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Michael Palin in Venezuela
Michael Palin in Venezuela (2025) S01E02
Michael Palin in Venezuela (2025) Season 1 Episode 2
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00:01It's time to leave the Venezuelan Amazon
00:06and head to the Caribbean Sea.
00:16I'm flying 500 miles northwest
00:22to an enticing-looking archipelago of coral islands
00:26known as Los Rockes.
00:303, 2, 1...
00:36So...
00:38It's lovely.
00:40Oh, well.
00:42I suppose I'll have to stop here for a bit.
00:44Blooming sunshine, blue sea.
00:47This is the sort of destination
00:49that makes audiences be lucky, jammy so-so.
00:54This place looks idyllic,
00:57but as I begin my walk to the hotel,
01:00I start to wonder...
01:03Where is everyone?
01:08Venezuela is a country plagued by bad news.
01:13Often described as being the most dangerous in South America,
01:17ruled by an authoritarian leader.
01:20Its economy has collapsed,
01:22leading to over 8 million people fleeing the country.
01:27But Venezuela is also...
01:30amazing.
01:33Absolutely beautiful.
01:35From the Andes Mountains to the Amazon Rainforest,
01:39it contains almost every landscape imaginable.
01:47And its people...
01:49And your dress.
01:50I mean, wow.
01:51You like my dress?
01:52That is colour.
01:53Are some of the friendlies in the world.
01:55I love to be talking with you
01:56because you ask me things that I have never been asked.
02:01This time, my journey starts in paradise.
02:04What we're coming up to is some pure jade colour.
02:07Absolutely beautiful.
02:08But things soon take a sinister turn.
02:11We might be arrested or detained.
02:17They were threatened.
02:19From today, we are marked men.
02:32I've arrived at Grand Rock,
02:34the main island of the archipelago.
02:36Covering less than two square miles,
02:41it has no roads and no cars.
02:46This all looks lovely,
02:47but despite it being high season,
02:49the place is not exactly bustling.
02:55I'm staying at Posada La Gaviota,
02:58which is owned by Hermann Olivaria.
03:06Posada?
03:07Posada is a guest house?
03:09Correct.
03:10It is.
03:11That's a term.
03:12Not to be confused with a major hotel.
03:14No, no, no.
03:15A Posada is like a family home
03:17that receives tourists.
03:19Right.
03:20It has been in my family since 1980,
03:22but we converted to a Posada in the year 2003.
03:28Hermann is keen to show me around Los Roques
03:31and to explain why this tropical idyll is so quiet.
03:35Really?
03:38Look at the bird.
03:39Oh, yeah.
03:40Wow.
03:42For a while,
03:43Los Roques was making a name for itself
03:45among the international jet set.
03:51But things have changed.
03:52Not that many airlines fly in now, do they?
03:57No, that's one of the worst things, actually,
04:01because there are no direct flights from certain countries,
04:06and...
04:07You used to have more of an international audience?
04:10Yes.
04:11Clientel?
04:12Yes, certainly.
04:13Where from?
04:14From the United States and Italy, France.
04:17Yeah.
04:18Germans a lot.
04:19A lot of Germans came here.
04:20Yeah.
04:21Twelve years ago,
04:22there used to be over 60 flights
04:24from America to Venezuela every week.
04:27But because of the security situation,
04:30there are now none at all.
04:32And the recent election has made it worse.
04:35Some countries could not fly to Venezuela directly.
04:39Like what countries?
04:40Like Dominican Republic, right?
04:42Or like Peru, for example, or Panama.
04:45Why was that?
04:46It just...
04:47It just was because these countries didn't recognize, uh...
04:52Uh, the election?
04:53The election.
04:56All of these problems mean that not many people
04:59are getting to see how beautiful this place is.
05:06What's really liberating is the glorious colors of the water,
05:10some sort of pale, almost lemon over there,
05:13and, um, green here,
05:15and then what we're coming up to is sort of jade,
05:18pure jade color.
05:20Absolutely beautiful.
05:22Very clear and very clean.
05:28And, of course, the beaches are not busy.
05:31Yeah, lovely.
05:35Woo-hoo!
05:40Ah, wow.
