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Picture of lkdr1989
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In Venezuela, hungry child gangs use machetes to fight for ‘quality’ garbage

As Liliana picks lice from the tangled, thick hair of her boyfriend, Patricio, while they sit together on the sidewalk of a Caracas street, she’s also multi-tasking, keeping a watchful eye on her “family.” When a 10-year-old girl named Danianyeliz kneels down to drink water from a puddle, Liliana reproaches her, urging her to have a sip from a juice bottle they’ve just found in a garbage bag.

At 16, Liliana has become the mother figure for a gang of Venezuelan children and young adults called the Chacao, named after the neighborhood they’ve claimed as their territory. The 15 members, ranging in age from 10 to 23, work together to survive vicious fights for “quality” garbage in crumbling, shortage-plagued Venezuela. Their weapons are knives and sticks and machetes. The prize? Garbage that contains food good enough to eat.

Liliana has a quick, wide smile and goes by the nickname Caramelo. She takes charge of each day for the group, deciding how much food her “family” will consume and how much they will stash away for another day. She settles conflicts that flare up and gives a hug, a kiss or a pat on the back as needed.

“Caramelo is my mummy and Paola is my aunt,” declared Danianyeliz, a newcomer who joined the gang about a month ago. She left home, she said, because there was not enough food to go around. The “aunt” she referred to, Paola, is just 14 and another member of the gang.

Caramelo — who asked that the full names of the group’s members be withheld for fear that they will be targeted by police — has created a hierarchy within the Chacao gang. There’s an inner circle she calls the “small combo.” It includes her, Paola and seven other members who roam the city together to “recycle” black trash bags, meaning they search the bags for food and drink.

Whatever they find, they share. The rest of the gang is left outside of the leadership circle for various reasons — violent behavior, keeping food to themselves or sometimes a personal dislike.

But when it comes to defending their territory, all differences and antipathy are forgotten. Caramelo convenes all 15 members into the “big combo” to present a united front to gangs from different neighborhoods.

That’s how Caramelo’s gang took control of Chacao even though many members don’t come from the neighborhood — including Caramelo, who was born and raised in Junquito, a Caracas neighborhood in the mountains about 10 miles away.

A year ago, the gang was “stationed” around a supermarket at a mall called Centro Comercial Ciudad Tamanaco that generates tons of garbage. But a feared rival gang from the neighborhood Las Mercedes also wanted the garbage.

Caramelo’s gang was attacked and chased out of the zone. So they took their weapons — knives, slingshots, broken glass and machetes — and seized the nearby neighborhood, Chacao.

“At this point, we had enough members and we were organized. We pushed the other group out of here,” said gang member Patricio, 23, who added that the clashes with Las Mercedes group “toughened” them up.

The reason for the violent takeover, which in gang slang is called a “change of government,” was simple and sad — Chacao’s many restaurants offer a better chance to find food in the garbage.

There are at least 10 gangs in the capital, social workers and police estimate. “There were always children on the street in Venezuela, but now we are seeing a new phenomenon — kids who get more food on the street than at their homes,” says Beatriz Tirado, who leads “Angeles de Calle,” or Street Angels, a non-governmental charity.

Tirado claims that all of the Chacao gang members have homes where at least one parent lives.

“Our kids are finding ways to survive because neither in their homes nor in their communities is there enough food,” explains social worker Roberto Patino, who has established 29 public diners all over the country to feed hungry children.

From Monday to Friday, the diners provide food for 1,000 kids every week. Patino said even so, he believes he isn’t coming close to feeding all the children who need the help, given the overwhelming number he sees on the streets. Experts estimate that in Caracas alone, there are in hundreds, if not thousands of street children and young adults.

Patino bemoans that there are not enough resources to help these kids get their lives back on track let alone feed them properly. For now, many have turned to trash bags as a source of nutrition.

And it’s not hunger alone sending children onto the streets. Domestic violence is also often cited. “I left because I got beaten badly,” Caramelo says about her mother, a drug addict.

Caramelo has two aspirations now — she wants to become a criminal justice advocate or to open a candy shop she would name Caramelo’s.

A year ago, she had a miscarriage. Patricio was the father. The baby died, she said, as a consequence of a clash with a rival gang. “A girl from another gang punched me hard in my belly. The next thing I remember was waking up in a hospital,” Caramelo recalled.

Despite that, she returned to the gang, she said, to take care of her “street kids.”

The gang must protect its “zone” from rival gangs searching for food — but that works both ways. Sometimes the Chacao gang ventures into the more affluent neighborhoods of Caracas to look through what they call “quality” garbage bags.

One of those territories is Las Mercedes with high-end restaurants that attract rich Venezuelans. Because garbage bags there often contain leftovers and even untouched food, they are sought after by a number of the gangs.

