1.

Caracas is said to be one of the most dangerous cities in the world. Innocent victims are killed here right on the streets, and even more so, God forbid you appear in the crowd with a camera or any other thing that betrays your solvency, a thing in your hands. In the city, 40 people are killed daily, many of them foreigners. And how many are simply robbed, it is not possible to count.

Such intimidation on the part of the travel company and guides did not add optimism to our visit to Caracas, but warmed up the interest. Therefore, at the first opportunity, we checked all this on our own skin. And here's what we found out.

At first, of course, we were afraid to stick our nose out of the bus and the hotel. But after talking with a representative (more precisely, with a representative) of the host, it turned out that the rumors about the danger of Caracas were overly exaggerated. A 14-year-old Russian girl meeting us at the airport said that she had been living in Caracas with her mother for 3 years already, and she was walking the streets alone.

But! You need to know where, when and in what form you can appear, where it is undesirable, and where it is simply dangerous. Caracas consists of several areas - from real slums to European areas with luxurious villas. If you go to poor areas, and even in good clothes, and even more so, with photographic equipment, you can really get hit in the face and literally stay in your shorts. They are unlikely to kill, but you will not get into trouble.

At the same time, in rich areas, you can be almost with a 100% security guarantee in any form and with any equipment. Even at night, although it is undesirable at night. It is also undesirable (although in principle it is possible) to shine and shine decorations, equipment, etc. in areas where the middle class lives. By the way, there are not many such areas in Caracas - the middle class stratum is only 10-15% of the population. The rest are either very poor or very rich. Of course, there are much more poor, respectively, and dumb districts too.

Therefore, basic precautions must be observed. But if you are accompanied by a local guide who knows the local nuances, then you can consider yourself almost safe. Also, you should take into account that information from local guides and tour company managers located somewhere in Russia (or another country) may differ. If you are going to be bullied by people outside of Caracas, it makes sense to take this information with a grain of salt. Although with caution. If you want to learn more about security, look for people on site.

As a result, we walked around Caracas even at night. It was a little uncomfortable, but we understood that we were in a normal area. There were no excesses, although we behaved rather cheekily. In the daytime, we were driven more and more, and more and more to tourist places, so there are few pictures, and they are without any artistic pretensions. Just sketches.

Well, in other cities of Venezuela, this problem can be considered not at all. Although ... if anyone is interested, I can give detailed instructions on how to get hit in the head and lose money, jewelry and photographic equipment, for example, in Moscow or St. Petersburg :)

Other materials from travels to Venezuela and Little Tibet on the project "Two drops. Journey for water" can be found on the company blog "Two Sticks".

Caracas is a city where an atmosphere of fear reigns. The locals are afraid of bandits, the so-called "malandros", who can rob and even kill while you are driving, they are afraid of the police, who can detain you for anything, and then also subject you to severe torture.

How do the authorities "inspire" people to take up arms? How are Venezuelan prisoners subjected to torture? And who are the locals more afraid of than the police and the malandros? Gonzalo Imiob Santome, human rights activist, lawyer, vice-president of the non-governmental organization Foro Penal, talks about the realities of modern Venezuela.

Venezuela is called one of the most dangerous countries in the world. How true is this?

Yes, it's all true. In Venezuela, according to the latest statistics, a murder occurs every 20 minutes. Terrible! And the situation is further exacerbated by the prevailing impunity. In 97% of cases, no punishment follows the crime, that is, out of 100 murderers, only three are punished. From the side of the state, if we talk about the level of crime, there is no control.

Why is this happening?

I think there are various reasons for this. The first is the absolute inability of the authorities to realize what rampant crime we have, and to understand what preventive and repressive measures need to be taken to bring the situation under control. This problem is not limited to Chavez, it has been around for a very long time.

If we are talking specifically about politicians-chavistas, then it is enough to listen to their speeches. This is an apology for cruelty, which turns into a mechanism for resolving social and political conflicts. What did Chavez like to say? "I am a peaceful person, but I have a weapon." And he also said: “If I steal from you because I want to eat, I am not a criminal”, “If I attack you to protect the revolution, I am not a criminal.”

Moreover, Chavez advocated the use of brutal methods against opponents. He spoke about one political party: "These people should be cut off their heads and boiled in oil." When you listen to Chavez, Maduro and other officials of the last 20 years, you understand that violence has always been part of their speeches.

In recent years, mass protests have erupted many times in Venezuela. How did the authorities react?

Here's an example for you. If members of the Bolivarian National Guard showed particular cruelty to the protesters, the government did not conduct any investigations. Instead, Maduro rewarded them, said they did the right thing, and hung medals on their chests. What does he mean by this? "If you resort to cruelty to achieve the goals I need, you are doing the right thing."

(Government is criminals)

That is, the police simply have no desire to fight crime?

Yes, but there are other reasons as well. Courts, prosecutors and police do not have the capacity to deal with this level of crime. Not enough staff, no infrastructure, no technical equipment. Today, for example, you are going to a Venezuelan court, no matter with what case. There is a meeting, and at the end of it you are asked if you can bring paper or inks for the printer, because without this the court cannot print the verdict.

The Venezuelan regime is often referred to as a dictatorship. For what offenses under such a regime can one end up behind bars?

We don't have any rule of law. I'm not the only one saying this. This has been confirmed by other organizations such as the World Justice Project. According to them, for the last 4-5 years, Venezuela has been one of the last places among all countries in terms of respect for human rights.

