Witnessing a ‘Complete Collapse of Society’ in VenezuelaOlivier Laurent 
"I’ve very scared of how it will end," says photographer Alvaro Ybarra Zavala
Alvaro Ybarra Zavala puts it bluntly:
“Venezuela has become hell.”The photographer had just returned from one of his latest trips to the South American nation when he talked to TIME, and he was visibly affected by the chaos he had witnessed there. “There’s a complete collapse of society,” he said.
Once an example for the continent, Venezuela is now a country in freefall. “It’s hard to find food, there’s no medicine,” said Ybarra Zavala. “If you have to have surgery, you need to bring everything with you: the bandages, the gloves, everything. There are no anesthetics.”
Ybarra Zavala was on assignment for TIME last month, chronicling the country’s breakdown. His photographs show daily street protests that are often violently repressed, empty shelves in deserted grocery stores and people lining up, sometimes for entire days, for gas. “No one believes anymore in the army, in the police, in the system,” said Ybarra Zavala.
The photographer - who’s worked in Iraq, Afghanistan and Colombia - said Venezuela is the “hardest place I’ve worked in”.
The collapse, set in motion by Hugo Chavez’s 14-year reign, now seems irreversible, he adds: “For the last four years, Venezuela has been in constant crisis and it never blew up. But now, I’m very scared of how it will end. I think Venezuela crossed the line of no return. I’m worried what will happen next.”
http://time.com/4419186/photographing-venezuela-collapse/
