“There is this perception that people who live in barrios are drug addicts or criminals. Of course, in reality it's not like that,” Carlos Rojo said.
A member of his communal council, Rojo lives in barrio Santa Anita. Clinging to a steep Andean slope in sight of Merida's colonial centre, this community of around a thousand inhabitants looks like a haphazard mass of bitumen, brick and concrete. The barrio is politically divided; on the streets posters of President Nicolas Maduro jostle with hastily sprayed anti-government slogans. The odd image of de-facto opposition leader Henrique Capriles leers from behind a window here and there, while red flags dangle above some doorways.
“Santa Anita is a small community, and the majority of its inhabitants are workers, professionals and students. There are even sports people,” Rojo told us when we interviewed him in his living room. Rojo and his family are polite, friendly and hospitable. With brightly coloured walls, his living room was decorated with art. His well groomed, extroverted cat likes visitors.
“When you live in this sort of community, you are often labelled in a certain way,” he said, explaining that many Venezuelans hold negative stereotypes of people who live in working class barrios like Santa Anita. The police are no exception.
“One time when I was leaving the barrio, the police stopped me, believing I had drugs. This didn't bother me a lot, because that's their job,” he said.
However, according to Rojo, before former president Hugo Chavez came to power in 1999, working class communities like Santa Anita were neglected by the Venezuelan state.
“Historically, the people have been uncared for…there's been a lack of attention towards them…including to their security,” he said.
“There's always been a distance between the communities and the security organs of the state, because historically in this country the security forces have been repressive. So that means that rather than seeing the police as a friend, the people often see the police as an enemy,” Rojo explained.
Ryan Mallett-Outtrim is an Australian activist currently living in Mérida, Venezuela. In recent years his passion for politics and social justice have led him to covering the democracy movement from Morocco, the ongoing struggle for self-determination in Western Sahara and progressive politics in Latin America. He is a regular contributor to Correo del Orinoco International and Green Left Weekly. Ryan also has a fortnightly column in the University of South Australia's Unilife Magazine, and manages To Here Knows When, a travel blog featuring political analysis and unusual stories from the road. Currently, he is studying Journalism and International Relations at the University of South Australia, majoring in national security and sustainability.
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