(Hi, dictatorship! Is there bread? No, and there are no elections either)

There is no control over the police by the prosecutor's office, the ministry and the courts. Because of this, atrocities constantly occur. You can be arrested for anything and the police won't even have an arrest warrant. If we talk about political detentions, it is obvious that in this case neither laws nor the Constitution are respected.

If the authorities need to suppress some manifestation that is inconvenient for them, then a special “quota for arrests” appears: “You have to detain so many people. It doesn't matter who it is." As a result, law enforcement officers detain ordinary people, the poor, who live on the street. They just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, and they are only detained so that the police will fulfill the "norm". I myself had to repeatedly defend such people in court. In cases of political persecution, anonymous testimony is often used. Nobody knows who gave them, we can't check them.

What are politicians afraid of? Lose power? Or are they driven by some other fear?

I think yes, the main fear is the loss of power. But you need to make a reservation: the most important thing here is not the loss of power itself, but what is connected with it, because you are deprived of the opportunity to continue to act with impunity. In Venezuela, crimes against humanity are committed, people are persecuted, tortured, they are killed for political reasons, they are sent to prison for no reason.

Politicians also do not want to lose profitable business. In Venezuela, corruption is the norm. There is evidence of links between some members of the government and representatives of the drug business. And there is a lot of money in there.

The unwillingness to be behind bars for the crimes committed and the desire to continue to commit crimes for profit are the two main reasons why some members of the government do not want to give up power under any pretext.

One of the Venezuelan realities is the so-called colectivos. Some locals say they are more afraid of them than the police. Who are they?

I'll start with history. In 2000-2001, Hugo Chavez proposed the creation of "Bolivarian circles" - círculos bolivarianos. These were groups of people in different areas who were supported by the government. They had to do social work. But from these circles other groups then developed, which were armed and trained by the same authorities in order that they, as it was called, defended the revolution.

(Chavez, I swear to you: my vote is for Maduro)

These aggressive groups made themselves felt in 2002, when an attempt was made to change the political system in the country and when Chavez was temporarily removed from power [the coup attempt lasted two days]. Those who then took to the streets to suppress the demonstration (more than a million people took part in the actions in Caracas alone) - these were just the representatives of these aggressive Bolivarian circles. They were armed. Members of the "Bolivarian circles" and the military then killed 19 people and wounded hundreds of people.

After that, the mugs were called kolectivos. Now there are still collectives who are engaged in cultural work. And there are armed collectives, paramilitaries.

And how do these armed collectives make themselves felt today?

You can see them at demonstrations. Here are the police, the national guard, and behind or next to them are armed civilians doing dirty work that the military does not want to do. That is, those who shoot at the demonstrators are not always the military or the police. Collectivos provoke clashes between peaceful demonstrators and the collectivos themselves in order to justify the intervention of the police and the military. Sometimes they detain people, and at that moment you ask yourself the question: “Who gave them the right?” Answer: "They act in concert with the government."

These groups have concentrated so much power in their hands that there are entire districts that are actually controlled by the collectivos. If we talk about Caracas, then this is the "January 23" area. The police have no authority there, they do not control this zone at all. There, everything is run by the collectives, and this exists throughout the country, including in the border areas.

Collectivos tell the government which of the locals support and who do not support the policy of the authorities. They listen to what people say. Depending on this, it is then decided who will receive assistance from the state, for example, CLAP boxes [boxes of food that the government gives out to the poor in the country], and who does not. People are afraid to say what they think, because they know that armed collectives are watching those who do not agree with the policies of the authorities.

You have already touched on the topic of political persecution. What is the situation now?

Since 2014, we have counted 15,175 politically motivated arrests. These could be participants in demonstrations, people who were called oppositionists, critics of the authorities and dissidents. And what is important: these numbers are constantly changing, every day someone else is detained and sent to prison. Today we have 454 political prisoners. But this does not mean that there are no other cases. We are currently looking into other cases. We approach the question of who can be called a political prisoner very carefully. In recent months, the figure has decreased because there were no major demonstrations. And even at the mass actions that took place in the first months, there were no such large-scale detentions as in 2014. Now the repressions have turned from mass to selective.

What do you have in mind?

A person can be detained simply for being part of some social group. This is what happens to journalists, judges, students. Judge Maria Lourdes Afiuni was detained in order to show what happens to those who go against the wishes of the authorities [Afiuni released from arrest the banker Eligio Cedeno, who spent almost three years in prison without trial, being accused of currency speculation, The UN declared his arrest illegal, the judge herself was detained shortly after and sent to prison for several years]. She wasn't just arrested. She was tortured.

People are also detained so that the authorities can find justification for their speeches. For example, they say: “There is no bread in the bakeries because the bakers have taken their own flour.” But this is a lie. There is no bread because there is no flour, and there is no flour because the authorities no longer have the production capacity. But the government needs someone to shift the blame. Then they detain 20-30 bakers and say: “Here are those who took your bread away from you.” The same thing happened to real estate agencies when the real estate crisis hit a few years ago, to brokerage and bank managers when the economic crisis hit and the bolivar devalued. It was the same with the pharmacists when the drugs ran out. They were accused of taking away their medicines.

Who else has been persecuted in recent years?

In 2018, the government was very concerned about what was happening in military circles. Last year's repressions affected the entire society, but primarily the military, as well as members of their families and acquaintances. Something happened that forced the government to start repressive measures against the military. For some reason that is unknown to me, the government began to suspect the military of conspiracies. They were arrested without any reason. They were then severely tortured to prevent other military personnel from rebelling against the government.

