Hungry Venezuelans Flee in Boats to Escape Economic Collapse. Well over 150,000 people have fled Venezuela in the last year alone, the most in more than a decade, scholars say, with the sea route posing special dangers.
nytimes.com
TODAY VENEZUELA NEWS – Food and medicine shortages, violent protests, corruption, and skyrocketing inflation are among some of the factors causing Venezuelans to flee the country by any means necessary.
Inflation is projected to jump at least 1,600%, dashing many hopes for economic improvement any time soon.
Many citizens have no other choice but to escape through any means possible, and in some cases are streaming across dangerous sea water to get the Caribbean, in the hopes of getting to neighboring nations like Brazil.
“It was worth the risk,” said Ms. Bello,30, about her turbulent voyage out of Venezuela, add that, like her, people “are going after one thing: food,” she told The New York Times.
Hunger is the theme that is driving people to escape at all costs, including paying smugglers money they don’t have to trail off to Brazil or further places like Bello, the Caribbean on tattered and stuffed boats.
Bello said, she was forced off the boat with 16 others because the boat drivers were scared about a run in with authorities. The woman was dragged by her hair in the sea to coastal land because she couldn’t swim.
Like the others who washed up with no food, water and badly hurt, the inner peace and hope for a better life, seemed significantly present and the main reason behind their push out.
The current status of Brazil, which was opened for two days this past July is becoming a respite of hope for the people that are disillusioned and have called the streets of the Summer Olympic holding nation their new home. Showing the world, that sleeping on the streets of a foreign country or participating in low paying jobs is worth the price of escape.
The price to this freedom and the smuggler is less than ideal because it is leaving many people in a debilitating conundrum.
Other members of Bello’s family, are an example. Her uncle was most recently been accused of smuggling migrants and now has to sit in prison. While others are trying to figure out ways to find the money to pay for someone and overcome the uneasiness of saying goodbye to the only homeland they’ve known.
Original article by Stephanie Parker appeared at Faithwire.com
