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FOR MY ARGENTINEAN FRIENDS
A Miss Venezuela added me on Twitter
Whaaaaaat?
Really, it's crazy, look
What's her name?
Her name is Mónica Spears, she has 455 thousand followers and only follows 430, and I'm one of them,
and I only have 120 followers! We spoke by direct message, you know? Like when two people follow each other.
Honey, a Miss Venezuela is writing to you, you're famous!
And you know what? I'm going to see you in 17 days.
Final destination: Caracas, but I'm going via Bogotá.
My name is Leandro Parodi, I lived in Venezuela for two years, and I travelled to spend the holidays with my friends and my girlfriend.
I'm not a journalist, I'm not a cameraman, but I have a message and this time I want you to make the journey with me.
This is the first coconut you've eaten in Venezuela? No way.
You've got to focus this; I think the focus isn't on manual. Yeah, there it is.
I want to make you some Argentinean pastries, show a bit of my culture
Oil, flour, sugar, baking powder, vanilla.
Where should we go? La Colina? (the hill)
A big one a big one.
Hey, man, I need to ask you something, have you got any flour?
Have you got oil?
Not a chance. There's no oil or anything
Sugar?
No way
No sugar either, baking powder?
Flour, is there any? Wheat flour?
Nope.
Sugar?
Flour, sugar, those things don't exist.
Is there any wheat flour?
I don't work here.
Oops, sorry!
Hey, what's that thing about "I got out of Chavez's sight"?
Well, Chavez is with us always.
Fourth shopping mall to see if we can find...
Flour?
No
and skimmed milk?
None, that always gets here around 8 or 9 in the morning.
You've got to get up early around here.
Is there any oil?
No, none.
We haven't got any flour and they haven't sent any more.
None at all?
Well, ok, we'll keep looking.
Supermarket number...5 and I sound more and more tired every time.
It's run out. And is there sugar? No.
We don't know, hon, we had some last week.
Last week ¿and oil?
It hasn't arrived
We've got oil, we've got vanilla, now we have to find three more things.
Milk, that's like, that's like gold, I mean.
We're living through something that shouldn't be. We've got flour shortage, and, ***, you have to cue up in an enormous line to buy four bags of flour,
because you can't buy more than four bags of flour because they make you take them back, and coffee?
Unbelievable, something you used to buy freely without lining up or anything.
Unbelievable, something you used to buy freely without lining up or anything.
no, we're limited in everything, flour, sugar, corn flour, wheat flour everything.
I went in to buy corn flour, which we use to make arepas, and when I got there, they had taken them all.
AH! You know where they've got some? What's that supermarket called?
Central Madeirense
Yeah but maybe there isn't any or by the time we get there, there won't be any more.
Sometimes I look at the bags and I go to that supermarket, I kind of monitor the bags people have.
Big hello to my mom.
Hello from Venezuela
How long have you been queuing up?
WEEEELL! Well, honey, we've been here for more than an hour.
So forget it
Did you see any oil?
And the last one, sugar.
So we couldn't make the pastries, apologies.
Ok, put the camera away.
I like them to look perfect, all lined up, Che (man), should we go out for a meal?
10:34, restaurant closed, let's go look for another one.
They see security as a waste rather than an investment over here.
Nowadays you have good cars and stuff, you know you have to go around with a bodyguard.
¿Right? You have to go around with a bodyguard or something. 'Cause these days everyone's got a bodyguard, you have to get yourself a bodyguard.
But anyway, those guys kill the bodyguards .
Yeah of cooourse. Last week it was in the papers, three bodyguards killed, in different situations, I mean, cause those guys are looking for guns,
the thugs are looking for guns and since the bodyguards aren't even police
cause they aren't police
They were police, but they're retired
But they're retired; So screw it, they kill them and they take the gun and bye-bye.
But there was also this one week, you remember like six months ago? They killed nine bodyguards in one week.
They killed this guy's bodyguard, they killed that guy's bodyguard ...
Yeah yeah, that's why I'm saying, there isn't any "hey man" there.
It could happen to anyone, the day comes and bye, there isn't anything... that crap is finished.
What we're going through is sad.
You can't go out, I mean, take care of yourself a little, take care of yourself a little.
For example, with us, living in that shanty. I get home,
I hear shots and I don't even look out, the next day I'll see if... or I phone someone: "hey, who got hit?" You get me?
Ah look, here's another one, El Coyuco... closed, should we go get Chinese food? At Lai King? Closed.
When 95 percent of murders aren't investigated, aren't punished, someone can *** 95 people and only get caught at the 96th,
so if every crime were investigated 'til they reached a conviction it would be a whole other situation.
Let's just say the laws aren't carried out, there's no justice.
Justice means giving each person what they deserve,
so if we apply giving each person what they deserve to the Venezuelan reality
we're definitely not doing that because we're not making citizens safe and we're not punishing criminals, so, you could say the laws aren't carried out.
There's weapons in all the prisons, and, well, they've got their own law there and they changed the laws and then they're,
like, the prison owners, they're the bosses of the prison as if that was really awesome place to be, they'd rather be behind bars because they rule there.
Los Palos Grandes, is like Palermo in Buenos Aires and look how dead it is.
He killed him because he wanted to, I mean, life isn't worth anything, and the guy's running loose,
you've got to just kill him just the same, find him around somewhere and kill him .
Is there a lot of impunity?
It's not impunity, it's just that there are so many cases that they leave your there piling up and...
If you think about it, it is impunity, René, if you think about it there's guys who, just, wow...
But that's what I'm saying, they say look, we've got so many files
The person they'd catch was torn to pieces.
Why'd they tear them to shreds?
Because, for instance, they'd break some law, they'd mess with someone they shouldn't have,
take advantage of them, for example, and if they went and grabbed something that wasn't theirs, well...
and you've got to let it happen to them, why not? He earned it.
10:40 and come on, all these restaurants, Sushi Market, Ara, the only one that's kind of half-open to order a pizza is Domino's, well...
What would you recommend for someone who's just arrived here or someone who lives here?
You mean for safety? First of all don't go out at night, second, if you do go out, go in a group, third, don't come to these sorts of places.
I don't believe it, Lau, they killed the Miss Venezuela, 3 hours later, in the same place we passed through.