There was just a case that happened to Captain Acosta Arevala [he was accused of being a member of a group that allegedly planned a coup at the end of June]. Areval was so severely tortured that when he was taken to court, he had to be rushed to the hospital, where he died. The government thus wants to say to the military: "Don't you dare rebel against me." Such repressions in our country are a common occurrence. Today there are 454 political prisoners, and tomorrow the figure may be different. If tomorrow there is some kind of manifestation or someone starts to be persecuted, then 200-300 people can be detained. On average, in the last two years the number of political prisoners has been around 700-800 (sometimes more, sometimes less).

2019 will be remembered for the most massive repressions. At one point we had over 1,000 political prisoners. When Juan Guaidó changed the rules of the game and when it became clear that the Venezuelans wanted change, the government wanted to limit all the critical movements that then appeared.

What is the situation in Venezuelan prisons?

None of the Venezuelan prisons meet the most minimal international standards. Our penitentiary system is very archaic. New prisons were built, but did not solve the problem: Venezuelan correctional facilities are still terribly crowded.

There is one more problem. The last about five prisoners are not sent to special detention centers, but are left in police stations, in units of the national guard, in the offices of the criminal investigation service (Cuerpo de Investigaciones Científicas, Penales y Criminalísticas), because there are no places in prisons. That is, about 40-50 thousand people are not in special detention centers, but in places where there are no conditions for keeping so many people for an indefinite period.

There are problems with the supply of food and medicines in Venezuelan prisons. There are prisoners who are diagnosed with AIDS, hepatitis, skin diseases, and they cannot receive the necessary medical care. This situation is everywhere in our prisons, and there is neither the ability nor the desire on the part of the government to solve this problem.

You have used the word "torture" more than once. What kind of torture and why are they subjected to in Venezuela?

Take, for example, the case of the doctor Jose Alberto Marulanda. He was detained for meeting with the military, who was accused of conspiracy. The woman fled the country, and since they could not find her, her friend, who had nothing to do with this case, was detained. When the man was detained, he was beaten so that he became deaf in one ear, and when they found out that he was a surgeon who specializes in operations on the hands, his hands were broken. Now he can't move his thumb. And on top of that, his ribs were broken.

There have been cases of people having plastic bags placed over their heads and being prevented from breathing until they passed out. Women are threatened with sexual violence, and in some cases the threats become a reality. They can detain the spouse, sisters, daughters of the person they want to “neutralize”, and they tell him that if he does not stop, then his relative will be raped or abused in some other way. They can hit the testicles or other vulnerable places, they can pull out nails, they can shock.

We recently received an appeal that talked about the use of a specially trained dog, which is trained to pounce on people. Or here is another type of torture: they lock you in a cell without ventilation and throw two or three tear gas bombs into it.

I also heard about the so-called "white torture". Do you know anything about this?

Yes, we have received such evidence. There is some kind of secret room, although in fact everyone knows where it is located, namely at the -5th floor in the headquarters of the Bolivarian National Intelligence Service in Plaza Venezuela. The room is set to a very low temperature, artificial lighting is turned on, which burns all day. And then the employees of the department are trying to make you lose track of time. For example, they bring you breakfast at the appointed hour, and after 30 minutes - lunch and say that four hours have actually passed. And then after another 20 hours they give you dinner. At the same time, the detainees cannot sleep because of the cold and the constantly switched on light.

Loss of perception of time provokes serious psychological disorders. People who got there told how they tried to keep track of time. The room is underground, and above it is a metro station. The first and last trains arrived and left at a certain time, and so people could determine approximately what time it was.

But it doesn't help for long, then you lose track of time, you don't know if it's day or night. It is forbidden to wear watches there. It is also not allowed to read and play sports. The people who ended up there did not know how long they were in custody - one, two, three or four days.

The Olympics are about to begin in Brazil, which means it's not out of place to remind you that a traveler in South America needs to be on the alert. Crime in Venezuelan Caracas and in Brazilian Rio de Janeiro is an order of magnitude higher than in Russian cities.

ALEXANDER ZOTIN, Caracas--Bogota--Moscow

"Take care of the camera!"

The capital of Venezuela, Caracas, is the most unsafe city in the world. According to the non-governmental Mexican organization CCSPJP, Caracas finished 2015 with a result of 120 murders per 100 thousand people, the first place in the ranking of the most dangerous cities in the world.

Almost every local resident, be it a simple passer-by, a trader-economist or even a strange senior in a great suit and tie with a thick gold chain over the outfit, who we met at night at the exit of the restaurant, constantly recommended to our photographer Petr Kassin to be very careful with his camera. This refrain even got a little tired, but in the end we could not evaluate the advice - no one encroached on the camera during the entire visit (10 days).

When reality refutes such fears, one can conclude that security is not so bad. Especially considering that we visited three barrios of Caracas with a rather bad reputation (prosperous citizens almost never visit such places).

However, the impression is most likely false. The situation is similar to the study of driver behavior described by the American sociologist Tom Vanderbilt in the book "Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do (and What It Says About Us)". The conclusions are as follows: 90% of drivers consider themselves better than 90% of other drivers on the road. At the same time, purely statistically, driving is quite dangerous (for an American who has been driving for 50 years, the chance of dying in a car accident is one in a hundred). But there is no sense of danger. The problem is that the driver cannot assess the level of risk and the number of errors in any way - exactly until the moment of the accident.