05:42It's a magical place.
05:46It's lovely.
05:48So it never gets crowded here, I suppose.
05:53It's hard not to be seduced by Los Rockes.
05:59Wow.
06:01This is...
06:02This is what it's all about.
06:03You just never really get this moment I'm filming
06:05where you're at a beach without anybody here,
06:07the...
06:09the sand's firm and white.
06:11I do wonder at times like this.
06:13Am I having too much fun?
06:15Is this too wonderful?
06:18There you go.
06:20Lucky me.
06:22Los Rockes is a peaceful paradise.
06:24But Venezuela's reputation for gangs and violence
06:28has also been turning travellers away.
06:32People are, like, afraid of our country.
06:34And, as you have seen...
06:35Yeah, yeah, yeah.
06:36Venezuela's a beautiful country.
06:37It's a wonderful place.
06:38Yeah, yeah, yeah.
06:39It's sensationally beautiful and there's so much to see.
06:41Yeah.
06:43Hermann believes Venezuela is now safer,
06:46partly due to the migration crisis.
06:49It isn't the same Venezuela now
06:51as it was in 2014 or 2017.
06:57Some people left, some good people left,
07:00but also thieves and robbers and assassins.
07:06Despite this, most countries are still telling their citizens
07:10not to travel to Venezuela.
07:12So it seems surprising that President Maduro
07:15has claimed tourism is the country's secret weapon.
07:19And, returning to Grand Rock,
07:21we passed several modern hotels on the waterfront.
07:24Built in the last five years,
07:26it's claimed the owners have close ties
07:28with the Venezuelan government.
07:31The runway was also extended for larger plains,
07:34with conservationists claiming its construction
07:36destroyed wildlife habitats.
07:40Some fear Los Roques' delicate ecosystem
07:43is being sacrificed to make way for mass tourism,
07:46a claim the government denies.
07:49This is the most beautiful place,
07:51I mean, by any standards.
07:54Um, and you have Maduro saying,
07:57oh, we must show off the country,
07:59we must bring people to Venezuela,
08:01it is a wonderful place,
08:02and yet stopping planes from getting here.
08:04So I don't quite understand what the game is.
08:07The other thing is that I can see
08:09that there are quite a number of places
08:11unlike the little one we stayed in,
08:13that are new, modern, big places.
08:16Obviously a lot of money is being spent there by somebody.
08:18So, many, many contradictions.
08:21That's Venezuela really for you.
08:33The next morning, it's time to leave Los Roques.
08:37And at the airport are two faces I'm seeing a lot of in Venezuela.
08:41The late president, Hugo Chavez,
08:44and his successor, Nicolas Maduro.
08:48Do you want this or should I keep this?
08:50OK.
09:01We're heading back to Maiketia Airport, near Caracas.
09:04Oh!
09:08Oh!
09:10Venezuela!
09:12In the airport car park,
09:13we pack up for the 1,000-mile road trip that lies ahead.
09:18Well, we've come back now from Los Roques,
09:22back to the airport,
09:24and here we're loading up for what's going to turn out to be
09:28a mega road trip into the northwest of Venezuela.
09:32Fuel shortages are commonplace in Venezuela,
09:35so our cars are carrying plenty of spare.
09:41The first stage of my road trip
09:43is going to take me to a rum distillery.
09:47Then I'll travel deep into the agricultural heartland
09:50of Los Llanos,
09:52before heading high into the Andes
09:54and the city of Merida.
09:56It's nice to be back on the road again.
10:03We've been an hour or so out of Caracas,
10:06heading for Santa Teresa where we're staying tonight.
10:10Once again, the smiling face of President Maduro
10:14passes us as we head inland.
10:16And his official superhero,
10:20alter ego,
10:21then appears at a toll booth.
10:23Maduro, yeah?
10:24It's a cartoon I think it's called.
10:26Yeah.
10:27Super moustache.
10:28Super bigote.
10:29The cartoon is supposed to cast Maduro
10:33as an anti-American hero figure.
10:35Super bigote,
10:37super moustache.
10:38As the sun starts to fall,
10:44we pull off the main road
10:46and arrive in the small town
10:48where we're staying tonight.
