Severe crisis is forcing Venezuelans to reinvent themselves

the lomester avila apartment complex in caracas its residents have tended to be middle class first home buyers seeking convenience and some spectacular views but now these buildings are home to a phenomenon that is the consequence of a seven year economic collapse and then a pandemic people all over the world are working from home but that's not quite what's happening here 253 apartments in this group of buildings are used to run small businesses some tower blocks have become like vertical supermarkets walking down these corridors we came across a travel agent selling detergent an engineer who's now a baker an accountant who makes decorations for children's parties and dozens of home-based beauty salons all this fits into a pattern of something that's happening across venezuela the state is retreating and to varying degrees everyone is having to fend for themselves dreams of middle class comforts are vanishing everything is up for sale [Music] it's monday morning in caracas and maria and her partner ronald are preparing stock for the busy day ahead detergent has become extremely expensive in this city she set up a small business which bottles wholesale cleaning products she sells them to her neighbors maria was an international travel agent a tough business in contemporary venezuela [Music] she doesn't have to go far to find those clients next door lives the chele family [Music] her neighbor brings maria bread which is actually how she pays for the detergent [Music] this barter system is quite common in venezuela which has been in hyperinflation for years leading to a shortage of cash productivity but nobody is pretending this is easy maria who also delivers beer to her neighbors says there's barely any space to live in her home which has been entirely taken over by the business [Music] organization maria spent most of her previous working life in an office now her job is very much more manual these bottles she sometimes finds by searching nearby bins [Music] she's philosophical at the challenges circumstance has thrown at her that her ambition is to expand her business into a delivery service her partner is currently her sole driver [Music] the bakery next door to maria is run by ivan and his wife maleni the last few years have been a roller coaster for them too yvonne used to work for the state electricity company a job which initially gave him a good salary enough to buy this apartment but by 2016 he was earning the equivalent of only a few dollars a month so he resigned and studied how to bake bread he never expected to be doing this but found being an engineer useful training they live in this apartment with their two children and ivan's mother as well as running a bakery at home the father is also home schooling ivan was the first in his family to get a degree the result of a monumental personal effort on his party [Music] [Music] he refers to is the decline of many public services in venezuela mostly the result of bad management electricity has been particularly affected power cuts are commonplace partly because there's been an exodus of workers from the company because salaries are so low confronted with looming unemployment ivan did what he'd done before he studied his small business is working well but this was not his ambition people sometimes talk about a collapse of the middle class in venezuela yvonne knows what that means h [Music] the yo he's proved himself a successful baker and his salary has gone from two dollars a month working for the electricity company to around 120 now but part of him still wishes he was an engineer [Music] venezuela [Music] ivan and maria's story is repeated thousands of times across this capital as professionals seek new ways to stay afloat in this unusual economy but in the countryside things are far more extreme here it's not a question of learning a new trade to make a living people are selling everything they have for their immediate needs this is yarrae a small town less than an hour from the capital [Music] billy works selling vegetables in a local market stall she lives outside the town in a social housing project built around 15 years ago under the presidency of the late uga chavez up until venezuela's economic downturn around seven years ago billy said she was doing quite well she was selling cars middle class aspirations seemed within her reach now her own car is rusting away she showed us inside her home billy is running out of money as her possessions are worth something in dollars she's selling them oh [Music] [Music] [Music] is is foreign the situation in the apartment next door is even worse sandra is a single mother of seven she thought her dreams had come true when she was given this home a decade ago after camping outside the presidential palace for six weeks and pleading her case now things have taken a serious downturn she's selling whatever she can l [Music] for all her difficulties sandra's spirit is impressive [Music] like all the people that we spoke to she's had to confront a new reality perhaps inevitable when a country which has flirted with prosperity has descended to this but she's not alone millions of venezuelans have had to put aside their former dreams and do their best to start again you

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Id: H3h_NqC0DNE

Length: 17min 37sec (1057 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 06 2021