Economics With A Face

With money in hand I set out to buy a watch. Somehow I lost mine back in Nicaragua and it has been driving me nuts not having the time readily available. We found a Casio shop and Em and I ended up getting the same watch, so we now have the matching male and female models. Ah… the joys of marriage.

It was interesting that after purchasing the watches we had to give the store not only our passport numbers, but address we were staying along with a phone number. Later we would learn that this is a new government regulation and is required not only for foreigners, but for all Venezuelans as well.

After the mall we started walking towards Plaza Venezuela, which was located 2km away. Heading down the main pedestrian walkway, right before we entered the area full of buhoneros (street vendors), a woman walking next to us warned us to put our bags in front of us and to keep an eye out for thieves. Entering the busy streets packed with vendors we both agreed that while it was hectic it did seem more organized and calm than cities like San Salvador.

The small stands had everything you could imagine. We were told that Cuban doctors were told by the government not to go to Sambil as the people who shopped there wouldn’t like their presence in the mall. A more plausible reason is that they didn’t want them going there because they would see just how well enterprises can work outside of Cuba. Walking along the street vendors I commented to Em that the Cubans didn’t need to go to Sambil, to experience it they could come to this street alone and be amazed at the availability of goods relative to life back home.

Various times during the walk several young men would chase us down to ask us for the time. Obviously they wanted to steal something from us but in broad daylight I thought it would be an impossible task. Down at Plaza Venezuela Em pulled out our small camera to take some pictures of some red shirts that had Chavez in a beret posed just like Che. This attracted the attention of a few more guys that made their way towards us. I felt more like a target for thieves than in any other city we had been in. To take a break from the crowds we stopped at a restaurant that was set up in the middle of the street to have a beer and relax.

We talked to the waiter for a while we were enjoying a Polar beer. He thought we were German, but once he found out we were from the U.S. he started talking politics. Topics included how much Chavez was helping the people through low cost markets, medical care, and redistributing unproductive land to small farmers so that Venezuela could produce its own goods and not have to import them from countries like Brazil. It was interesting to get his view on all the current events. Also, during the conversation we noticed that one of the guys who had asked us for the time about 1km back was getting searched by the police right in front of the restaurant.

After we finished our drinks we headed back to Sambil where we were going to watch a movie called Secuestro Express. It perked our interest because there is currently a case heading to the Venezuelan Supreme Court trying to get a scene removed from the movie. The controversy surrounds a clip that shows a group from the mayor’s office firing handguns at protesters marching against Chavez. It was also not put forth by the country for Oscar consideration for political reasons, something there is now a petition people are signing trying to get reversed.

Well, the scene that caused all this controversy was about 2 minutes into the movie and lasted about 10 seconds. After that the next 1 and ½ hours followed a couple our age who were kidnapped in Caracas. It was one of those movies where not too many good things happen. After the film I was joking with Em that I was too scared to leave the theater. Luckily she was brave enough to get us to Plaza Altamira where Vladimir picked us up and took us back to the house.