Imagine living in a country where you have to bring a backpack full of cash to buy the most basic food, if there’s any available to buy. To get to a hospital with adequate health standards and supplies of medicine, you have to travel hundreds of miles and cross borders, while the infrastructure in your country is crumbling, and power outages can last for days.

For the vast majority of Venezuelans, scenarios like these have become reality in recent years. The country is suffering one of its worst humanitarian crises, which has caused over 2 million people to flee the country since 2014.

Corruption in the top echelons of the Venezuelan government has not only led to extreme social and economic instability, but also weakened the state institutions that are meant to protect citizens. This becomes especially clear when one looks at the way organised crime networks can act with impunity all over the country.