I'm back home after the trip, it went really well and we had a great time, and I also took the time to speak to my friends to set a course of action for this responsibility I've been given to distribute donations.

I've already thanked in private the people who have donated, but thank you so much, yet again, I never expected even a dollar and it was really such a shock, Toribash never fails to move me. Thank you even for considering helping out.

After a lot of discussion between my core bros we have come to a goal that we feel is the most beneficial balancing between friends and family, and I'd like to publicly ask for help not money-wise but regarding organizing our moves, if anyone has any idea please reach out to me on discord @alejandrote

What is this about? I figured just giving money out to struggling friends or family members which I already initially did, had a great impact, but in the end it fizzles out and makes no real difference as the Venezuelan citizen has a warrior-based mentality that always sorts food out, which is the main concern, so I want to funnel the help into one single cause to REALLY change a life instead of simply extending the same suffering of some.

We want to help a friend out, her name is VERY unique and easy to track so I'll shorten it to Lu, I met her years ago when she was being kicked out of her house and I took her under my and my family's wings for months until she sorted her situation out, she lived with me and we've spent Christmases together, she's one of my best friends and what's happening to her is hell.

Just last week, while in her family home where she's living again after setting up a small gift shop instagram page and being able to earn a small income, she came to the harsh reality that she was being persecuted and her home was being raided by military police, we still don't know if it was the CICPC/DGCIM/PNB/GNB, but heavily armed masked policemen came to arrest her by code of the hate laws [pdf] made by the government to do this sort of thing impunely. While this was going on she overheard being part of a list, as she was very carelessly and publicly using both her personal and business instagram pages to promote dissidence and anti-government causes, so being in this list made sense, thankfully me and my family had told her to be wary about it because of what is going on regarding censorship and persecution and she had deleted most such things off her phone before being raided.

While the policemen barged into her house, her father recognized one of the policemen through the balaclava and lack of ID tags, and politely, yet in fear, greeted him by name. As if by miracle, the policeman was shook and defused the situation, telling other agents to wait outside to sort it out, after some talk and phones were exchanged, she was not taken away this time.

She's still receiving constant and intimidating calls by random phone numbers, all day every day ever since before that took place, and this has obviously paralyzed any sort of possible income she could receive as her line of work requires in-person delivery, and it could be a honeypot.

I spoke to her in a long and hard to digest videocall and she told me everything that was going on, and I knew I had to help her just like when she was couch-surfing just a couple years ago.

Main concern is she needs a passport because she's being offered a safe arrival and a way to stay abroad, which would obviously be better for her, the issue is passports are expensive here and then again it's not only the passport but all the bribing and travel expenses that come with it. I have a lot of pictures, phone numbers where she's being harassed from, photos of herself in the protests, all sort of proof that would be necessary when making a legit donation campaign.

However I do not know about this world at all, if anyone has experience on getting this rolling and truly call to attention a cause that can change someone's life, rather than throw darts at needs that will fill a belly for a couple days, PLEASE help me with what I need to do.

Today her cat showed up at her house with one of his paws hacked off, its tendons still loosely hanging, anything could have happened, but I know what I think it is. And I don't even want to type it out.

tl;dr I don't need the help, but I can get it for my friend who's had her house literally raided by an armed militia after speaking out in social media. I need help on what I need to do to get this rolling

pic related is us making some sick ass homemade pizza

How much would a passport cost if we exclude bribes and include living expenses?

the passport itself is $200 flat, but if we consider everything going on in the country they are doing anything to get you to pay more for it, be it transport fees, charging for "a faster process" (if you don't pay they simply don't give it to you lol), as a lot of people, and I mean A LOT, are fleeing the country amidst this possible lifelong dictatorship we're being faced with.

She's doing raffles and that sort of stuff locally, but let's say if we can gather even at least a little over $500 I'm sure it will change her life and she'll be able to make it out, getting help from also friends outside the country for the tickets and stuff, which they can help her with.