A gang from the working-class neighborhood of Petare fights for the bags with a gang based in Las Mercedes. “We do fight them because we are hungry just like them. Why should they own the garbage?” asked 22-year-old Andy, who comes from Petare.

As Venezuela’s economy continues to crumble, thousands of its citizens are trekking into Colombia every day — sometimes by walking hundreds of miles on foot through the Andes — to escape chronic shortages of food and medicine, frequent looting and rampant crime. Bogota officials believe that as many as 600,000 Venezuelans are now living in Colombia, creating an immigration crisis. José A. IglesiasMiami Herald Staff

On a recent afternoon, as he checked the trash bags on a sidewalk, he found a jar of corn flour mixed with mayonnaise and ate it all.

“Venezuela got mean. Nobody is generous anymore. That means I have to get nasty and fight to survive,” he said, admitting he owns a machete to “look scary.”

Tirado, the social worker from Angeles de Calle, said she sees the results of the gang clashes: “Every week we have first aid ready to treat cuts and bruises they might have suffered over the week in their fights.”

Charities like Angeles de Calle bring food, medicine and clothing to the needy children. Caramelo’s “family” gets help from the group every Sunday, right on the street.

The gangs claim that in addition to skirmishes with other gangs, they are constantly harassed by police, often at the request of business owners. “My clients are afraid of these gangs and don’t come when they see them hanging around,” said the owner of a pizza restaurant on Francisco Miranda street in Chacao.

The man, who refused to give his name for fear of reprisal, believes the children manipulate people by trying to “pull on their heart strings.”

“They [the children] smudge some dirt over their faces and put on tattered cloth to look miserable,” the owner said.

He said he calls the local police patrol to chase the gang away from his business, a measure that only works for the short term.

Patricio, the oldest member of Caramelo’s gang, claims the police sometimes abuse them. “They burn our shoes and sometimes break our fingers with a baton,” he said.

One high-ranking police officer, who works in the Baruta district that includes affluent neighborhoods like Las Mercedes, didn’t want to be named but said most officers just feel bad for the hungry children they see on the streets. “There are some bad cops, but many others are just stunned by the tragedy of these children,” he said.

However, he added, some children are criminals who steal, assault people and use drugs like crack, sometimes smoked in makeshift pipes made from the parts of discarded plastic dolls.

“When you smoke you don’t feel hungry,” explains Patricio.

Will the members of the gang ever try to leave the street life behind? “I will get out of the street only after my children have an opportunity for a better and happy life,” Caramelo said



http://www.miamiherald.com/new...rticle206950449.html




...let him who has no sword sell his robe and buy one. Luke 22:35-36 NAV

"Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves; so be shrewd as serpents and innocent as doves." Matthew 10:16 NASV
 
Posts: 4330 | Location: Valley, Oregon | Registered: June 03, 2010Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Little ray
of sunshine
Picture of jhe888
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Venezuela sucks.

I heard an interview of a 30-something woman who was a nurse in a smaller town. She hadn't been paid for being a nurse in 18 months, or something along those lines.

To support her children, she traveled to a larger city on her "days off" to work as a prostitute. This is not uncommon.

(At least it isn't a crime. I understand that prostitution is legal and regulated there.)




The fish is mute, expressionless. The fish doesn't think because the fish knows everything.
 
Posts: 53118 | Location: Texas | Registered: February 10, 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Thank you
Very little
Picture of HRK
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either way she goes she is screwed....

It's a tough situation, oil prices down, Venezuela doesn't have the cash flow to sustain its socialist/Marxist government, you'd think this would be a major discussion for youth as to why this type of governance fails,


A perfect example of how, socialism is great until you run out of other peoples money.



 
Posts: 23244 | Location: Florida | Registered: November 07, 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Lawyers, Guns
and Money
Picture of chellim1
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socialism is great until you run out of other peoples money.

... and then it's enforced at the barrel of a gun.

The Chávez government banned private gun ownership in 2012.

But now... Maduro is arming his supporters:

Socialist Venezuelan Leader Steps Up Arming of Supporters After Outlawing, Confiscating Civilian Guns
Maduro plans to arm 400,000 supporters amid protests and unrest
http://freebeacon.com/issues/s...ating-civilian-guns/



"Some things are apparent. Where government moves in, community retreats, civil society disintegrates and our ability to control our own destiny atrophies. The result is: families under siege; war in the streets; unapologetic expropriation of property; the precipitous decline of the rule of law; the rapid rise of corruption; the loss of civility and the triumph of deceit. The result is a debased, debauched culture which finds moral depravity entertaining and virtue contemptible."
-- Justice Janice Rogers Brown

"The United States government is the largest criminal enterprise on earth."
-rduckwor
 
Posts: 23945 | Location: St. Louis, MO | Registered: April 03, 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
His Royal Hiney
Picture of Rey HRH
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quote:
Originally posted by HRK:
either way she goes she is screwed....

