After sixteen years of Chavismo, it would seem as Venezuelans have been anesthetized against the daily scandals and horrors that are reported or occur. Report of tens of millions of dollars paid in commissions to Venezuelan Government officials, barely raise an eyebrow. People hear the dance of millions and can no longer tell between 100 million dollars or 2 billion dollars. They hear US$ 2 billion was “siphoned off” PDVSA and it seems as if the question is: What else is new?, not what an extraordinary amount this is or that an additional 2.2 billion was laundered via the same bank in Andorra. The Venezuelan Government, Prosecutor, National Assembly don’t even bother to comment on all of these accusations. The opposition? We have heard almost nothing from them either. I mean, Giordani a former Minister of Chavismo said there were 22 billion in fake imports in 2013 in Venezuela and nothing happened, a pittance of 50 million or 4 billion appears to be largely irrelevant. The problem is that the billions add up and that is why there are shortages and lines and Venezuelan billionaires all over the planet.
But forget about money. Most Venezuelans can barely understand what a billion dollars is or what a Government could do with it. But we should all understand the value of a human life. But from protests to prisons to daily events, the value of human life has been devalued as much of the value of one hundred million dollars in the minds of most Venezuelans.
There are daily reports of deaths. In Caracas alone, nineteen cops have been killed so far in Caracas in 2015. And it is only March. Six students get killed shot thru the head and the Government reacts as if this was the most natural thing in the world. A high ranking Diplomat even dares to make a joke about it, later saying that people did not understand his black humor.Very black and very aberrant too.
The President orders the Government’s weapons and bullet monopoly Cavim to code all bullets and two years later, nothing has been done. The business of selling bullets in the black market is too hard to pass up, much like increasing the price of gas or the Bs. 6.3 per US$ Cencoex rate.
Meanwhile it is the same bullets that kill the much beloved “people” every day. Just yesterday, a man was shot to death in front of his wife,a murderer was shot to death by police as they were trying to arrest him and a man walking with his wife in one of Caracas’ most centric squares, was shot and killed by someone in a passing car.
Most of these murders not even get attention by the press. The people are immune to the news.
A kidnapper tells a Canadian reporter that it is not a matter of right or wrong killing his victims, it is a matter of surviving in the “easiest way to earn a living” in Venezuela. The price of a human life in Venezuela? All of three hundred bucks, when it has a price, most of the time, there is just no price, it is simply free, like the daily murders in Venezuela jails.
And the Government says nothing and the people have gotten so used to it they don’t even react.
And just as I thought I had heard it all, the most horrific story takes place: A couple was traveling to Caracas with a relative driving. A bunch of motorcycles were leading a funeral funeral procession and they attempted to block the way so that the procession could proceed preferentially. The driver does not obey the orders of the motorcycle riders. The motorcycle riders shoot at the car, spraying it with bullets. The couple was killed and so was the woman’s kid in her womb. The woman was pregnant. She is the 40th. woman to be shot in Caracas so far in 2015.
The story is not even front page news. Is not on TV. The Government makes no comment, neither does the police. There will be no special investigation. This is a daily occurrence. They are all anesthetized against the horror, the murders, the scandals. Nothing shocks them.
It has become a way of life.
The Devil's Excrement 