How Do You Live with the Lack of Safety?

Several years ago, at an airport, I struck up a conversation with an older woman from New York. I asked her what it was like to live in her city, and she asked me what it was like to live in Venezuela. I told her that the climate here was wonderful, the beaches unique and so on, but that unfortunately there was a great deal of crime in the country.

“What do you mean, crime?” she asked me. I answered: “In Venezuela you can be held up at gunpoint, kidnapped or killed anywhere, at any time. It’s very dangerous, and you are always afraid for your children’s lives.” Astonished, the woman asked me: “And what do you do to be able to live like that?” And I answered: “Pray! Pray a lot. I even pray in my sleep for God to protect my children!”

I cannot possibly describe in words the look on her face. I think she imagined she was talking to a madwoman. I also explained that we talk a great deal with our children, and tell them they should always have gone to confession, because they never know when they might die; that we teach them to stay calm and start praying if they are held up or kidnapped, and always to hand over whatever the robbers ask for. The woman looked more and more astonished, and all she could say was: “And the government? What is the government doing to solve the problem?” That is the sixty-four-thousand-dollar question.

I am going to be very clear about what I say now: only the mothers (and fathers, grandparents, aunts and uncles and so on) who live in Venezuela understand what it means to live in constant prayer that God and the Virgin will protect our children and grandchildren when they go to school, to the university or to a party at night with their friends, because unfortunately we have no confidence in any security plan! We have been at this for many years now. The vast majority of us Venezuelans have very great faith, iron fortitude and immense patience.

Sometimes it wears you out a little to pray so much, but it is worth it, and it works. It is almost “funny” that we send our children off to camp so that we can rest, and we end up exhausted from praying at night that no thieves get into the camp and rob them, or do something worse.

While I was writing this article, my eldest son, who lives in Valencia, called me. The first thing I told him was that I was praying for him. In an amazed voice he said: “Thanks, Mom. Listen, today some National Guardsmen stopped me. They asked for my papers and told me I was missing a notarized permit to drive my dad’s car. Then they asked my friend who was with me for his ID card, and he didn’t have it. I stayed very calm and started praying. Then the guards told us they were going to take us in, and I grabbed the holy card of the Virgin of Coromoto that I keep in the car and asked her to help us. Then the guard said to me: ‘What have you got in your hand?’ I showed him the holy card and he asked: ‘Oh, you’re a Christian?’ I told him yes, I was Catholic. Then he called his superior over and said: ‘Look, these guys are Christians.’ The superior came over to us and said: ‘You can go now.’”

So now I’m going to give holy cards of the Virgin of Coromoto to everyone I know, to keep in their cars (if you’d like one, I have plenty). Our Blessed Mother loves her Venezuelan children dearly, and if we ask her with great faith, she will protect us.

Let us keep praying for all the children of Venezuela, that the Blessed Virgin may cover them with her mantle and protect them from all harm. I also encourage us to pray intensely for our authorities, that God may enlighten them so they can effectively solve this problem that makes life so hard in our beloved Homeland.