All I can do is try to make her story known and hopefully aid her a little, contact me in case anyone wants a set and I'll give her the 100% of the set payment. Legit going to miss her a lot for emigrating but I'd rather see her far away and safe than have her close and have her being abused daily; as a lot of people, a lot of kids, have been imprisoned for 6, 8, up to over 10 years just for these sorts of things, I know people who have had to sell everything they own to fork up ten thousand bucks just to get their kid back. God knows what would've happened to her had her dad not recognized the policeman.

Hop on dc

I won't send any money but anything you need swiped for that you can pick up wit a receipt, your name, address or whatever I can get


discord: redhotcinnamoncandy

hey Ale, verdaderamente q pena por tu amiga, es un poco de falta de conciencia propia de ella, pero esas cosas no deberían de ocurrir jamás, y menos en un país en dónde uno está luchando y batallando para salir adelante, muchísima suerte para tí y para la yunta, espero que pronto se pueda ir pirada y bórralo, yo ando tomando aquí en ccs con mi familia, mínimo me quiero dar el chance de sentirme feliz antes de volver a morirme cn el estrés que hay en Maracaibo con todo este tema

Sí100% mamaguevo esa caraja yo sí le formé peo para que no anduviese de guevona, definitivamente la cagó, pero de nuevo, uno acá tiene la mente lavada porque una opinión no debería ameritar que te hagan eso lmfao, de todos modos vamos bien con relación a la recaudación y tengo fé de que sí se va a poder ir pronto antes de que le llegue una segunda oleada y la metan presa, porque esa chama no aguanta cárcel, es muy comeflor, y la quiero burda ojo, pero nawebona.

Yo estoy en puerto y me voy ahorita a margarita de nuevo, ando intentando hacer muchas cosas para no agobiarme tanto porque como has podido ver todas estas causas me pesan que jode, pero bueno, seguimos en la lucha por la locha y por sobrevivir en este país de mierda que amo tanto.

love you bro we gotta stay strong, si quieres me agregas en discord y hablamos por wa para ver si alguna vez coincidimos y hacemos un toribash meetup

maduro filha de puta, stay strong Alejandro anything you need from us brother let us know in the discord.

Thanks to a significant donation I'm happy to announce that my friend Lu has completed and paid for her passport request!!!!

This is truly incredible, thank you guys so much, we're holding direct line of communication with people who can move forward with making a proper campaign, and I believe we're going to do a gofundme so that everything else is covered, as the passport was the priority now we can move onto more difficult things like transportation and any sort airport emergency like bribes and stuff like that, but the first step is secured now, the time for the passport to go from requested to issued is kind of in the air but it shouldn't be more than 3 or max 4 weeks, and in the meantime after her cat heals up she will be moving back with me so that she's away from her city where she's more prone to being harassed.

I'm so fucking hyped we've gotten this far honestly holy shit. Thank you.

Currently waiting for a friend of mine who'll be the legal representative of the gofundme since I can't use my personal bank accounts or phone number for obvious reasons, so that he sets the profile up and we can link the gofundme in multiple platforms, I've been advised not to use real names and to cover Lu's face, so I'm following that.

I'll be linking it as soon as I have it up and running but honestly by now this is an absolute victory, thank you so much, I knew that the attention that I was garnering could be put to good use and it feels great to give back like this to somebody I'm sure would have had no way of doing this.

I believe life is about giving, and once you've been blessed you can bless others, it's thanks to the community that I am now able to lend a hand, as I've said I'm good, my base is solid, I am only able to help due to people in this community lending me a hand when I was bottom of the barrel down, I own my apartment and I own my car thanks to designing sets and commissions, everything else is up from now, I can help those around me and for that I am forever thankful.

I'll be updating soon, again thank you

Okay an overdue update since I'm now back from traveling, there are really good news and also pretty shitty ones.

Good news right away is that my friend Lu already has her passport issued, thankfully she had a contact to expedite the process and solve what had to be solved as well as cut down the time by a bit, she has her passport ready, all this thanks to the paypal donations which were pivotal and an incredible help, so thank you guys, without your help it wouldn't have been possible and this was the hardest obstacle to surpass, it's done and that challenge was successful.

