the driver and passengers. A motorcycle taxi driver can easily deliver clients during the day and rob and kill at night.
Motorcyclists really pose a danger: at best, they can steal something from you, as in other Latin American countries, at worst, they can shoot you. 
They don’t even poke their noses into the slums, the “barrios.” local residents- it’s dangerous, any stranger there is studied for “what to take.” It is believed that the birthplace of the punks, "malandros", is the state of Vargas (this is where the Caracas airport is), but after a landslide in 1999, when a huge number of residential buildings were destroyed, many local residents were resettled in other states and thus spread throughout Venezuela. But this is one of the versions.The truth is that Chavez's policies were aimed at cajoling the lower classes of society: they were given houses, monthly benefits, cars, etc. Everything to get votes in elections and popular support. Thus, it was not necessary to work: everything for life will be given anyway, and you can earn additional income by robbing people. In the last couple of years, the oil needle on which Chavez was holding on has failed, oil has fallen in price, and the country has become short of money. The result of this policy was a shortage of essential products, in fact, famine. As a direct consequence of this, crime has increased. No job will bring in as much money as criminal activity.
Kidnapping has become one of the most popular types of this activity. This could be a kidnapping express, a “carousel”, when criminals simply drive around the city and gather well-dressed people into the trunk of an SUV and then ask for a ransom according to the principle “Who’s your dad? Well, he’ll give you 10 thousand dollars.” Or a planned kidnapping: a person is studied what he has, where he lives, where he works, what kind of relatives he has... The ransom amount can be 100-200 thousand dollars. I have a friend who was kidnapped. It was a long time ago, really. They confused him with his cousin, kept him blindfolded for a week, finally told him they would kill him, took him out in a car, pushed him into the street and shot him in the air. Nowadays, as a rule, they are not left alive...
Hunger makes people more aggressive. Now they kill for a phone (they stole my phone, but asked for ransom; where is that poor locked iPhone now...), for a watch, for a package of groceries, for good shoes. I was personally robbed in Venezuela twice: the first time with a phone from a car, the second with a bag at the entrance to a hotel, but both times secretly and without weapons (the first was clearly based on a tip). My friend was robbed with a gun twice. Once they were having lunch with a group in a restaurant - armed people came in and collected all the phones from the table. The second time, he very wisely went for a walk at night in a resort village with a bag containing 30,000 bolivars (at that time it was still money). The notorious motorizados drove up, took off my bag, threatening me with a pistol - it’s good that they didn’t kill me (but they could have).
The crime situation now is such that people are afraid. They are afraid to have nice things, dress well, drive a nice car (cars are difficult, but that’s another story). Going out with a good watch, a phone, a gold chain: life-threatening. I remember how in the small village where we lived, our local driver came up to me and warned me that one young man should put away his Samsung watch (which is a smart watch, or something), because the hotel workers had already chatted all over village that he has them (the same village where my iPhone was stolen). It is very dangerous to drive a car outside the city in the dark, and deadly if the car breaks down. The modus operandi of modern robbers is to throw a stone or a branch onto the highway and light a fire to force the car to stop. The Puerto Cabello - Valencia highway is considered the most dangerous in this regard (it was there that Miss Venezuela Monica Speer was killed).
The main problem I see is that human life has no meaning for a criminal. Shooting a person is not a problem at all. Old man, woman, child. I'm not even talking about men. The first rule for a victim in any robbery is not to resist: then, perhaps, they will be left alive. Criminals are not shy about passers-by, cameras, or daylight. It seems that young people from the lower strata of society see some kind of romance in this. There are memes on the Internet about “You have a motorcycle and a gun, all the chicks love you.” This is easy money, easy money, impunity. The prison system is also terrible. As far as I understand, the prisoners themselves rule inside the prisons; there are not even guards there, so they perceive prison as an opportunity to lie low for a while and rest (this does not apply to political prisoners).
This police post was bombarded with grenades a couple of weeks ago. 
Now the situation in the country is such that working as a police officer is also dangerous. Policemen began to be killed, not only on duty, as a result of resistance, but also simply to rob. Recently, a policeman was killed in front of his children in order to take a bicycle.
Sometimes bandits raid police posts. While the authorities are trying to investigate the attack in panic, they are turning more attention to ordinary robbers. less attention, and they can continue to engage in bloody gop-stop. This year alone, and in Greater Caracas alone, 104 security forces (police and guards) were killed.
