Venezuela’s Chichirivice de la Costa
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The work of fishermen in Chichirivice dela Costa, a remote village on Venezuela’s Caribbean coast, is an unpaved operation for about two hours from the capital, Caracas.
On Thursday, 47-year-old Eduardo Ulloa was on the beach before 6am and was ready to prepare a boat for the day’s catch.
The US strike on a Venezuelan speedboat, allegedly carrying drugs that killed 11 people a few days ago, created a major wave in the world of geopolitics, and encouraged suspicions that Washington was trying to overthrow President Nicolas Maduro’s administration.
Following the deployment of several US warships into the Caribbean, which Washington says is an effort to fight drug cartels, its fatal strike took place in the same seas where Chichi Liviche fishermen rob trade every day.
But unlike the president who responded to the US deployment by mobilizing around 4.5 million militias to respond to the US deployment and protecting the country from what he described as “the biggest threat we’ve seen on our continent in the last 100 years,” these fishermen appear to be irreversible.
“Nothing has changed for us. Everyone is cold,” Ullore told CNN.
With only a few hundred people living in Chichiliviche and around 70 families relying on fishing for self-sufficiency, it is hard to imagine not taking out the boat. All fishermen agree: unless the government issues an order on the contrary, they will continue as normal.
“It can be a little bit of anxious,” said Uroa, the father of three.
Ullore was among dozens of men who boarded a small fiberglass boat in a group of three that day. They were armed with nets and lines to hunt nets, snaps, snaps, groups, and bring back and sell karakas.
For many Venezuelans, there are far more pressing concerns than government issues. Millions of people earn just a handful of dollars a month, barely making money to survive.
The Venezuela economy has long been plagued by chronic inefficiency and has historically been subject to inflatable cycles.
Despite the short business boom following the pandemic, the slump has stopped again in recent months.
The minimum wage is currently worth less than USD 1, but the government, which is in the world’s largest oil reserves, is supplementing it with additional handouts and subsidies.
On the streets of Caracas, the words of the US strike are on everyone’s lips, but in popular stories, most people continue to calm down.
“The tension is certainly there, but I’m working and trying to make products so I don’t think about it,” says Gilbert Salas, an ice cream maker in Chacao’s Central Caracas district.
“My mind is starting to work, and the nation moves forward by working. When I’m a company or an entrepreneur who comes to our shore, I simply want a future,” he added.
But the outlook is that American businesses and businessmen will soon come to Venezuela’s economic aid — at least outside the booming oil industry, it appears to be dim.
The US has imposed financial sanctions on Venezuela, which dates back to the Barack Obama administration, has grown under Trump, freezes government assets and bans economic transactions with the country.
They argue that these sanctions are intended to target US ramp-prolonged corruption and human rights abuses.
However, the measure rarely seized Maduro’s power, but he was recently reverted back to a six-year term of office for the third consecutive year after a widely unreliable election, but they deepen the economic challenges faced by ordinary Venezuelans, with Maduro claiming that sanctions are part of the “economic war.”
Once the fifth-largest economy in Latin America has suffered from chronic shortages and rising inflation of key commodities under Maduro’s clocks. It includes thousands of people heading north to the southern US border in search of millions of people fleeing.
Rather than trying to repair relations with the US, Maduro has dug his heels in one of his biggest competitors, China.
On Wednesday, just hours after Chinese leader Xi Jinping showed off his country’s military power in a massive military parade in Beijing, Maduro welcomed the Chinese ambassador to the Venezuela stage.
And while Maduro hasn’t commented specifically on the boat strike yet, he never pulled a punch against the US.
“Today, imperialism launches a new attack. It’s not the first, not the last one. It’s just another attack, but Venezuela stands (…) We are good people, people of peace, but when we ruin our land, history, rights, we are warriors.
Twelve months after Maduro contested in the presidential election, the government’s oppressive machinery continues, with the government not releasing the final vote count and urging massive international protests.
The Maduro government, using security forces that have long supported Maduro and his predecessor, the late Hugo Chavez, have been severely cracked by the protests that erupted after the vote, as well as previous bouts of anxiety.
They have repeatedly detained dissenting opinions, including protesters, activists and former presidential candidates.
In Caracas today, we regularly patrol the streets without insignia with the military police in Balaclava.
On Thursday morning, opposition Venezuela condemned the detention of Julio Belazco, a local activist involved in the campaign of Maria Corina Machado, the main opposition leader who is still hidden after the authoritarian push that followed the election.
The location of Velazco is still unknown. Authorities often wait several days to deal with reports of what is commonly known in Venezuela as “forced loss of failure,” a party spokesman told CNN. CNN contacted authorities regarding the Velazco incident and received no answers. The government is unable to respond to media inquiries regarding “forced disappearance” on a daily basis.
According to Provea, such “forced disappearance” has become very common and “institutionalized” for human rights groups that have been active in the country for over 30 years.
Between September and May last year, the group documented 23 cases in which community leaders and opposition activists were in hidden detention for months before being released or filed in court to formalise their arrests.
In this context, many in Venezuela are naturally reluctant to comment when asked to watch in front of a rolling camera.
When the cameras are turned off, they tend to be much more open.
“What if the Marines land on the beach and take Maduro out?” a young Venezuelan man whispered to CNN, as he looked at the sea, “We welcome them with open arms.”
