In this special report, HumVenezuela analyzes and evaluates the country’s declining capacity to guarantee the population’s rights to access dignified living conditions free from risks that threaten their lives, integrity, security, subsistence and freedom to seek solutions to the individual or collective problems they face.
Caracas, july 2023
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THE COMPLEX HUMANITARIAN EMERGENCY IN VENEZUELA has not improved as long as the factors that caused the structural collapse of the country’s capacities are still present. The collapse of these capacities has continued to deepen, generating large and overlapping gaps of social deprivation that make them impossible to overcome for the majority of the population.
Understanding the collapse involves looking back in time to find the factors that contributed to a slow, systematic and cyclical decline of political instability and increasingly acute and severe disintegration of the country’s institutional, economic and social capacities, causing in 9 years the collapse of almost 70% of these capacities and a large-scale Complex Humanitarian Emergency during 7 of those 9 years, with devastating impacts on the population.
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The collapse has destroyed the security, welfare and development systems of several generations of Venezuelans. The deepening of the collapse led to the growth of social deprivation gaps of great size and duration, associated with the absence of the State, which today form a circle of superimposed deprivations, impossible to overcome for people, in which situations of human insecurity predominate due to the dynamics of control by scarce resources, a generalized state of helplessness in the face of denial, restriction and inequity in the enjoyment and exercise of rights, wide inequalities and the siege of multiple threats.
This work was carried out between November 2022 and June 2023 with the purposes of characterizing the intervening factors in the process of decline of the country’s capacities; presenting the proportions of the collapse in different areas of vital needs of the population and showing its consequences in the humanitarian emergency and the gaps of social deprivation, seen from a community perspective, through qualitative and testimonial evaluations carried out by HumVenezuela organizations in 87 communities in 20 states of the country.
It was particularly important to assess the degree in which deprivation gaps have weakened or exhausted the survival strategies and resources of people and their families, exposing them to vulnerabilities and dangers to their lives, integrity, safety, security, subsistence and freedom to act. It was also important to inquire about the scope of the humanitarian response in the areas where the communities reside and to weigh the efforts required to reduce these gaps, considering the factors of collapse at the level of institutional and operational structures in the community contexts.
Deprivations in themselves represent rights that are not fully and sustainably guaranteed. In the factors associated with deprivations, the assessments showed a great weight of the destructuring of institutional capacities to fulfill protection and security obligations on the part of the State, generating a serious picture of human insecurity in which the population is exposed to abuses, exclusion and violence due to the inaction or action of the structures with which the State operates at the community level.
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Testimonials from communities
In all communities where assessments were conducted, multiple deprivations were identified in access to livelihoods and food, health services, drinking water, basic education, protection and security, and basic services such as electricity, domestic gas, public transportation, urban sanitation and communications. The deprivations are interrelated and overlapping, increasing vulnerabilities and risks of irreparable harm.
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AMAZONAS | Indigenous community of Puerto Ayacucho with 120 inhabitants Handicrafts, carried out by women, have become a survival strategy, but they are poorly paid. They work long hours for only US$3 a month. They also migrate to Colombia or to the mines, which allows them to acquire some goods for their families.
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ANZOÁTEGUI | Urban communities of Puerto La Cruz and Guanta with 11,000 inhabitants Youth are the most affected by unemployment and are exposed to deceptive proposals in which trafficking networks may operate. There are adults and children and adolescents in street situations, looking for food in the garbage or begging
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APURE | Urban communities of Puerto La Cruz and Guanta with 11,000 inhabitants Most people are extremely vulnerable. They generally have no formal or permanent income. Living on what they can earn per day. Cleaning yards and paddocks in nearby farms, washing and ironing other people’s clothes, selling some fruits or vegetables that they produce in their yards or in other communities or towns, fishing in wells or in the river, or have handmade distilleries.
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ARAGUA | Urban communities of Turmero. 2,700 inhabitants They only receive water one day a week, which is not enough for the families’ needs. People buy bottles and refill them in public water tanks, in the homes of family members or neighbors. Women, the elderly and children carry water from neighboring communities or travel distances of 1 km to reach a deep well with no guarantee of quality. The water cannot be consumed because of its bad odor and color
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BOLÍVAR | Urban/rural community of Ciudad Bolívar with 5,500 inhabitants They are limited to planting only in the rainy season, because the lack of water causes them to lose what they harvest. Many families have had to abandon farming and there are no other livelihood options. They have lost the ability to sustain themselves as producers. Crop theft is frequent. People have had to move in groups to get in and out of the community as a security measure
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CARABOBO | Urban communities of Puerto Cabello, Valencia and Paraparal with 40,000 inhabitants As salaries and pensions are not enough to cover food needs, many families ask for food or money as loans. The CLAP appears every 4 months or is delayed longer. It is common for families to reduce food portions or the number of times they eat per day.
