When I raised this topic about modern sins on Queercoin, I had cyberbullying, cyberscams, etc., in mind. But the truth is, with the recent double earthquake that struck my country (Venezuela), I decided to refocus on something that has never been evaluated as a crime against humanity, though it should be. I am talking about government corruption that, in an emergency situation, contributes to increasing the death toll.
If a sin currently exists that cannot be redeemed, and that warrants capital punishment, it is precisely what my government has done to my people for 27 years. Before the earthquake, the Venezuelan government had stolen public funds meant for hospitals, leaving many in a state of massive vulnerability during the floods that affected us every 4 or 5 years. They also fired many of the specialized rescue workers and firefighters we currently need, just to keep that money for themselves.
They have also stolen the humanitarian aid sent by numerous NGOs over three decades, the funds to rebuild La Guaira (after the 1999 floods), the fund for the maintenance of roads and bridges (which are only occasionally repaired before an election campaign and whose maintenance is abandoned after it ends), as well as nearly every damn cent of the oil revenues that have been key to sustaining the country's economy.
The mass emigration of 7 or 8 million Venezuelans to different parts of Latin America, and the mass deaths in the Darién Gap, are the result of this genocidal corruption. If we add to that the complicity of a corrupt police force and national guard, which extorts street vendors and, in the middle of a disaster, was getting ready to loot the properties of the earthquake victims, we have the complete X-ray of a nation ruled by thieves and murderers.
I am not the only one saying this. I have seen people in line at the bakery saying that a mother lost her baby because the hospital didn't have the supplies to care for him as they should have. People who have died from diabetes, heart conditions, or strokes because they had no insurance or medicine to treat their health problems. I myself was sick for weeks when everyone was in lockdown due to COVID, suffering from severe stomach pains possibly caused by the contaminated water coming through the pipes of my aunt's apartment. And I wasn't the only one; several residents were in a similar situation. And that was before the earthquake.
Now it is worse. Every piece of infrastructure that wasn't repaired a year, two, or a decade ago is now a death trap for the rescue workers trying to pull out survivors and the deceased. Every road and bridge that wasn't repaired can collapse at any moment due to the tremors. Every hospital that was left undersupplied now has to send patients to another hospital because they cannot properly help the wounded when they are needed most.
And that hurts. It hurts to see so much suffering, the product of the greed and immorality of a corrupt elite without the slightest sense of humanity. It hurts to see how the efforts of an entire nation that has crossed one hell after another for three decades are sabotaged by the government.
I hope that one day we can recover from this tragedy, created not only by the earthquake, but by the monsters who rule us.
Here is the link to the videos of Sabrina Tortora, a Venezuelan journalist who knows the nightmare of our people.
Note 1. Copyright Disclaimer: The YouTube videos link included in this story is shared using YouTube's authorized embedding option. All rights to the work belong to its author.
Note 2. The English translation from Spanish and the creation of the images accompanying this post were done using Gemini.