It is the same with crime in Caracas: you can be completely sure of safety exactly until the moment of truth (when you are robbed, kidnapped or killed). But it's hard for a visitor to understand. Even if the probability of being killed or robbed in Caracas is 20, and in the barrio 200 times higher than in Moscow, the chances of getting into an unpleasant story for a person making a short visit to the city are still extremely low.

Although a foreigner is sometimes more vulnerable than a local. First, because he does not know what danger looks like with local color. Secondly, because it stands out from the crowd. Thirdly, he does not know well how to protect himself from danger, which means that as a victim he is more attractive than those who grew up in this environment.

Traces of villainy

Brazilian police trained to prevent and deal with terrorist attacks ahead of the Olympics

Photo: Roosevelt Cassio/File Photo, Reuters

Therefore, my own experience here will not be too representative. We have to rely on circumstantial evidence. And there are plenty of them.

High-rise buildings in poor areas have barred windows, but not like in Russia - on the first floor, but in general on all floors, from the first to the last. In rich areas, this is not the case, but fences of two or three meters with live wire are common. Almost all cars in Caracas have tinted windows. Without them, it is dangerous (in the Colombian capital of Bogota, where embassy employees still get to the city from the airport in armored jeeps, there are much fewer tinted cars). On the streets, everyone is afraid of malandros bandits on motorcycles - they are mobile, armed and can point a gun at those sitting in a nearby car in order to rob. Sometimes malandros kill normal motorcyclists in order to get their hands on a motorcycle. It is risky to get stuck in a traffic jam at night in a "bad" area.

The police exist solely for themselves. Although they can start investigating something if you pay. The plural is not accidental - there are many different police forces. The reputation of the Caracas metro police is especially bad - they say that she herself is involved in robberies.

There are practically no expensive cars on the roads - it's dangerous. A rare exception is luxury cars without numbers. Drivers of such cars can not refuse some aesthetics. For example, on the Jaguar, a jaguar is drawn on the number plate. Sometimes such a car is accompanied by a motorcade - a cavalcade of armed motorcyclists. But the passengers of such cars are specific gentlemen. These are either big bandits, or influential people in power (enchufados, "thieves"), or army generals. Their domestic crime rarely touches, they themselves can attack anyone.

Life in the barrio

Residents of Caracas, Rio de Janeiro and many other cities in South America do not risk wearing expensive jewelry, but the costume jewelry business is booming

The geography of crime is intricate. The historical center of the city is ghettoized, however, this is typical for almost all Latin American cities. The business center is more or less safe, but it has its own problems. For example, the capture of certain buildings by squatters. Thus, the unfinished skyscraper of the Confinances financial center (45 floors, 190 m), better known as Torre David, was occupied by squatters in 2007. In 2011, the number of residents of the skyscraper reached 5 thousand (now they have already been evicted to social housing).

But the main problems are elsewhere. The five-millionth Caracas is divided into the city itself and the barrio - slums on the slopes of the mountains around. Although there are plenty of such places in the city itself, there is no clear division between the city and the barrio. The term "barrio" has different meanings in different Spanish-speaking countries. In Colombia, Argentina, Uruguay, in Spain itself, this is just a neighborhood, a district, without any negative connotation (in Colombia, for example, there are very luxurious barrios). In Venezuela and, for example, in the Dominican Republic, this is precisely a slum, disadvantaged area with one-two-story buildings. In a typical barrio, there is no normal sewerage, normal electricity supply, no roads (instead of them, rather passages), residents do not have property rights to squatter construction.

Historically, barrios are settlements of former peasants (campesinos) who came to the cities for a better life. In the case of Venezuela, the barrios owe their large numbers to the fact that after the introduction of low food prices from 1939 to the present day, agriculture in the country remains economically unprofitable. Former campesinos simply have no choice but to move closer to the city, hoping either for unskilled work, or for handouts from the state, or for robbery and drug trafficking. In addition to the Venezuelans, the barrio residents include many labor migrants and their descendants from Colombia, Ecuador and other countries who came to Venezuela during the oil boom of the 1970s.

Prosperous areas sometimes coexist with barrios without any transitions. For example, one of the richest areas of Caracas, the Country Club with golf courses, lives side by side with the Chapellin barrio. Often, mini-barrios appear next to rich microdistricts - servants live there. They are generally safe. But there are also huge barrio-cities. About a million people live in the largest barrio of Caracas, Petare, it is a whole shadow city with its own economy. There are also smaller ones - 23 de Enero, for example (110 thousand inhabitants). Such barrios even have a historical center, central squares - plaza, there are streets and even addresses for some houses. However, further on, the streets still turn into mountain paths (almost all barrios are on the slopes of the mountains, hence the motorcycle as the main means of transportation). The power of the state is limited here - the police poking around only for the sake of some high-profile special operations.

A normal driver will not take you to the barrio - it's not safe. More often than not, he has never been there - there is no need. If you still want to go, you need to negotiate with special people - fixers, or guides (most often they themselves are from the barrio). Our guides were Rachel Beaufroyd (an English volunteer who has been living in the Petare barrio for five years) and Rafael (a Colombian from the Manicomio barrio).

