Sobs, gunshots and explosions fill the background of voice messages junior and native Venezuelan Gabriela Lozada receives from her family living in the conflict-ridden country.

Text messages, voice notes (voice recordings sent through an app), images and videos are the only things connecting people like Lozada to the nation in turmoil.

Student-led protests in Venezuela opposing the so-called corrupt government of President Nicolás Maduro have been met with violent force, leaving at least 15 people dead. The fierce government reaction is affecting Venezuelans across the globe.

Frustration and a desire to help is what motivated St. Thomas students to raise awareness and support their friends and family on the streets of Venezuela.

“I have cousins who have been protesting in the marches,” Lozada said. “One of my cousins is a couple years younger than me, and he’s a student, and he’s been out there yesterday with my grandpa.”

Feeling physically distant from the conflict yet impacted on a personal level, Lozada and junior Rodrigo Marmol Iglesias, who also has family in Venezuela, joined other students, Venezuelan and non-Venezuelan, to raise awareness. On Feb. 22, close to 100 people held a rally in downtown Minneapolis to show support for Venezuela. Both Lozada and Marmol attended.

“One of the most beautiful moments was when everyone started singing the national anthem,” Lozada said. “Everyone’s just together and singing this anthem that’s supposed to show how beautiful the country is, and it shows the roots of it and how it should be and how sad it is that it isn’t. What the anthem means is no longer representative of the country that we grew up in and the place that we knew as home.”

Born in Valencia, a city known for its opposition, Lozada and her family immigrated to the United States in 1999, around the time late President Hugo Chavez came into power.

“I think even then my parents kind of knew this wasn’t a good thing,” Lozada said in reference to the Chavez regime.

Since the death of Chavez and his successor, Nicolás Maduro’s, rise to power, the government of Venezuela has faced an increasingly disgruntled middle class.

Latin American History professor Kari Zimmerman said this unrest is the result of a buildup of many years of concern with the government.

“You could argue that … all through Chavez’s ten years as president that there had been a lot of suspicion of the government and a lot of concern with how much the government was offering services, like security,” Zimmerman said.

Zimmerman said she suspects the catalyst that initiated the protests occurred when sexual assault charges filed by a student resulted in little to no response from authorities.

Caracas, the capital of Venezuela, and surrounding cities are now engulfed in conflict. Born in Caracas, Marmol said that the protests are no longer just about politics.

“It started as political, but right now it’s more than that,” Marmol said. “People are in the streets fighting for their rights, for their security and a new country.”

Marmol said he tries to keep in daily contact with his friends and family in the capital.

“The first two or three days, they shot people. It was sad to talk to them. They were crying. It was just sad,” Marmol said. “I tell my friends and cousins it’s not worth it to get shot. I tell them to be careful and be aware. My frustration is probably even smaller than theirs. I feel disconnected.”

Captured on videos, the government’s response to the protests has been violent.

“You just hear the shot, and people fall,” Marmol said.

Zimmerman said the government reaction to the protests isn’t isolated to Venezuela.

“This is a long tradition in Latin America, that public protests are not often given that space to voice your opinion in that way that you might be able to in the United States,” Zimmerman said.

Despite the risk of being shot at, the protests have not dispersed.

“I asked my cousin what it’s like being out there,” Lozada said. “He said it’s in our blood to protest. I’m not scared. I’m nervous, but I’m not scared because I know this is the right thing to do.”

According to Marmol’s contacts in Caracas, the student leaders are instructing protesters to stay close to home and barricade their streets. The goal is to cripple the country’s transportation, to block the national guard from entering streets and to keep the guard from having one mass of people to concentrate on.

“I think that is a really smart way to disperse that type of protest and perhaps realign the military response, but again, it might be ineffective in it’s ability to show a large force,” Zimmerman said.

Marmol said he wishes he could be home protesting.

“I wish I was there fighting with my people,” Marmol said. “It’s sad. I don’t know if I’m going to be able to be back.”

The problems in infrastructure aren’t necessarily the result of a country poor in natural resources. Venezuela sits on one of the largest oil reserves in Latin America. According to the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, oil accounts for 95 percent of Venezuela’s export earnings. Lozada said this income is hardly seen benefiting the people of Venezuela.

“They know the reasons (why) they’re protesting are legitimate. They don’t have food, they don’t have money. It’s impossible for a country with that big of an oil reserve to be lacking in food. To have inflation gone up as much as it has in the past 11 months, it’s ridiculous,” Lozada said. “They know they’re right and they’re not going to stop because they don’t have any reason to. They’re not afraid anymore.”

Nearly a month into the protests, it has yet to be seen if Venezuelan protestors will be effective in creating change or if the government crackdown will put an end to demonstrations.

“First and foremost, these types of protests garner an international focus towards what’s going on in other places, but also it puts some pressure on the government, whether on the local level or on a higher level to take action that they’re accountable for,” Zimmerman said.

Pressure on the government is exactly what Lozada said she is hoping for.

“They have to keep going. They have to keep pushing him and pushing him until he breaks,” Lozada said.

On Saturday, students met in the Anderson Student Center to make posters, which they took pictures with around the Twin Cities on Sunday. With the goal of raising awareness beyond Venezuelan students, Marmol said that everyone can find reason to join the cause.

Lozada stressed that just because many St. Thomas students do not have a connection with Venezuela, they should still care.

“We live in this bubble up here in St. Paul,” Lozada said. “We should care because we’re students and that could be us. It’s not us because we’re very lucky to live in a country that really values our freedom of speech and freedom to protest, but it could easily be us. They’re just like us, they’re just in a different country.”

Even with different political views and backgrounds, Marmol said people can agree on a few basics.

“You agree that someone needs food to live. You agree that someone needs to be safe to live. You agree that someone needs to be paid the amount of money they deserve,” Marmol said. “It’s not just about Venezuela. It’s about Ukraine, it’s about whatever is happening everywhere. You have to be aware because we are all human beings and we live in the same place.”

Simeon Lancaster can be reached at lanc4637@stthomas.edu.