Police with flasks on their backs. The main task of the police now is to control queues at stores to prevent looting, and also to protect rallies. I don't have enough strength for anything anymore. 
A policeman rides a motorcycle with a wad of money. There are only a few dollars in this pack. But even this picture is not very typical for Caracas. 
Any building should be behind a high fence; those who are richer also have an electric fence on top. Who is poorer - broken glass and barbed wire. There are always bars on the top floors of houses to prevent burglars from climbing in from the roof. 
An ordinary entrance to an ordinary house where a local lives" middle class"There are bars, cameras and live wires everywhere. 
This is what an ordinary residential building looks like: everything is also covered in bars, lights around the perimeter, barbed wire... 
US Embassy fence 
Fence of the Russian Embassy) 
The embassy itself. I wanted to take a photo with a beautiful sign, but I couldn’t find it ( 
At the entrance to each establishment there must be a menu with prices, as well as warning signs: you cannot enter with weapons and you cannot smoke. 
Such signs should also be in public buildings in the most visible place. For example, this is the wall behind the reception desk in my hotel. 
Even in a restaurant, signs should hang in every room! 
Behind the scenes) Strange law. 
Chavez broadcasts from every iron. 
The center is quite clean, given the general poverty and collapsed economy. 
What's the best way to translate? Something like “Maduro was born in my heart”? In general, Chavez recommends Maduro. More precisely, Maduro uses the dead man for self-promotion, which does not really help him. 
Subway entrance. 
During rush hour it is almost impossible to board the train. 
People miss 5 trains just to get on board. 
There is a crush inside. 
A simple metro ticket costs 4 bolivars, about 25 kopecks. A round trip combined with a bus costs 12 bolivars (75 kopecks). A ticket for 10 trips is 2 rubles 25 kopecks, for 40 trips it is 9 rubles. Why so cheap? Firstly, it’s all about the unofficial bolivar exchange rate. For 1 dollar on the black market you can buy 1000 bolivars. The official exchange rate within the country is one and a half times higher, and they generally try to sell 1 bolivar to foreigners for 10 cents. The difference is 100 times! That is, if the Venezuelan economy worked normally, a trip by metro would cost 25 rubles. And we shouldn’t forget that the state is trying to regulate prices for a number of goods and services. Therefore, the metro is almost free.
Huge queues for ground transport as well. Large buses run between districts. 
Minibuses run in a specific area. 
The main erogenous zone for Venezuelan fans is the gas station! Gasoline is really very cheap here. It costs about 4 rubles per liter. Previously it cost 2 rubles. 
Consider gas free. Is it good or is it bad? 
Coffee is sold on the street. 
Book collapse 
In order to make some money, people sell everything. 
Yoga in the center) 
Today, the main goal of any Venezuelan is to get something. They get bread, milk, medicine. There are no essential goods on sale at all. You won't even buy soap and milk. That’s why everyone walks the streets with bags and asks each other where they “threw away” things. 
The main differences from fraternal Cuba:
There is civilization in Venezuela! There is normal internet here, there are good restaurants and hotels. In Caracas there is McDonald's and other international fast food. Here you can easily buy expensive alcohol, imported food, and rent a good car. But Cuba is calm and safe. But in Venezuela, taking advantage of the wealth is not so easy.
The first thing a tourist encounters is a poster warning him to change currency only in specially designated places! In Venezuela, the exchange rate is controlled by the state. Devaluation occurs every few years. It looks very funny - a ladder like this:
Of course, as I already said, there is a black market with a completely different rate. Three years ago, the exchange rate on the black market differed from the official one by 3 times. Today it is only one and a half, but over these three years the bolivar has depreciated three times.
Yes, yes, there is an enemy McDonald's here! 
A Big Mac costs 243 rubles, ice cream costs 103. 
There are also more expensive burgers. 
You can drink coffee for 52 rubles 44 kopecks, cappuccino and hot chocolate will cost a little more, 67 rubles 42 kopecks. 
At the same time, there are good restaurants in the city. True, there are very few people there. Not a single person came to my hotel restaurant (the best in the city) yesterday evening! 
Food for the rich: 
True luxury. No, not oysters, but bread! Bread is also not on sale; there are hellish queues for it. So it's a delicacy. And the oysters are all dead. I never found live oysters in three restaurants in Caracas. 
Steak 
There are quite ordinary (and not yet looted) malls in the city. This is one of the few places where you can walk without getting robbed. 