It's a tough situation, oil prices down, Venezuela doesn't have the cash flow to sustain its socialist/Marxist government, you'd think this would be a major discussion for youth as to why this type of governance fails,


When you get to that point, there's no discussing politics, just survival.

The politics can easily be spun to blame the imperialistic USA whose policies made Venezuela what it is today. Not that I subscribe to this notion, but that's how I'm seeing liberal articles about Venezuela today.

Just 3 or 4 years ago, Venezuela was a star country in the multinational company I worked for. Our group over there got the drop on our competitors in the face of government regulations and we cornered the market. Then a few years later, faced with what was coming down the line, we actually closed up shop and stopped doing business over there ahead of the current situation.

What was egregious was someone in government wanted to know months ahead of time what we wanted to import down to the sku and lot number and to get approval. We tried to work with that for a while but more and more regulations and the risk of the government taking over the business assets made the decision for our company.



"It did not really matter what we expected from life, but rather what life expected from us. We needed to stop asking about the meaning of life, and instead to think of ourselves as those who were being questioned by life – daily and hourly. Our answer must consist not in talk and meditation, but in right action and in right conduct. Life ultimately means taking the responsibility to find the right answer to its problems and to fulfill the tasks which it constantly sets for each individual." Viktor Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning, 1946.
 
Posts: 19583 | Location: The Free State of Arizona - Ditat Deus | Registered: March 24, 2011Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Picture of bigdeal
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As bad as it is now, I fear its likely to get even worse. Quite sad and completely unnecessary.


-----------------------------
Guns are awesome because they shoot solid lead freedom. Every man should have several guns. And several dogs, because a man with a cat is a woman. Kurt Schlichter
 
Posts: 33845 | Location: Orlando, FL | Registered: April 30, 2006Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Peace through
superior firepower
Picture of parabellum
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As Liliana picks lice from the tangled, thick hair of her boyfriend...
I'm out. That's as far as I got.
 
Posts: 107258 | Registered: January 20, 2000Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Looks like a good place to send the Socialist loving air heads from our Colleges for a first hand experience.
 
Posts: 4472 | Registered: November 30, 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Baroque Bloke
Picture of Pipe Smoker
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I’d feel sorry for them, except that most of ‘em voted for Chávez and Maduro. They’re getting what they deserve.



Serious about crackers
 
Posts: 8854 | Location: San Diego | Registered: July 26, 2014Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Picture of reloader-1
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Originally posted by Pipe Smoker:
I’d feel sorry for them, except that most of ‘em voted for Chávez and Maduro. They’re getting what they deserve.


I didn’t, and I highly doubt that more than 40% of the votes (after the initial Chavez election) went to Chavez, and definitely not Maduro.
 
Posts: 2320 | Location: S. FL | Registered: October 26, 2010Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Baroque Bloke
Picture of Pipe Smoker
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^^^^
Yeah, I was planning to edit my post to add that elections under Maduro were bogus, but your post beat me to it.



Serious about crackers
 
Posts: 8854 | Location: San Diego | Registered: July 26, 2014Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Picture of TigerDore
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I want to know why Danny Glover, Sean Penn, Oliver Stone, Noam Chomsky, Jesse Jackson, Michael Moore, etc, who praised Chavez and his socialist paradise, are not down there doing their part to help the people who are starving and fighting over garbage.



.
 
Posts: 8603 | Registered: September 26, 2013Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Picture of reloader-1
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Originally posted by Pipe Smoker:
^^^^
Yeah, I was planning to edit my post to add that elections under Maduro were bogus, but your post beat me to it.


No worries!

Remember this is a complex issue, and your initial statement of “they deserved it” is a bit harsh. Did we deserve Obama in 2008 and 2012, or are there a bunch of morons out there? I’d imagine it’s more the latter, unfortunately.
 
Posts: 2320 | Location: S. FL | Registered: October 26, 2010Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Lawyers, Guns
and Money
Picture of chellim1
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Did we deserve Obama in 2008 and 2012, or are there a bunch of morons out there? I’d imagine it’s more the latter, unfortunately.

Socialism kills.

Unfortunately, we are not teaching that in our socialist "public" schools. We are "educating" a bunch of morons here too. We are raising an army of young socialists in our public schools. We will suffer for it.



"Some things are apparent. Where government moves in, community retreats, civil society disintegrates and our ability to control our own destiny atrophies. The result is: families under siege; war in the streets; unapologetic expropriation of property; the precipitous decline of the rule of law; the rapid rise of corruption; the loss of civility and the triumph of deceit. The result is a debased, debauched culture which finds moral depravity entertaining and virtue contemptible."
-- Justice Janice Rogers Brown

"The United States government is the largest criminal enterprise on earth."
-rduckwor
 
Posts: 23945 | Location: St. Louis, MO | Registered: April 03, 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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