At 23 de Enero, Rachel and Rafael do not feel very confident - this is not their barrio. But the place is very interesting. Hugo Chavez considered himself a resident and voted in the respective polling station. Now the pompous mausoleum of Chávez coexists here with social high-rise buildings and barracks, dotted with graffiti with the leader of the Colombian FARC Raul Reyes, the radical supporter of Chavez Lina Ron and the slogan Con Chavez todo, sin Chavez plomo ("Together with Chavez - everything, without Chavez - a bullet"). Members of the colectivos (armed pro-government groups such as the ultra-left Tupamaro) also live here.

There are also bandits (there is no clear line between armed colectivos and bandits). At 23 de Enero we turned into one of the passageways and briskly moved up the hill. No one interfered with us, the residents just watched us. Three years ago I was already in this barrio, and then the external effect was stronger - I was accompanied by people with walkie-talkies and machine guns. Then I met a colorful Arab there with a bizarre tattoo on his arm - he, smiling, allowed himself to be photographed. The text of the tattoo described the exploits in the war with the Israelis. Radicals from all over the world find shelter in Venezuela.

Rachel and Rafael fell behind us a little, then they caught up and told us to leave. And similar places can be seen elsewhere - where they live, for example, in Manicomio. I asked for an explanation. “The barrio is generally safe,” Rachel replied, “but inside the barrio there may be bad areas, streets. Often the residents themselves do not know who the bandits are, they are actually members of secret societies.”

The atmosphere of the barrio confirms these words - the windows of the unauthorized construction are also barred here, everyone is afraid of everyone, even the neighbors. A shop selling local ice cream is under a powerful "visor". Locals often rob each other, showdowns happen, and even real wars.

The reason for the showdown can be both purely criminal (the main topic is drug trafficking) and domestic: someone erected a squatter under another’s nose, seized land, dumped garbage on someone else’s territory (the housing problem ruined not only Muscovites). A typical situation occurs when heavy rains wash away buildings. Their inhabitants are forced to settle somewhere again, often on the plots of more successful neighbors. Every now and then conflicts flare up, there are victims, after which the confrontation can develop into a uniform vendetta, which in the barrio is called la culebra. It can go on for years.

However, this is a separate rather closed world, strangers here inspire suspicion. Even the religion of the inhabitants of the barrio often has its own. “See the man in white?” says Rachel. Stealth is here too. Another cult is the veneration of Mary Lyons (the goddess of nature, as an object of faith that arose on the basis of the image of the Virgin Mary), even more secret and associated with malandros.

But the latter are not so many. A barrio with a hundred thousand or a million inhabitants cannot be made up of bandits alone. The vast majority of people live a peaceful life - they trade, study, dance tambor in the local "house of culture". The bandit occupies the niche of a social predator, and there should be few predators, otherwise there will not be enough food supply.

With the "food base" of the bandits under the Chavistas, the problem is too serious competition from the state. For example, the city has stopped robbing banks for three years (although the murder rate is constantly rising). Why? It makes no sense. The largest local bill - 100 bolivars - is equal to 10 cents or 6 rubles. So it is physically impossible to carry away more than a few thousand dollars in local currency (circulation of dollars is prohibited) (and the story with banknotes itself is sophisticated corruption, also a robbery, but already on the part of the state, see the material "Money and disgust for them in Caracas").

Caracas is a dangerous road, you are always on the alert, ready for the unexpected. And even if you play it safe and exaggerate the danger (which seems very likely), this is partly rational, because the price of a mistake is too high. Most people don't carry anything of value with them, and the middle and upper classes have long since switched over to electronic payments. Electric wire for the rich, "roses" from broken bottles in cement for the poor. The culture of danger gives rise to methods of adaptation to it.

Crime Olympics

But in addition to adaptation, a successful struggle is also possible. For example, cities such as Juarez in Mexico and Medellin in Colombia have fallen out of the CCSPJP ranking of the 50 most dangerous cities in the world in recent years. The murder rate in Medellin in the 1990s exceeded 300 people per 100,000 people per year, now it is a more or less safe city. The same can be said about the Colombian capital of Bogota - the historic center of the city is simply flooded with police.

And about the capital of the 2016 Olympics, Rio de Janeiro. In the CCSPJP list of the 50 most dangerous cities in the world, 21 represent Brazil, but Rio is considered relatively safe. At the same time, it would be reckless to talk about the complete safety of tourists at the Brazilian Olympics.

“Brazilian gangsters rarely kill tourists, but they rob with pleasure,” notes traveler Bronislav Dolgopyat, who has lived in the favelas (Brazilian analogue of the barrio) for several years. In general, in Rio, judging by his words, the situation with the slums is better than in Caracas. It is said that Rio is a city of world importance, therefore, the problem of favelas has become international.

The World Cup and the Olympic Games brought Brazil to the attention of the whole world. In 2008, the program of pasification (pacification) of the favelas was launched. At the very least, 136 out of 900 favelas have been pasified so far, the crime rate in them has decreased by 60%.

“Private entrepreneurs and sponsors came, new shops, bars and hostels opened, in some favelas (Santa Marta, Vidigal, Cantagalo, Babilonia) it became so calm that tourists began to visit them,” says Dolgopyat. “The favelas in the south of Rio were lucky, close to famous beaches.These favelas are visited by celebrities and politicians - Sting, Bill Clinton, Madonna, Prince William, Barack Obama, Edward Norton, Vin Diesel, Sylvester Stallone, Snoop Doggy Dog, Rihanna, Katy Perry. David Beckham bought a house in the favela Vidigal and opened a football school for local kids. But the favelas on the periphery, in the suburbs of Baixada Fluminense, were not so lucky. Their destiny is poverty and oblivion."