But there are almost no people. Only a few can afford to go to such stores. 
My hotel 
Empty restaurant 
Street art 
Bolivar 
Continue tomorrow. 
Travel notes:
Today, buying a tourist package to almost any place on the planet is no more difficult than putting money on your phone, and you know popular vacation spots by heart even before the trip - friends in in social networks We managed to tire ourselves with the views of Barcelona, Bali and everything else. That's why most interesting ideas It seems like trips to contradictory places that smack of mystery, danger, or at least not boring.
Today we decided to dig through the forums of Russian solo travelers (primarily, of course, the “Vinsky Forum”) in search of useful tips and stories from criminal and rather dangerous tourist areas - Cape Town, Rio and Caracas. Actually, it was no coincidence that these criminal cities ended up in the material: the flow of tourists there (and therefore their stories from there) is quite abundant. But travelers who find themselves in hot spots in Somalia or in the lair of drug lords in Mexico either do not write reports or simply decide to stay.
Caracas, Venezuela
GENERAL
POPULATION
CRIME INDEX
SECURITY INDEX
KILLS ON
100,000 POPULATION
If television reports are to be believed, Venezuela appears to be a socialist paradise like Cuba. In fact, this country is very unsafe. Street robbers armed with guns and knives are preying on tourists throughout the city.
“The night before yesterday, the bus I was traveling in was shelled. They wanted to rob him, but the driver didn’t stop. Then they fired with large shot. It hit me in the leg with a ricochet - it was a scratch, but it bled a lot, and at the hospital I was then given two stitches. And one girl was hit pretty hard in the leg, there was a lot of blood, although it didn’t seem to be anything serious either. Then I asked locals, soldiers and police, such cases happen here all the time.”
GEORGE KALMYKOV
“It’s easier to change money at the airport than in Caracas. Cars are being robbed by everyone. No need to drive at night. A tire puncture at night is most likely a trap. It is imperative to talk about the fact that you are Russian. And demand that the documents be returned. Carry the barrel in your sock, although it’s not so easy to buy now. First, let yourself be robbed, and only then take out the gun and shoot in the back (this is the advice of the local police). Everything valuable goes into socks.”
“And with a pistol they may even ask for a baseball cap. It’s better to give it away.”
GEORGE KALMYKOV
“Venezuela is different from other countries in many ways. The main feature is the difference in the dollar exchange rate. With a plastic card, an independent traveler pays three times more for everything. And the trip costs more than to the Swiss Alps or the Cote d'Azur. Therefore, you have to travel with cash dollars for the entire trip. Professional raiders and the police are well aware of this, which creates additional danger.
I advise you to hide your money well. In belts, trouser waistbands, socks and other leggings. There are all sorts of leg bags - also a very useful thing. Plus, wearing long pants means you attract less attention.
Police often do not respond adequately to large amounts of cash. Don't show them anywhere and never. In a country where drug trafficking is rampant, a person with five thousand dollars is perceived as having come to buy. And it doesn’t matter if you haven’t bought it yet, they can give you a lift. Not to mention even darker scenarios."
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
GENERAL
POPULATION
CRIME INDEX
SECURITY INDEX
KILLS ON
100,000 POPULATION
In Rio de Janeiro, the main danger to travelers are gangs of juvenile favela dwellers who scour tourist areas in search of tourists. However, you should also stay away from the adult population of the slums - they will rob you and won’t bat an eyelid.
“Brazil is an excellent country, probably the only one in the world where your worn-out flip-flops can be stolen, where educated people pick up newspapers on the streets to read them, where sports blacks with an open, cheerful smile will take away everything more or less valuable in the center in an hour peak, it’s worth turning a little in the wrong direction, where prices for consumer goods and hotels are absolutely crazy.”
“I had one incident in nine days in Rio. It's nine o'clock in the evening and Avenida Atlantica is lit up. In the center there is a souvenir market. I walked out of the tavern in a happy mood and stared at the souvenirs for about 15 minutes. Already stomping along the sidewalk (there were darkness of people around), I felt that someone tightly squeezed my shoulder with a hand. Turning around, I saw the cadre, to whom I told him that I didn’t speak Portuguese. Frankly, I didn’t expect everything to happen like this, in front of all the honest people. He squeezed his shoulder again and, walking around in front, demonstrated a folding curved knife and pointed to his pockets. I was shocked by my smile, for some reason I actually started laughing, considering that I had 20 reais, a city map and a credit card in my pocket. He showed me a map of the city, but at that moment the Brazilians wandering nearby, one of whom was walking his dog, having assessed what was happening, suddenly headed towards us, expressing something very energetically to the expropriator. He threw the city map he had taken onto the sidewalk and retreated.”