10:51These streets here are kind of real
10:53Venezuelan everyday life.
10:56There's nothing you're paired with us rockers.
11:01This is also the heart of Venezuela's gangland.
11:08The next morning,
11:17I wake up in Aragua state,
11:19birthplace of the feared Trend Aragua gang.
11:25With young Venezuelans
11:26often finding they have few job opportunities,
11:29the lure of gangs is hard to ignore.
11:36It's a path that often leads
11:37to a vicious cycle of prison and re-offending.
11:46But the owner of this local rum distillery
11:48is trying to break the pattern.
11:52This coach has come to the grounds of the distillery
11:55from a local prison.
11:57On board are around 30 prisoners
12:04who've been given day release
12:06to take part in a rugby match.
12:11Guys from the local penitentiary,
12:15pretty tough place.
12:16They've come here with their guards
12:18in order to change and play rugby.
12:20They're heavily guarded because they are still prisoners.
12:26I think they look happier than the guards, I must say.
12:28I must say.
12:34This match is part of Project Alcatraz,
12:37which was started by the owner of Santa Teresa rum,
12:41Alberto Vollmer,
12:43after a local gang attacked his distillery.
12:46So back in 2003,
12:48a gang broke into the Hacienda,
12:51to this property.
12:53And what we did was we basically
12:55had to hunt them down
12:56because the police wouldn't do it.
12:58So then we gave them two options,
13:00to either work,
13:01to make up for what they had done,
13:03or to be handed over to the authorities.
13:05We've been recruiting gangs ever since,
13:12for the last 22 years,
13:13and then that took us to jails.
13:15So now we're in 33 jails.
13:17We visit them weekly,
13:18and we teach...
13:20Actually, what we teach are the values of rugby.
13:22We focus on five values
13:25that are important for the pitch,
13:27but also in life,
13:28that are respect,
13:29teamwork, humility,
13:31discipline,
13:32and sportsmanship.
13:35How long are the sentences of some of the people here?
13:40So we have everything from short sentences
13:43to long sentences.
13:44Most of the guys who play rugby are homicide cases.
13:48I actually prefer the more difficult ones
13:52because they're actually the ones
13:54that have to make a bigger effort
13:56to make up with life.
13:58And one of the things we tell them is,
14:01this depends on you.
14:02We only open the door.
14:04You decide if you walk in.
14:06And that walking in,
14:07that decision means you have to basically make peace
14:11with your past.
14:16Venezuelan gang members are often depicted
14:19as being pure evil.
14:21But seeing these young men playing rugby,
14:24supported by their families,
14:26it casts them in a very different light.
14:34And when one of the prisoners
14:35gets to meet his child for the first time,
14:38all I can see is humanity.
14:41What was life like for you when you were young,
14:59and you first got involved in crime?
15:06My mother,
15:07aunque no me inculcó malos valores,
15:09no tuve un padre, ok?
15:11Entonces,
15:12siempre estuve con ella para arriba y para abajo, ok?
15:14Esto me llevó a ver las necesidades
15:16que ambos pasábamos juntos.
15:17Y quise ayudar.
15:18Y cometí muchos errores en ese proceso.
15:20A entrar en un mundo delictivo,
15:21por lo menos me involucré con personas
15:23de las esquinas de mi barrio.
15:24Cometí un delito grave
15:25y paré en la cárcel.
15:27Aged just 19,
15:39Jose Gregorio was sentenced to 10 years in jail
15:43for murder.
15:57Como una foto en el cielo,
15:58a través de la pequeña ventana de mi celular.
16:0118 months into his sentence,
16:03Project Alcatraz arrived at his prison.
16:07Pero también, eh...
16:09vi también dentro de esa cárcel
16:11un hombre con un balón de rugby, ok?
16:13Me...
16:14me pareció también muy difícil
16:16en el lugar donde estaba
16:17era algo muy peligroso, ok?
16:19Y si...
16:21lo hacía mal, podía perder la vida.
16:24Deseí acercarme y pues...
16:27allí conocí el rugby, ok?
16:29Y de ahí en adelante,
16:30fueron 10 años de rugby
16:32y se convirtió en mi mejor relación.
