They beg, look for food in the garbage and take refuge in drugs. Countless children and teenagers live in the streets of Caracas. The once wealthy South American country is in a serious economic crisis, hyperinflation prevails. Many people are starving, food is becoming more and more expensive. More than three million have already fled, according to the United Nations Refugee Agency. Because of the catastrophic economic situation, there are always protests in the country. Here you can read more about it.

Photographer Miguel Gutierrez accompanied for the agency EFE for two months homeless and abandoned by their families young people in the Venezuelan capital. Most of them he met in public places in the east of the city.

One of them is the 15-year-old Paola. Since she was 13, she lives on the street. She is happier here than at home, she says. Her mother's boyfriend always told her to get away. Now she could do whatever she wanted.

But her life on the street is dangerous. Somebody once wanted to kill her, says Paola, she still has a scar on her neck. "That big guy thought I reported him to the cops for some weird stuff he planned."

He then followed her with some friends, grabbed a bottle, broke it and stabbed her with a sharp end in the neck. After that, the men would have tied her up, Paola says and threw herself into the Guaire River - a polluted river that runs through Caracas.

photo gallery


25 pictures

Venezuela: hunger, drugs, violence

Miguel Rebolledo is the coordinator of "Domingo Savio Orphanage", which adopts homeless teenagers. He says that in Venezuela there is a "dramatic increase" in children being abandoned by their mothers. The fathers are often completely absent. Many sufferers are probably children of parents who fled the economic crisis, other families can no longer feed all members. Read more about the consequences of hyperinflation here and here.

"We have a split family case: a woman has decided to leave her eight children," says Rebolledo. "I have the two elders here, eleven and twelve years old, and when I accepted them, I realized that the eldest is bad at school because he has to look after his smallest brothers and sisters." The father come to visit the boys sometimes.

Venezuela's former President Hugo Chavez said in 1998 after his election victory: "Hugo Chavez forbids himself to let children live on the streets of Venezuela." This promise has not been fulfilled even under Chavez 'successor Nicolás Maduro.