Living in a constan war as a Venezuelan teenager

I am not into politics, but my country obligated me to be part of it.

It is known that Venezuela since the "bad side" achieved the country's power, returned to a blood river. I will share my story as a little girl who must have lived in this battle's center, faultless and not knowing about these political issues.

We call them "guarimbas", a colloquial way of calling protests and barricades. Even if we participated in them, we are still scared of what they can do. They historically started in 2002, two large decades of a massacre.

The first of the guarimbas I had to live with was in 2014 when I was 6 years old. As you can think, I don't remember well what happened that year; I just can smell the fear that my body left while it was trembling and the constant sound of the tear gas bombs exploding. People died trying to defend us, but it was in vain.

"The Long Night"

That is what I call the 2017 guarimbas, the worst day of Venezuelan days; the scariest year. If I have to give you some advice, don't ever remind a Venezuelan what happened that year. People from other countries can see us as weak and gross, but fortunately, they won't ever know how it felt to live in Venezuela in "The Long Night".

As I said, I am not into political issues; I am even not interested in them. However, when I was 9 years old, everything changed for me. First, every supermarket and store closed and lost their commodity. We hadn't anything to eat, it was a huge disappointment to look at your city and just see... Nothing. People started to feel panicked; we also had to stand in lines and lines just to buy a bit of food. It was embarrassing; we had to humiliate ourselves just to get toothpaste. The money disappeared, and we didn't even know what to do. Then, the screams arrived. Even writing this, I feel scared and traumatized about what happened and is still happening.

Tears gas bombs were thrown at schools, hospitals, neighbourhoods, and even humans. I almost received one of them; the gas ran through my respiratory tract and arrived in my lungs, I couldn't breathe; and at the same time, they came here. Militaries were ordered to kill the citizens who were against them and they did it. Destruction devasted my town; fire and innocent blood filled my dear streets. I was just a child, but from that moment, every little boy in Venezuela had to grow up.

Finally, the worst day in our history. Even 5 years after, we're still afraid of it. This happened in 2019, "The Long Night". We always have these electrical blackouts, and we also had to spend more than 5 hours with no light. However, nothing prepared us for that day when we turned back to the 1700th. Without food, light, gasoline, medicines and being on a constant battlefield... Our people had to survive.

Almost 131 humans were massacred by the militaries, who were supposed to protect the country. There were also thousands arrested and tortured. That is the reason why Venezuelans had to go to other places around the world, starting from 0 and standing xenophobia from these people.

We lost our rights at the exact moment when the judicial entities were against the town.

Therefore, how should we have acted? Was there a different way? Nonetheless, if we could have gone with the "Protectors of the country", we would have done it.

Actuality

Another president's election was lost, our hopes were thrown away, and our hearts were broken again. As everybody must know, my country lost a new opportunity to turn back what it was once. Was it a trick? Of course. We even have evidence about it, but no one is going to help us except for ourselves. Consequently, the citizens decided to hit the "bad side" once more. Our last chance. People died again, and teenagers like me are still arrested and tortured at the hands of our "protectors". This tears my soul because we are supposed to be kids, to have a good present and future; not just dead. What else should we have done? Do we deserve something better?

I'm writing this to make visible the pain that my people have been through and this won't stop unless the world is aware of this.

Thanks

I couldn't say goodbye before saying thanks. I'm grateful to the person who takes the time to read my story :). Have a wonderful day, I am delighted to meet you.