16:34José was released from jail
16:37after serving his sentence
16:39and is now employed at the hacienda.
16:41If there hadn't been rugby
16:44or the opportunity to play rugby,
16:46how would your life have turned out?
16:50Mira, si...
16:52si yo me hubiese encontrado con el rugby,
16:55quizás estaría muerto, ¿sabes?
17:01Y sé que...
17:03que no es fácil, ok?
17:04pero...
17:05eh... todos los...
17:06los tacles que me dio el rugby
17:08me enseñó...
17:10a pararme de todos los...
17:11de las cosas malas que había hecho,
17:14a respirar...
17:15y a ser feliz.
17:16Bueno...
17:17¡Suscríbete!
17:18¡Ahora!
17:19¡Ahora!
17:20¡Ahora!
17:21Yeah. Well, there we are. Moved by rugby.
17:30Surrounding the rugby pitch are the fields of sugar cane
17:33that have made Venezuelan rum some of the best in the world.
17:38So, when Alberto offers to open a cask for me, it seems rude to say no.
17:44There's a cathedral of rum.
17:46This is pretty impressive. What's happening now here?
17:51So, here we have many years of aged rum.
17:54We have light rums, heavy rums, and artisanal rums.
17:58I feel slightly off-balance already, so...
18:00Exactly. So, we're going to open one of these barrels.
18:03It's my first time opening a barrel, so let's see how that goes.
18:07Mmm, that's a good, strong barrel.
18:10So, this is American oak.
18:13American oak, yes. From where?
18:15From Kentucky. Oops.
18:17Oh, I see. Look.
18:18Okay, one second. Here we go.
18:20Fantastic.
18:21In Minnesota.
18:26Oh, a rum shower.
18:31That's fantastic.
18:32Okay.
18:33Very well done.
18:34So, it wasn't too messy.
18:38Great.
18:39And it smells...
18:40It's a fine smell.
18:40It smells delicious.
18:41Yeah, yeah, yeah.
18:42It smells delicious.
18:43So, I would say that the magic of Santa Teresa, 1796, is the combination of three types of rums.
18:50Well, I think I'll need the afternoon off.
19:04It does have the feeling of a sort of religious...
19:08It does.
19:08I love the fact that you call it a cathedral.
19:10Yeah, it feels like a cathedral.
19:11Yeah, yeah.
19:12It feels like a cathedral.
19:13Yeah, yeah.
19:14Cheers.
19:15Cheers.
19:16Cheers.
19:17Thank you so much, Michael.
19:18Sadly, we must leave the hacienda behind and continue with our journey.
19:25We're heading inland towards a place our security team has warned is politically sensitive.
19:34Well, we're now travelling south.
19:38South.
19:39This is called Los Llanos, and it's the big agricultural area of Venezuela.
19:49We're heading to a town called Sabaneta, which has strong links to the president who came
19:54before Maduro.
19:56This busy little town is the birthplace of Hugo Chavez, who probably came more to change
20:10Venezuela in the last century, I suppose.
20:17Chavez came to power in 1999, elected on a promise to take money and power away from
20:24a corrupt elite and redistribute it among the people, improving public housing, health,
20:32and education.
20:34He died in 2013, but still has local support here.
20:39So what did Hugo Chavez mean to you?
20:42Okay, Mr. Chavez, for me, it meant, for me, a change.
20:48Um, what were your feelings when you heard of his death?
20:55Um, what were your feelings when you heard of his death?
21:10Though Chavez still has his defenders, some say his leadership became increasingly brutal
21:28and suppressive.
21:29A situation that has become much worse under his successor, President Maduro.
21:36And as we drive close to the center of Sabaneta, the atmosphere changes.
21:41This looks lively here.
21:46We're a bit careful as we drive around, in case we're being watched.
21:55We arrive at the town square to film a statue of Chavez, but the crew are told to stop recording.
22:01After we ask a local National Guard for permission to film the statue, a group of four heavily
22:14armed officers arrive at the square.
22:18They tell us to drive to a nearby car park.
22:26They are from the notorious and feared government intelligence service, SEBIN.
22:33They want to search all our equipment and personal luggage.
22:38They take our passports.
