Venezuelans no longer believe anyone

CARACAS - "I do not believe in anyone," is a phrase that is part of the Venezuelan lexicon. It became popular, in part, by the teenage head of an armed gang that went on YouTube saying that and waving their arms before a camera. He died before the age of 19 years old.

It is something we have always said here in Venezuela almost in jest, a motto of our cheerful disregard for authority. True, we do not believe in anyone.

A more recent video, also recorded in Venezuela, shows a man lying in the street and writhing in pain. He has the face and body on fire. Dogs bark and traffic continues.

A pedestrian walks past and goes on his way. "That's pa 'that you continue stealing," says the man who recorded the video. The victim is a thief. The punishment given by his peers, is one of more than 37 lynching cases have been reported this year in Venezuela. People are taking the law into their own hands. They do not believe in anyone.

Venezuelans of my generation, born in the 80s and 90s, were raised believing some important things: that we are a wealthy nation and we had democracy more stable in South America. Hugo Chavez, president from 1999 until his death in 2013, made his followers believe that his Bolivarian socialism was the path of dignity.

Chavez funneled billions of dollars from oil revenues to the poor, creating an illusion -for a time of growth and inclusion. Five years ago, none of us would have thought that hunger would be part of everyday life for most Venezuelans. To confirm that there hungry I just look out the window.

There is a milkman restaurants catering to my development. When you spare some milk, he parked his truck and sells it to a somber congregation of elderly neighbors who ranks begin to form before dawn. These days, the truck comes less frequently.

The sad scene ends with customers away without being able to buy anything, after hours of waiting. I have learned to identify them by their solemn retreat and tears of rage.

Recently a woman working in a beauty salon nearby decided to join the row with the hope of finding milk. According to the schedule implemented by the government, for their turn to buy necessities is every Friday.

He has stopped going weekly to your local supermarket, not only because he has to work on Fridays, but also because he's afraid to be held at gunpoint by robbers who attack buyers who manage to leave with products in their bags. He told me that takes months without getting formula milk for her granddaughter 8 months old. Is concerned about the quality of breast milk given to her granddaughter, because the mother fed only bread and noodle soup.

Recently our mayor pointed out that stray dogs had disappeared from the town, and people hunt doves in the main square.

I am lucky to go to bed hungry because I have no access to foreign currency to use to buy goods at high prices on the black market. Whenever I travel abroad back with a suitcase full of bags of rice and beans. But most Venezuelans do not find the food they need and when they get it, not enough money to buy it.

These episodes of despair make me fear the arrival of each morning, and stories of suffering kept me awake at night.

Venezuelans have always gotten how to shake off adversity with humor. In 2012, when inflation and poverty had already begun to show the seams of Bolivarian socialism, Chavez made a rare public acknowledgment of the shortcomings of his government.

He said it did not matter if there was no electricity, no water, as long as we were home. The phrase "but we homeland" became a cynical way to mock government propaganda, whenever we faced before an example of the deterioration of our quality of life.

That phrase was replaced by another even more absurd that also became a joke: "God will provide," pronounced by President Nicolas Maduro in a 2015 speech.

The "I do not think anyone" has stopped being fun. It has become the creed of a people who no longer believe in the state as guarantor of justice and security. They exposes betrayal felt by Venezuelans who trust a government that won elections distributing food to the detriment of our democracy, our economy and the rule of law. It is the confession of a government that under the alibi of retornarle dignity to people, decimated the institutions that existed to ensure it.

Today, President Maduro block insists Venezuelans seeking a peaceful regime change through a referendum. The president wants to destroy the belief that Venezuelans can decide our own future.

Some people have resigned themselves to the possibility of a coup, because anything is better than this. The government apparently also wants Venezuelans do not believe in anything.