However, the gradual pasification of the favelas in Rio gives a chance that even the most disadvantaged of them will eventually become more comfortable for life. Although, most likely, not soon.

For the short time of the Olympics, the safety of tourists is more important for the authorities. From July 24, for three months ahead, the authorities of Rio will strengthen the police of the city with army units (38 thousand soldiers). The order will also be monitored by a satellite specially bought in Israel, programmed to identify suspicious objects and persons. However, as CCSPJP analysts note, “the authorities have traditionally preferred a quantitative approach to a qualitative one,” so no one is immune from surprises at the Olympics.

Image copyright Reuters Image caption The Venezuelan government has acknowledged the problem of homicides, although the official statistics are much lower

2011 was a record year for Venezuela in terms of the number of murders, local human rights activists say.

According to their data, 19,336 murders were committed in the past year, that is, on average, 53 people lost their lives every day.

This is the highest figure among other countries in South America, say human rights activists from the Venezuela Violence Observatory (OVV).

Mexico has four times fewer violent deaths than Venezuela, with a population of 29 million.

The topic of crime is expected to become one of the main ones in the run-up to next year's presidential elections. The current head of state Hugo Chavez is going to run for a new term.

According to human rights activists, based on a study involving several universities in Venezuela, the murder rate in the country in 2011 was 67 per 100,000 people.

For comparison, in neighboring Colombia and Mexico, countries with a serious problem of drug-related violence, the same rate is 32 and 14 per 100,000 people, respectively.

The Venezuelan government has acknowledged the existence of a homicide problem, although official statistics are much lower, at 48 per 100,000 population.

What are the causes of violence?

Human rights activists say violent crime has been on the rise in Venezuela since Hugo Chavez came to power in 1999. Only 4,550 murders were recorded that year.

The general reasons for the growth are not indicated, but, according to human rights activists, the problem is exacerbated by impunity, since in the vast majority of cases the killer avoids responsibility.

Another factor is the large number of privately owned weapons.

Along with the murders, the number of robberies and kidnappings increased.

In November, President Hugo Chávez announced the creation of a new branch of the armed forces, the so-called People's Guard, to strengthen public security.

Thousands of military personnel, along with police officers, patrol the streets of Caracas and other places where the crime rate is high.

Several Latin American countries have higher homicide rates than the rest of the world, at 6.9 per 100,000 people.

Honduras had the highest homicide rate in 2010, at 82 per 100,000 people, according to the UN.

Caracas is the most criminal city in the world.

Places of interest, Activities, Travel report in Venezuela, Caracas

Three impressions of Caracas

It just so happened that in the three weeks of our trip to South America, we ended up in Caracas three times. And although we did not really have time to see the city, the impressions from it remained vivid. First of all, because of the adventures that we managed to get into.

impression 1.

So, our first day in South America. Around 4 o'clock in the afternoon. Denis and I are sitting in a taxi at the exit of Caracas International Airport. In the front seats, a black taxi driver and his currency brother are counting out a fat wad of bolivars for us.

An officer of the Venezuelan National Guard, of whom there are a great many at the Caracas airport, seems to be calmly watching this actually illegal business from the street. They give us bolivars - we count them, in return we give dollars. At this moment, a valiant representative of the national guard knocks on the window, demanding to open the car door. I had a slight panic. One of them gets out of the car and begins to explain himself. The officer only smiled ironically in response. We know it would be nice to get out... but the car doors are locked. We demand to let us out, but the taxi driver only makes a helpless gesture…
The money changer returns to the car, after which we move off under the escort of the National Guard. Guards motorcycles ride ahead and behind. To me, having read the reviews about the shmons of tourists in Venezuela, it becomes extremely clear: we got it. At least for money, or even worse ... And this is on the very first day of vacation ...

We leave the airport ... One of the money changers rips out the radio and hides dollars there. Seeing this, we also frantically begin to shove bolivars and other cash into hiding places in trousers. We ask you to stop the car several times - the blacks wave their heads and point at the motorcycles of the national guard - they say, we cannot do anything. In return, they urge us to tell the guards that we only changed $100.

After 5 minutes, we stop in a nice place with well-groomed flower beds near the road - it becomes clear that we will not be taken to the site. Here begins a showdown between the senior guardsman and one of the money changers. He returns to the car and says that the police are demanding 100 dollars from him. We shrug: we don’t know anything, we don’t understand - it’s none of our business. The officer demands to open the back door of the car and carefully examines us. At this time, for some reason, I begin to say menacingly that we are tourists and will file a complaint with the tourist police. Denis intelligently pulls me back. I don’t know what saved us, but the officer suddenly lets go of our car - motorcycles with guards leave. The taxi driver moves in the opposite direction from the airport - obviously towards the city. This does not suit us at all - by desperate gestures and loud explanations we are forced to turn the car back to the airport. We sigh calmly only when we get out of the taxi. It remains to be hoped that the bolivars they gave us were not fake ...

Now we need to get to the city. Taxis in Caracas are expensive, and the distance is decent, so they require 130-150 bolivars. We decide to take a bus from the local terminal - you need to walk 300 meters to it. The price of a bus ticket is 18 bolivars; a tag with a ticket number is put on luggage. Time is around 17:30. Finally, you can relax a little.

