Special envoy to Maracaibo
José Luzardo looks with melancholy at the beach where he grew up.
“What are we going to live on now, the rest of us?
We can’t even get in the water!”
The beach of Bajo, in the village of San Francisco, on which the fisherman José Luzardo used to work, is black with oil, several meters wide.
The smell is difficult to bear.
On the bank, oil cakes stick the shoes of inattentive visitors to the ground.
An oil spill that extends
“over more than 2 kilometers,”
he specifies.
I don’t know how to do anything other than fish: how am I going to feed my family?”
The municipality of San Francisco is located south of Maracaibo, the country's second city and center of the Venezuelan oil industry.
José shows on his phone the videos of his last fishing trip, the hull of the boat soiled, the nets black with oil and desperately empty.
“Before, we could catch 100 kg, even 500 kg of fish in three or four days.
Today…
This article is reserved for subscribers.
You have 90% left to discover.
Flash sale
Unlock all items immediately.
I ENJOY IT
Already subscribed?
Log in