22:40We each have our photo taken, and it's made very clear we are no longer free to leave.
22:48Several hours pass.
22:53Eventually, word comes through that we are to be released, without charge.
22:57Our fixer, Freddie, tells me a government minister became involved and has passed on his apologies.
23:04Good.
23:05Have a good rest of the day.
23:07We all good?
23:14We're all good now.
23:15So you think we were OK, Freddie?
23:16We good?
23:17Yeah, we...
23:18That was...
23:19Kind of.
23:20That's good.
23:21One man starts it.
23:22Then two people come.
23:23Then three.
23:24Then four.
23:25And then five with...
23:26With the police.
23:27With rifles, guns.
23:28Were you scared?
23:29I was a little scared.
23:30They were threatening.
23:31I thought we might, yeah.
23:32No, but the real problem was they were so nervous about the last things happening around
23:37here.
23:38Some people tried to attack the last statue of Chavez.
23:41Yeah.
23:42Yeah.
23:43We now fucked people.
23:44Are we going to be...
23:45Yeah, we're going to be tracking, yeah, of course, yeah.
23:47They got my phone number.
23:48They got my phone number.
23:49Yeah.
23:50And actually, I tell them today that we'll share our position every morning.
23:54They check all our equipment.
23:55They check everything.
23:56So they understand what we have.
23:57Yes, they do, actually.
23:58This is life in Venezuela, isn't it?
24:00Yeah.
24:01Everything is calm, but it's tense.
24:03And you have to delete stuff from your phone.
24:06You have to make sure you don't say too much.
24:08Yeah.
24:09The way that we are expressing ourselves, the way that we're walking, how the equipment
24:13is left out, what we're filming.
24:14I mean, this is not just like, you know, any other country.
24:19Yeah.
24:20Okay.
24:21Right.
24:22Well done, everyone.
24:23Still unable to film the statue of Chavez, we leave Sabonetta as quickly as we can.
24:31And the reality of what has happened starts to sink in.
24:35It all escalated rather quickly, and for a period of about an hour, an hour and a half, and suddenly
24:41there were men from the intelligence services with guns.
24:46It feels like this has been a turning point in my journey.
24:51It's not a joke.
24:52It's not a slight thing.
24:53These were people who were really intimidating.
24:56And the problem is that having done that, the way these things happen here apparently is
25:01that the minister, people at the highest level now know exactly where we are, what we're
25:05going to do, where we're going to film next, and are going to keep an eye on this.
25:09So in a way we are, from today, marked men and women.
25:15It may mean nothing, but there's an undercurrent of threat, which is quite sinister.
25:32The next morning, I wake up with a brighter outlook in Los Llanos, the agricultural heartland
25:38of Venezuela.
25:41Covering almost 100,000 square miles, many say this area is the soul of the country.
25:51Los Llanos is also renowned for its wildlife, including the world's largest snake.
25:58The anaconda, yeah, legendary, yeah.
26:01Anaconda, do they poison you or do they squeeze you?
26:06Yeah, yeah, yeah.
26:08Park ranger Armando Mercado found an anaconda by a road and wants to release it back into
26:15the wild.
26:16I've never seen one.
26:17And I think I, I've got a feeling I'm going to see one.
26:20Well, that's because you haven't seen one.
26:21Yeah, yeah.
26:22You keep looking down, I, I...
26:24Because it's one that right there, he just saved one from the...
26:27In his backpack.
26:28In the backpack.
26:29Mammoth an anaconda in his backpack.
26:30Yeah, yeah, yeah.
26:31That's a first.
26:32Should I be, be a bit careful here?
26:35I mean, there's...
26:36Yeah, we have to, we have to be careful because he catch it when he's crossing the road.
26:39Yeah.
26:40He's been in the rucksack for a few times.
26:41Yeah.
26:42So it might be a little bit aggressive, but they're not dangerous.
26:44I mean, it's not the poison or anything.
26:45Yeah.
26:46Armando assures me the anaconda is safe in his bag.
26:50Yeah, how big is it?
26:51I mean, for the size of that it looks like three metres or something.
26:54Three on four metres.
26:56Yeah.
26:57Twice my height.
