Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Tuesday Travel With Vice Magazine: The Holy Thugs of Venezuela

Okay so the multi-month bender of drunken American history is now over, and were gonna focus elsewhere now to the rarely seen parts of faraway places in our world. Caracas, Venezuela is the most violent capital city of any country in the world. I was actually surprised to hear this myself as I have never been to Venezuela, but I thought that because they had such an iron fist dictator the crime rate would at least the relatively low. But apparently not because last year alone, 14,000 murders were committed in Venezuela with a majority of them happening in the capital city.

As a result of this ever present violent atmosphere, their society has evolved to the point where criminals and thugs have actually joined the ranks of their normally well behaved Catholic saints. The use of a plethora of saints in some Catholic countries satisfies the leftover itch from the people's original conversion from pagan and animistic traditions. This is very clearly seen in the religions of Voodoo and Santeria, and other different takes of the Catholic religion that exist in predominantly lesser developed areas of the world. Venezuela has its own rich and colorful take on the traditional Catholic faith as well by incorporating gangsters and murderers amongst its several "courts" of sainthood.

This episode, the vice crew travels to Caracas and interviews both worshipers and local sociologists to get a really good picture of how deep this unusual tradition has become in the short time it has existed. I think you'll really enjoy this is much as I have, because it is absolutely fascinating....


Even though comparisons to Robin Hood have been made, one can't help but wonder if this practice will change in upcoming generations an end to its thus far endless violence....

14 comments:

Mike H said...

I'm not sure what it is, but your videos get covered by your followers and some ads when I try to play it.

i'll check back again later to see how the blogs doin.

Tobias said...

Thank you for this interesting article..I liked the style..:-)

Anonymous said...

Now THAT sounds like the plot of a suspense/horror movie.

Zombie said...

remind me never to vacation there!

Max Silver said...

So, uh...I'm gonna go ahead and never visit Venezuela...

Shutterbug said...

You are such a great writer, you can even make watching paint dry seem fascinating! ;)

Anonymous said...

Did you post this at 4.20 intentionally? If so, bravo; if not, cool anyway ;>

Gryt said...

Wow, I don't know if I really want to go to Venezuela now lol

Marlene said...

Yikes, sounds worse than Philadelphia.

Elliot MacLeod-Michael said...

First of all, thank you for consistently posting interesting and well-written shit. Secondly, I can honestly say that I will most likely watch this. Might even watch it tonight. Their Vice Guide to Liberia was one of the craziest things I've ever seen. I also enjoyed the one on Norwegian Black Metal.

Elliot MacLeod-Michael said...

Also, note to self: Don't ever go to Caracas, Venezuela.

Gloria Baker said...

Oh Dear for many reasons I dont like Venezuela,I always heard about Chavez have a mix or religion and Voodo and santerĂ­a I dont like these strange mix I think Aaron in South America live differents types of life, religion and others when you talk about Costa Rica or Venezuela I feel so different than here, I dont know, I know Argentina and Bolivia, and are differnts too, well how is the sweet twins I want to see them again, huggs gloria

Copyboy said...

Hit girl hit the nail on the head.

Melanie said...

Think I am gonna take a pass on that one.