Bad news is that I have failed to find a way to make a proper campaign as I have no bank account that can be used for such a thing, I can't use mine for safety reasons and all my trusted friends and family who I thought would be able to lend their account either couldn't due to gofundme's policies, or due to it being risky to their families still inside Venezuela. It's been so many weeks at this point that I have even gone distant from discord and the forums since I have been stressing about it a lot and I'm at a loss. I don't know what I could do with it and it sucks, but it is the reality. The good part as I said is that thanks to the donations sent to paypal the passport issuing is done so that's a huge hurdle that we got over.

Another piece of good news however is that Lu is staying over here and we just spent a week at the beach basically to help get her mind off things as well as wait for the heat to die off and things to cool down, she's still in my city but is now staying with another friend after being here with me and my family for some weeks, but she's away from her city where all the stuff happened so I'm calm about it.

Best case scenario news: I have a programmed trip abroad to visit some European countries (overcoming the travel limitations imposed by something I'll explain in the political update) and this would coincide with the time she's planning on going. So I would be able to basically get her outside the country since she's never travelled internationally, this would be ideal ngl, and my fingers are crossed this all goes through well. I'll spend a couple months traveling around Europe and also get the chance to make sure she's settled and fine with her connections over there so that she doesn't end up homeless or something.

Political update:

Biggest thing that has happened is that Edmundo González fled the country, the president elect not supported by the government and the CNE (the National Electoral Council) is no longer in Venezuelan soil, and there have been travel limitations imposed due to this since there have been international relations broken by this fact, this is super shitty because it closes even more doors to get out, but there's always a workaround even if it costs a bit more. Edmundo's departure is a huge blow to everyone's morale since this implies that he's exiled and it is harder to impose actions and call for the defense of the constitution when you yourself are abroad. Allegedly today, sept 16, is an important day according to international mercenary Erik Prince, although we are all waiting 4 more hours at the time I'm posting this since the dude even made a countdown website at https://yacasivenezuela.com

Other than that, I really think that my brother and I were right on the political side that María Corina is just another soldout as well as puppet Edmundo González, do I believe he legit won the elections? absolutely, 100% he had all the votes, but in a country with no democracy and no respect for the electoral process that does not matter. What mattered was HOW the opposition was going to impose the popular will, which they so far haven't and are clinging onto international representatives and bureaucratic idiocy to try to topple a dictatorship, which is laughably innocent at best and complicit and corrupt at worst.

Let's wait these 4 hours to see what the hell goes on with the website I guess.

Me personally I am fine, I am working on my goals, my fashion brand is about to launch since I finally was able to learn patternmaking to be able to really design the fit and the sizing perfectly, and it is a matter of a few weeks since I have nothing else to test and experiment with so far so I'm extremely hyped about that. I am going to make it inside Venezuela which is pretty risky if the government takes offense, but I have a solid contingency plan to assure my freedom and safety abroad in case this happens, and I have the full support of my network around me so I am sure this would be a certainty, so I don't consider myself at risk at the moment, and I'm careful enough with my planning to assure I won't be.

other than that, all is good my friends.

Things have cooled off politically quite significantly and the government has won so far.

I recommend you guys watch two movies if you'd like to understand a bit of the Venezuelan situation, these are:

Simón (2023) for the middle income family and the protests, this is on Netflix and is the more Hollywoodesque type of film you'd watch with popcorn

Once Upon a Time in Venezuela (2020) this is the most insanely beautiful film about Venezuela I've ever seen. I highly recommend it, it is not the easiest watch as it is a slow paced documentary but the visuals are stunning and the storytelling is raw and stern, this is the true recommendation if you want to see the reality of what goes on here on the lowest classes.

Thank you guys for reading and being so eager to help me out and reach out to ask if I'm okay. It means the world to me, I am always moved by this, and I always have the need to mention it because I am incredibly grateful for every single one of you out there reading this and caring about this crazy shitposter. Thank you.


UPDATE ON ERIK PRINCE'S WEBSITE:

bro this is the scummiest shit I've ever seen, they're asking for money to pool up enough to do a political intervention. This is like a south park episode. Impressed by the finesse but deeply saddened my people are so stupid.