26:58Okay.
26:59Respect.
27:00Yeah.
27:01Be very careful.
27:02Okay.
27:03You got your sandwiches in there as well.
27:05Yeah.
27:06Okay.
27:08Ready?
27:10The snake sits up front, while we're relegated to the back of the bus.
27:21It's showing off.
27:22Yeah.
27:23Yeah.
27:24He's a young man.
27:25He would do all that.
27:26Yeah.
27:27Yeah.
27:28This lacun is the place of the anacondas, the freedom of our anaconda.
27:44This is where they like, they like wet land today?
27:48Yeah.
27:49Yeah.
27:50Right.
27:51Okay.
27:52Swap.
27:53Anacondas mostly live in water and marshes, where they can move much faster than on land.
28:03This is quite something.
28:06Yeah.
28:07Quite the side here is.
28:09Yeah.
28:10There you go.
28:11Oh, beautiful.
28:12Yeah.
28:13All right.
28:14Hello.
28:15This is the green anaconda.
28:16Yeah.
28:17And the genus name it, culebra de agua, snake of water.
28:22Green anacondas can grow up to nine meters in length and weigh up to a somewhat intimidating
28:31250 kilos.
28:33of those.
28:34Okay.
28:35Here you go.
28:36Take the middle.
28:37Oh, there you are.
28:38Wow.
28:39All right, man.
28:40I can feel, I can feel the muscles.
28:42Yeah.
28:43Yeah.
28:44Very muscles.
28:45Very, very strong.
28:46Yeah.
28:47Very strong.
28:48Yeah.
28:49Oops.
28:50Hey.
28:51Squeezy.
28:52I know.
28:53You've been in a backpack for a while.
28:54No wonder you're a bit squeezy.
28:55Yeah.
28:56There you go.
28:57Come on.
28:58Here we are.
28:59Say a little prayer.
29:00Go to the freedom.
29:02Okay.
29:03You're free at last.
29:07Wow.
29:08Heading straight under the water.
29:10Goodbye.
29:11Goodbye.
29:12Wow.
29:13Beautiful.
29:14That must make you feel good.
29:21You've saved an anaconda.
29:23Yeah.
29:24It's my favorite part.
29:26Yeah.
29:27So it's just that muscly body.
29:29Yeah.
29:30You can feel the strength.
29:31Yeah.
29:32Smart.
29:33That's right.
29:34If that got around you, I mean, that'd be it.
29:37Really.
29:38You're a very good swimming device.
29:40Exactly.
29:41Do they have pythons here?
29:44Here not.
29:45Where are the pythons?
29:48Probably like somewhere quiet with like a swimming pool.
29:53As in many countries, wildlife is under threat in Venezuela.
29:58None more so than the Cayman.
30:00Stop.
30:01Stop.
30:02This one is in captivity as part of a breeding program.
30:07Is he happy at the moment being out of water or...?
30:10When feeding, he's very happy.
30:12Yeah.
30:13Yeah.
30:14And in Venezuela, name it Cayman or Inoco.
30:17Cayman not, or Inoco.
30:19Yeah.
30:20But it's really a crocodile.
30:22Crocodile.
30:23A crocodile.
30:24Yeah, it looks like a croc.
30:25Okay.
30:26And critically endangered of extinction.
30:30I've arrived in time for lunch.
30:33He looks millions of years old.
30:36You know that?
30:37I mean, I know I look old, but...
30:39Boy!
30:40Oh!
30:41That's lovely.
30:42After decades of being hunted for their skins for clothing, there are only around 1,500 Cayman
30:57left in Venezuela.
30:58But breeding projects such as this should help increase numbers.
31:03Wow.
31:04That could have been me.
31:08You certainly can't accuse Venezuela of being boring.
31:16Arrested by the police one day and the next day holding an anaconda.
31:20Not normal London behaviour.
31:23Quite exhilarating there, isn't it?
31:29Life in Los Llanos feels laid back and serene.
31:33Good luck with all your work and your studies.
31:36But my journey continues at pace, so it's back on the road.
31:41We're driving a hundred miles northwest from the lowlands of Los Llanos towards the highest
31:48part of Venezuela.