On the way we look at the views from the window. Quite prosperous areas are replaced by favelas - they go high into the mountains. And there are practically no roads - it seems that the poor get to the top on foot. Pictures of Rio de Janeiro come to mind. We are entering Caracas. The first stop is at the Gato Negro metro station. The area, according to reviews, is unsafe, although the picture on the street is very colorful - many street vendors, fruits, various food. We decide to go to the final - El Silencio metro.

Prosperous area of ​​Caracas

The metro in Caracas is quite decent, almost like in Europe. It is difficult to get lost - only a few branches. The fare is cheap, one trip is only 0.25 bolívar. The audience is colorful - the Negro type of appearance clearly prevails over the Spanish. Women are usually dressed very brightly. We take the main line 1 to the Collegio Ingenerios station, where the Rodovias bus station (one of the best private bus companies) is located. We buy tickets to Ciudad Bolivar, from where our journey to the highest Angel Falls in the world will begin ...

impression 2.

After our journey to the Angel Falls, which has already been written about on the forum, Denis and I returned by night bus from Ciudad Bolivar to Caracas. The capital of Venezuela is not the most pleasant city in the world, but it was almost a whole day before our plane to Lima, so, despite all the horror stories that we would certainly be robbed or even killed in Caracas, we decided to see the most criminal city in the world.

We arrived in Caracas at six o'clock in the morning, the bus stopped at the station not far from the metro station on the main line. We fall out of the bus, sleepy and rumpled. It starts to light up. Still not crowded. On the way to the subway, we pass an underground passage littered with garbage and broken bottles. Creepy - I would not like to be here at night alone. Still, the most criminal city in the world :). And here we are wandering around in the dark with backpacks and all the savings. But the mission turns out to be feasible - after 5 minutes we are already standing at the metro station.

We buy tickets for 0.25 bolivars and go to the main bus station of Caracas La Bandera. This is the only place we know of in the city where there is a left-luggage office. We have to stay in the city until the evening, so we need to get rid of backpacks.

We follow the instructions of the Lonely Planet guide, which helped us out more than once in Caracas. We get off at the La Bandera metro station and walk about 300 meters, as it is written in the guidebook, through an "unsafe, busy environment". Well, foreigners, maybe this area will scare, but not our brother. La Bandera is like noisy Moscow train stations. Luggage storage is located on the top floor of the station at the very end (there is a dead end). They charge for one item, the first hour - 4 bolivars, the next - 2 bolivars.
There are small cafes nearby. In one of them we had breakfast for 15 bolivars per nose (coffee and pies). The owner of the cafe immediately tried to buy dollars from us cheaply, but was politely dismissed.

After a short discussion, we decide to start exploring Caracas from the city center. As such, there are no tourist attractions in the capital of Venezuela, in our subjective opinion. We rejected the funicular to Mount Avila because of the large time costs. We decided to see the colonial center and the tourist area near Plaza Venezuela.

We get to the El Silencio metro station and exit into the city, as indicated in the LP - onto La Bolsa street. For a long time we can not orient ourselves in the narrow streets of the center. We ask the police, but, as it turned out, they are directing us in the opposite direction. As a result, instead of Plaza Bolivar, we go to the El Calvario park - it is located on a hill, which leads to a very steep and high staircase with a hundred steps. We decide to climb up and look at the city from a height. At the top, there is a nice and fairly well-groomed park with paths and sculptures. There is a reconstruction going on here, and the workers, smiling broadly, shout at us the phrase traditional for Venezuela: “Gringo, do you have dollars?”. The hill offers a good view of both the center of Caracas and the slums on the slopes around the city.

Panorama of Caracas. Favelas in the hills in the distance

We go down and, finally, having oriented ourselves, we find Plaza Bolivar. Almost all the sights in the center of Caracas are somehow connected with the name of Simon Bolivar. In the central square there is an equestrian statue of the liberator of Venezuela dated to the 1870s. There is a small park where you can take a break from the heat.

In Venezuela, the cult of the liberator of South America Simon Bolivar

Many of the main attractions of Caracas are located on the square - the cathedral, in the chapel of which there is a sculpture depicting the praying Bolivar family. Nearby in a colonial-style building is the Museum of Sacred Art (Museo Sacro de Caracas) with an exposition of religious objects. On the square is the building of the municipality of Caracas (Concejio Municipal), where in 1811 the declaration of independence of Venezuela was signed.

Near the square is a large beautiful building of the National Capitol (Capitolio Nacional).

Colonial Caracas

After seeing the colonial sights, we moved north along Av. Norte. This is a pedestrian street, a kind of Venezuelan Arbat with a lot of shops and shops. Almost everywhere they sell cheap Chinese goods - the local color is not felt at all. In the center, we met only one shop with souvenirs, and there, apart from the busts of Che Guevara and Castro, there was nothing to see.

The promenade led us to another object of worship for the Venezuelans - the national Pantheon (Panteon National) - the tomb of the most famous Venezuelans, where the remains of Simon Bolivar himself are buried. On the square in front of the Pantheon, we saw a large group of schoolchildren dressed in the same uniform - teachers in costumes and with painted faces played a pantomime for them. Apparently, this is how children are introduced from local history and Chavez's ideas about the chosenness and special path of Venezuela are hammered into their heads from childhood.

