When the first demonstrations against the government break out in 2014, Marianne Cap resides in a home for boys in difficult home situations in Mérida, a city in the Andes, where she works on a social artistic documentary. Together with her colleague Irislis A Cova and Redhorse reporter Roel Nollet she returns to Mérida four years later to search for the boys, and see what has become of them. But just like the country itself, a lot has changed.
"I don't believe in love anymore," says Nixon. He is one of the boys. He's sixteen now and works in a garage. "They killed my mother on the street with three gunshots."
Every day 80 people are killed in Venezuela. That makes almost 30000 a year. On the side of the road, we see a man looking for food in the garbage. He looks up and keeps on searching.
"Chavez has done a lot of good things in the beginning," says a man who votes for the opposition. "He took the money from the rich and gave it to the masses. But now they are destroying us, the people.
In the meanwhile thousands of people leave the country to live abroad in Columbia, Peru and Chili. Iris left too. "I was a chavista. I voted for the revolution. But when you feel you have no future, it doesn't matter how hard you fight, because we become poorer every day.
Puerta Sin Colores is a documentary by Marianne Cap en Roel Nollet in cooperation with Irislis A Cova.
Realised with the support of the Flanders Connects Continents program of Journalismfund.eu Fonds Pascal Decroos voor bijzondere journalistiek