31:56Well, now, quite suddenly, we're off the plains of Los Llanos, making our way into a very,
32:01very different environment up into the mountains at the Andes.
32:05This is the Trans-Andean Highway.
32:12Stretching for over 5,000 miles, from Venezuela to the southernmost tip of South America,
32:21the Andes is the longest mountain range in the world.
32:25Sensational scenery.
32:28It's just the size and scale of the slopes.
32:32It makes you feel very, very on the edge in this little road.
32:37This is adventure, I think, isn't it?
32:43Well, we're now around 3,500 to 4,000 metres.
32:47So, very high, over 10,000 feet, suddenly, above the plains, and a marine thick cloud.
32:58We make it to a mountaintop hotel, just as night starts to fall.
33:04Next morning, as the Andes reveal themselves to me in their full glory,
33:14I get the distinct feeling that the hills are alive.
33:18Here we are, with the stunning views of the Andes,
33:23and this is kind of one of the great attractions of Venezuela.
33:26I have to say, if you like a bit of adventure,
33:28and you like things to change as you go along, this is terrific.
33:32After breakfast, we head to the capital city of the Venezuelan Andes.
33:40These are the streets of Merida, going through at the moment.
33:44Venezuela is Andean mountain city.
33:48Sunday morning, it's a little bit quiet.
33:52Over 400 years old,
33:55Merida's origins stretch back to when Spain ruled Venezuela.
33:59Historically, it's also been a centre of anti-government protest.
34:04But in recent years, the authorities have introduced draconian measures
34:09to silence their critics.
34:20Nestling in the Andes, at over 5,000 feet above sea level,
34:24Merida has a very relaxed atmosphere.
34:28I'm meeting Diana Hernandez,
34:31who's in her final year of studying criminology at the local university.
34:36Tell me a little bit about it.
34:37It seems rather different from anywhere else we've seen in Venezuela.
34:42Well, I was just talking a few days ago that Merida is a city for studying and for retirement.
34:48I think those are the two stages of life perfect for this city.
34:54It's very calm in the city.
34:57It feels quite relaxed. It's not quite as brash as Caracas.
35:00Diana thinks of herself as an activist.
35:04But in modern Venezuela, that's both difficult and dangerous.
35:07Do people get detained, arrested? Is that anything that happens here? Or is it more gentile?
35:18No, it has happened. It's not gentile at all. It hasn't been gentile at all.
35:24What do you feel about that?
35:26That's really sad and unfair and, you know, there's a thing, I mean, I can talk about many things.
35:39Because we don't have that much of freedom of speech.
35:43I sense from Diana's reticence that discussing politics on the streets makes her feel uncomfortable.
35:50She suggests we continue talking at her house, where we can speak more freely.
35:58Diana's also asked if she can be joined by some friends.
36:03They're keen to talk to me about the repressive culture that has become normal in modern Venezuela.
36:10If I am at a protest, I am very careful because sometimes I don't know if anything can happen to me if I share my photographs or my videos.
36:25So I feel very scared.
36:28What might happen to you? What are you scared of?
36:33Maybe I could go to jail.
36:34You can be accused of promoting hate for publishing anything that goes against the government interest.
36:45Someone told me that there was a new app used by the government.
36:51Yeah, yeah. I mean, there's something called BenApp.
36:54You can wear it to report, like, there's a hole on my street.
36:59I need the authorities to come and fix it and stuff like that.
37:05It also has a special tool.
37:08You can report if someone is doing something, like, perturbing the public peace.
37:16It can be used to report if you have a neighbor or you see someone, like, protesting or something.
37:22Days after his controversial election, President Maduro encouraged people to use the Venn app to report anti-government behavior to the authorities.
37:35I mean, that's quite different from holes in the street. You're informing on friends.
37:39Do you feel that things are going to drift more in that direction? Or do you think there'll be more of an opening up of the country now?
37:50I think it's not safe for anyone to come here with this political situation.
37:56I mean, Venezuela has a lot of beautiful places, but it's very dangerous also. There is a big chance that you get detained.
38:11I know that. We have experienced that.
38:15Oh, yeah. Yeah, when we were in Chavez's birthplace, Sabaneta, and they took an exception to us.
