CARACAS.- For some years now, the inhabitants of the neighborhood Saint Blaisein the popular area of Petare, east of Caracasgave life to that community through an initiative that had the objective of recovering its spaces by creating murals, among other activities, a task in which the neighbors, artists and muralists themselves participated.
The project called Citizen Creations became a source of pride for the inhabitants of San Blas and its scope did not stop at the walls, but also encompassed other artistic expressions such as cinema. The idea was to give identity to the neighborhood and achieve a better environment. And it was achieved. About 40 murals were made in streets and sports fields.
In many cases, Venezuelan neighborhoods are characterized by violence, a multifactorial problem, the product of a complex social fabric marked by poverty. Despite this, in San Blas, the children were protagonists of a citizen resurgence by taking part in the project that made the place where they lived more friendly for all its inhabitants. In this context, the citizen initiative had no political or propaganda purpose.
Until a group of an organization linked to the Nicolás Maduro regime He arrived in San Blas and began to paint the murals, reported NTN24.
A community leader, Katiuska Camargo, complained: “We did not do it to damage (the murals), but to add, to dignify. I have a lot of staying silent, putting into practice what I have learned in the world of activism and human rights. But I said now, I have to raise my voice, these people want to erase us.”
The only explanation they have been given for repainting the murals is that “they are orders from above.”
One of the murals intervened by the Misión Barrio Nuevo Tricolor group, linked to the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), was the “mural of resilience”, one of those that had the greatest meaning for the community. His intervention generated indignation among the residents of the neighborhood who demanded that assemblies be set up, together with the communal council, to decide their future.
For the moment, the intervention managed to be paralyzed, but the inhabitants of San Blas have denounced the official action as arbitrary and disrespectful.
Source: With information from NTN24