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CAPITAL DISTRICT | Urban and indigenous/urban communities in Caracas. 23,000 inhabitants Schools do not receive school meals. Their capacities have worsened greatly due to the withdrawal of teachers and the continuous interruption of classes. Education is of poor quality due to lack of adequate learning tools and high staff turnover.
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FALCON | Urban community of Punto Fijo with more than 1,300 inhabitants – Carirubana Municipality Improvised connections are made to receive electricity without safety measures. The school has no electrical service. There is no lighting in the classrooms and the few meals that arrive cannot be refrigerated. The physical structure of the school is very deteriorated and there are risks of accidents.
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GUARICO | Rural and urban communities of Calabozo. More than 20,000 inhabitants The schools are in very deteriorated conditions due to the obsolescence of the physical structures. There is overcrowding, the bathrooms are collapsed and the spaces are full of weeds. The sanitary infrastructure is very poor and medicines are inaccessible. Garbage and sewage are accumulating, causing parasitic diseases.
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LA GUAIRA | Urban and rural communities of Catia La Mar. 1,500 inhabitants Water is received every 40 days, which impedes sanitation and hygiene. Due to lack of water, people have reduced their consumption or drink it in inadequate conditions. Families ration consumption, wash essential clothes and reuse water.
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LARA | Urban and rural communities of Barquisimeto. 55,000 inhabitants Families must use their precarious income to buy water, travel long distances to get fresh water from springs or collect rainwater. Buying tankers among several families is an eventual option. Families try to receive remittances from relatives abroad, consume less food, eliminate protein from the diet or reduce rations or meals.
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MERIDA | Urban/rural community of Merida. 1,600 inhabitants People must walk or climb stairs, where accidents occur frequently due to their poor condition. Distances and access limitations increase the difficulties of entering and leaving the community, including the impossibility of carrying out economic and educational activities.
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MIRANDA | Urban and rural communities in Caracas, Santa Teresa del Tuy and Guarenas, with more than 90,000 inhabitants Most of them have not had piped water service for 20 years. People must walk long distances over steep hillsides to get water from public standpipes or springs. This work falls mainly on women. Children, adolescents and the elderly are also involved in carrying water.
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MONAGAS | Urban community of Maturin, with 2,600 inhabitants Domestic violence, the presence of gangs, drug and alcohol consumption, control of sectors and collection of vaccinations, family violence, early sexuality in children and adolescents, early pregnancy, school dropout, child labor and homeless children and adolescents are higher.
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NUEVA ESPARTA | Rural/urban community on Margarita Island. More than 260 inhabitants The houses are not connected to the aqueduct system. There is a pump that supplies water, but it is constantly damaged due to lack of maintenance. They receive water every 21 to 60 days and must go to water taps in inaccessible places. The water is also unfit for human consumption.
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SUCRE | Urban and fishing communities of Cumana and the Araya Peninsula. More than 30,000 inhabitants Social and economic inequalities are increasing between families with some regular income and those who have to work to make ends meet. There are severe difficulties in accessing gasoline and oil. Fishermen prefer to sell the fuel allocated to them. Family incomes are not enough to upgrade boats or buy spare parts. A few go out fishing
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TACHIRA | Urban community of San Cristóbal, with 3,000 inhabitants The houses have large cracks and during the rainy season there is a risk of land subsidence and landslides. Sewers run underneath the houses. Some houses have collapsed and the neighbors are rebuilding them with recycled materials. There are no safe shelter alternatives. At least 20 families are at high risk of losing their homes.
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TRUJILLO | Urban communities Altos de San Luis, Barrio El Milagro, Urbanizaciones La Beatriz, Moron and Santa Cruz There is no street lighting, which increases insecurity. Families use flashlights, place light bulbs on the outside of their houses to illuminate the sidewalks and streets or do surveillance work. They run the risk of being mugged, stung by poisonous animals or suffering accidents if they walk at night. Crime has increased.
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YARACUY | Rural communities of Aroa. 220 inhabitants A large part of the community has no public lighting. Families are connected clandestinely. They use phones to illuminate the roads when they walk at night. Electrical failures are constant in the sectors that have connections. Voltage variations damage electrical appliances.
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ZULIA | Indigenous and urban communities of Maracaibo and San Francisco. More than 7,000 inhabitants A frequent activity is collecting scrap metal from garbage dumps to exchange or barter for goods or food. People are exposed to work shifts of more than 10 hours in a single shift. And if they clean a house, they want to be paid a kilo of rice for the day’s work.
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