“I was robbed on the penultimate day before flying to Russia right there, on the central square near the cathedral - a crowd of guys (about six) about 15–20 years old with a dog ran up, tore out my backpack and camera, and even baited the dog into biting me, although I didn’t resisted when she saw the dog. Everything happened in two or three seconds. But an elderly man ran to my aid, but he didn’t have time to help, but he took me to the bus stop and gave me money to get to the hotel.”
“I encountered crime only once, when early, at dawn, as usual, I went out to swim in the ocean. I got out of the water and three favela boys with knives were sitting next to my plastic bag with a T-shirt and slippers. They say: "Mister, mani." I answer them in pure Portuguese language: “Didn’t you just fall out of an oak tree? Get it out of your swimming trunks, or what?” They got angry and said: “Take off your watch then.” “Yes please,” I answer. And I hand over the old (I bought it in 1986, threw it away, imagine, only a couple of years ago) cheap plastic Casios. The guys swore dirty and went to look for another victim.”
“I kept my credit cards, documents and all the cash in a safe, and carried only a day and a half maximum with me. On Avenida Atlantica there was a traffic stop, on Copacabana they stole a Panama hat. At the same time, I wandered around everywhere for 25 days (including disadvantaged areas of Rio), very often alone, and everything turned out fine. True, sidelong glances still took place.”
“We arrived in Rio on May 25, and were robbed in broad daylight in the Santa Teresa area on the second day of our stay. The area is touristy, but there are favelas nearby. We got to the final stop on a tram, which, by the way, was escorted by police, and decided to make the way back on foot, since people were observed in sufficient quantity. We had not walked far from the tram stop when two Afro-Brazilians approached and not very politely asked for our backpacks. I’m a fragile girl, I decided to give mine away right away, but my husband got it: he was threatened with a second knife.”
“I was once cut in Rio, I stood like a lion, against four, in the afternoon, at three o’clock in the afternoon in Copacabana (after the rain, as luck would have it, there were no people). Basically, Brazilians are cowards. They use knives easily, but they don’t know how to fight. They didn’t get a penny from me, I managed to defend my money and documents, but they slashed me with a knife.”
“I was returning home at four in the morning, went into a tiny diner to eat a sandwich and drink juice before going to bed, I was sitting and watching, three of these specific bulls were sitting drinking, yelling something so aggressively at those around them, they were just trying to get into trouble, one was coming up to me for something, starts asking standard blah-blah in average English, I lied to him that I’m not at the port, I don’t speak English, he switched to someone else, went to the toilet, came back and hit one guy sitting there in the back, not Brazilian, but without continuation, there is a pause of 10-15 seconds, a healthy black man, a guy standing at the entrance to the eatery, fits in and begins to say something to the bull, the other two bulls are blown up, the black man runs, three behind him, I hear two clear pops of a shot , around the corner, I turn to the bartender, I tell him: “Call the police,” he has zero reaction, is silent.”
“We met a German in Rio, and his colleague, working with a Brazilian company, ran into the barrel of a gun while sitting in a taxi with the window open. After that I gave up business trips.”
“Sunday, three o'clock in the afternoon, the center of Rio - not a soul in the city. I’m standing, photographing another monument in the square, lowering the camera and seeing a face in front of me, a completely calm face of a guy of about 20 years old with cold eyes. My husband, who was about ten steps away from me at that moment, turned around and said: “Get away from him,” I managed to move back a little, and at that moment the guy grabbed the camera from my hands, and I reflexively grabbed my belt. The husband quickly jumped up and grabbed him with his hands. There was a struggle for some time, after which I snatched the camera from the weakened enemy. The robber turned away from his husband and slowly walked towards the glassed passage 15 meters away. Then the husband discovered that his glasses were broken, and the guy’s impudent slowness infuriated him, and he ran towards the passage after the robber, trying to kick him several times. The guy walked and walked, absolutely unperturbed, as if inviting people to follow him. The police saved us. About five policemen, who had come from nowhere, rushed into the passage at full gallop, and then a gang of 10-15 teenagers, apparently waiting for us there, ran down the passage from them.”