Patriotic classes with Venezuelan children are held in the fresh air and in a playful way

On the way back, we turned east from Plaza Bolivar, towards El Venezolano Square. Here is Casa Natal de Bolivar, the colonial house where Simon Bolivar was born. Nearby is the building of the Bolivar Museum (Museo Bolivariano) with an exposition telling about the struggle for the country's independence. In general, almost everything in the center is somehow connected with the name of the libertador.

As expected, the historic center of the city did not make a big impression, and we took the metro and went to look at the modern day of Caracas - in the Plaza Venezuela area (Metro Plaza Venezuela). Compared to the center, it is spacious here - wide streets, parks, there are even skyscrapers. But mostly you should come here just to walk along Sabana Grande, a wide pedestrian street with many restaurants, cafes and shops. In one of the open street restaurants we had lunch, eating a large pizza (45 bolivars for lunch per person). There are practically no tourists, locals sit in restaurants and gossip about life over a cup of coffee. We looked into the shops - the same Chinese trash prevails.

The Plaza Venezuela area is more presentable and quiet for tourists

We decided to move to the airport ahead of time, knowing that there was terrible traffic in Caracas (I read a warning on the forum that it is better to leave 4.5 hours before departure). Buses to the airport depart from the terminal near the Parque Central metro station, on the west side of Parque Central. Despite having a detailed map in LP, I had to resort to the help of locals to find the bus terminal. Of course, there are no signs, and the terminal itself is located in the passage under the bridge - the place is not the most noticeable.

The fare to the airport is the same 18 bolivars. You check in your luggage, get a check and stand in a short queue for the bus. Despite the daytime, we reached the airport surprisingly quickly - less than an hour. We checked in at the LAN counter for flight LA2565 with a flight to Lima at 19.20. We paid an airport tax of 137.5 bolivars and quickly, without queues, passed through border control.

A funny story happened here - an elderly border guard, twirling my passport in his hands, asks with curiosity: “Yuri?”. I confirm with a nod of my head. He nods his head in satisfaction, smiles broadly and raises his thumb: “Yuri Gagarin” . I have not yet heard such associations with my name . Maybe the myth about the warm attitude of the Venezuelans to Russia is not a fiction?

There were about two hours left before departure, and Denis and I got the opportunity to thoroughly explore the duty free shops at the Caracas airport. I wouldn't say the prices are very cheap. Perfumes cost 5-10 bucks cheaper than in dutik shops in Europe. At the same time, price tags have been torn off on most boxes with perfume - it is obvious that the price has recently been increased. The choice is small. The same can be said about clothing. It makes sense to buy duty free rum (Cacique costs only 24 bolivars), chocolate, coffee, cigars - in general, local goods.

We flew to Lima in over 4 hours. I liked flying with LAN - new planes, polite and smiling flight attendants. On the flight Caracas - Lima, each seat is equipped with a personal video monitor: you can watch movies, listen to music or play games. They serve sandwiches, wine and beer. In the salon, 99% of the audience is of Spanish appearance, many colorful gray-haired seniors, drinking this very wine with dignity.

impression 3.

(After 2.5 weeks).

…The last day in South America. I buy coffee and chocolate in Duty free Caracas. Over the loudspeaker at the airport they announce: such and such passengers, including me, urgently need to go to the departure gate. There are still 40 minutes before departure. I check the information about my flight on the electronic scoreboard, and return back to the store.

This is where Denis finds me:

You urgently need to approach the Iberia staff in our gate. I already talked to them - there are some problems with your luggage ...

What to do, I go to the gate. Smiling girls from Iberia ask you to wait. After 10 minutes, another member of the Venezuelan National Guard appears - this time a girl with a stone face. She puts a bright yellow neon vest on me. Why, why - no one can explain, and no one tries. Soon a respectable middle-aged Spanish woman is added to my company, she is also put on a yellow vest.

It's already time for the plane to take off, and we are still being led to observe the shmon of our luggage. Passports are taken away at a checkpoint along the way. Police officers inspect everything, down to underwear and socks. Nothing forbidden, of course, is not found. Then they ask: where is my passport? So you yourself, comrade revolutionaries, took him away from me! Well, yes, they do remember.

Under the escort of another girl from the guard, I was taken to the policeman, who took away the documents. In front of him is an empty table, in the center of which lies my passport alone. The guardsman lazily flips through it and finds a tiny coca leaf (That's understandable, we're coming from Peru, where we chewed coca leaves from a height. But how did this unfortunate leaf get into my passport?!). The officer calmly puts the passport on one half of the table, sniffs a coca leaf and puts it on the other half of the table. You should have seen this picture! And what, now they will write me down as drug couriers?

Fortunately, all ends well. They return my passport, for some reason they take me to do an X-ray, they drag me to three more offices in different parts of the airport, where they make me sign papers that I myself and my luggage have been examined.
The girl from the National Guard accompanying me becomes kind and sympathetically interested in where I come from. I say that from Russia.

Amigo! She suddenly smiles widely.

There were several people like me, "lucky" in our plane, so we took off 2 hours late.

Sorry sir, we have nothing to do with it. This is the national guard - they do what they want, - the stewardess of the Iberia spread her hands.

The country of Venezuela is good for everyone, but after our adventures, I became disillusioned with the regime of Hugo Chavez and did not buy his figurine as a souvenir, as I wanted before the trip ...

You can't hide from Hugo Chavez, you can't hide...

Three impressions of Caracas It just so happened that in the three weeks of our trip to South America, we ended up in Caracas three times. And although we did not really have time to see the city, the impressions from it remained vivid. First of all, because of the adventure...