38:24In the end, they let us go, but it was men with guns.
38:28Yeah, publicly recording, it's an issue, usually.
38:33I suppose you've talked about some of the things which you criticize about your country, but the good things, what would you say?
38:43Oh, I would say that Venezuela has a place for literally everyone.
38:50And I would also say that we are still a country full of wonderful people.
38:57We are a country of friends. We're a country of panas.
39:00Everyone is a what?
39:02A pana. A pana. Pana, it's like a common way of saying friend.
39:06Well, I mean, that's great. I know everything's not absolutely wonderful, but there's enough here.
39:11I would recommend many people to come and try and see the place, talk to people and let people know what Venezuela is.
39:21This is what I'm learning about Venezuela. For all its problems, there is so much that is good here.
39:30And Merida is a stunning city, set in a valley of the Andes, surrounded by cloud-capped mountains that stretch high into the sky.
39:41The highest is Pico Bolivar, which rises almost three miles above sea level.
39:49And that is where I'm going next. What I'm told is the tallest cable car in the world.
39:59Buenos dias.
40:01Because I'm that very rare thing in Venezuela, an international traveler, my nationality must be noted.
40:08My ticket costs $40, twice what a local would pay.
40:13Well...
40:16First built in the 1950s, the cable car system is an impressive feat of engineering and will take me nearly 16,000 feet above sea level.
40:27It's so spectacular, because we are going very, very high and swinging out over gorges like, you know, 1,500 feet below us, or sort of 800 meters of sheer drop.
40:44And then you go to the cloud and you think, you're a god. You're one of the gods looking down on this world you've created.
40:51And wow, there's still more to go.
40:54As we near the summit, I'm very aware I'm now three miles high.
41:00I've been very sort of elevated, which is a bad time, but the whole experience.
41:08It's a wonderful, wonderful thing to do. Ah, look.
41:12We finally reach the top of the cable car run, and I step out...
41:17on the roof of the Venezuelan Andes.
41:23Well, it's not often you get a summit of a mountain like this.
41:29Even though I've done it the easy way, it's still incredibly impressive.
41:38And high too, 15,000 feet high.
41:43I haven't done that very often in my life.
41:45There are people walking up. I don't perceive my pain.
41:51Oh, no, they're walking down. Yes, well, that's sensibly run down all the way.
41:57Being up here is undeniably impressive.
42:01But my mind is still preoccupied with the contradictions of life in Venezuela.
42:06I've seen a dazzling amount of your country. It's truly a magical lot of it.
42:15And seen at the same time, you know, undercurrents of dissatisfaction.
42:20Yeah, I think everybody that lives here can say that they're always living between two worlds.
42:30The beautiful country that we see, but also this thing that we call the tense calmness.
42:36Where you're not really sure what could happen to you or your family on a certain day, on a certain week.
42:46So we try to live as best as possible, but traverse cautiously.
42:51So people are frightened, really, of saying what they feel sometimes.
42:58Yes, we used to be people that would express ourselves very freely, without fear.
43:05And that has slowly changed in the past, more so in the past six months, definitely.
43:11So this sums up Venezuela.
43:17On the one hand, they have what appears to be one of the most repressive regimes in the world today.
43:23But on the other, it's impossible to ignore how extraordinary this country and its people are.
43:31So what now for Venezuela?
43:34As I enter my final week, I hope to get a sense of what its future holds.
43:41Next time...
43:44A journey to Venezuela's disappearing floating villages.
43:48They put a line out of chicken heads.
43:51This is not a thriving village at all, is it?
43:54Discover what led to the country's downfall.
43:57The collapse of our country and because all of our energy was focused on oil.
44:02And...
44:04It's carnival time!
44:06They throw sweets till they spray you with stuff.
44:12And you can see that next Tuesday at 9.
44:15Follow one of their most daring and terrifying rescues' brand new series, Coast Guard SOS.
44:21Search and Rescue starts tomorrow at 9.
44:23A builder's shocking discovery starts a forensic jigsaw puzzle for detectives in brand new true crime, buried secrets, the body in the carpet.
44:31Next.
44:34Music
44:39.
44:41The F werders
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