They are traumatized (and I don’t use that word lightly) by authority. In Venezuela, people in power can do whatever they want and so they think that any request is basically complaining - complaining leads the landlord to be annoyed at them - the landlord being annoyed will lead to them getting kicked out, deported, shortage of money, etc.

They feel this country is where I am living now, I don’t wanna be a nuisance. They are the type of people if they get robbed and there is a picture of the person who did it, they wouldn’t do anything because they are afraid of “bothering” the cops, et etc. The guy can be also a complete asshole as you said and simply be comfortable living with everything like shit, many Venezuelans are like that and they don’t know how to deal with disagreement, everything is personal.

Just my two cents