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Postcards: Venezuelan migrants long for home as Maduro starts new term

ALICIA FERNANDEZ, CAMILO COHECHA, RODRIGO GUTIERREZ and JORGE VEGA, of Reuters, report on the plight of Venezuelans displaced from their home…

Mexico City, Mexico/Riohacha, Colombia
Reuters

Venezuelan migrant Maria Angela Lozano longs for her homeland, but, speaking ahead of Friday’s inauguration for President Nicolas Maduro’s third term, she said she has begrudgingly opted to remain in Mexico and brave her meagre living conditions.


Venezuelan migrant Maria Angela Lozano, 34, talks outside her makeshift house where she lives with her husband and two children while waiting for an appointment to request asylum in the US at a displaced persons camp in Mexico City, Mexico on 7th January, 2025. PICTURE: Reuters/Raquel Cunha.

“If Maduro weren’t in government…I’d be the first to return to Venezuela”, Lozano said in December, a fortnight before Maduro’s inauguration, following a contested election last July which saw both Maduro and opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez claim victory.

“If Maduro weren’t in government…I’d be the first to return to Venezuela.”

– Venezuelan migrant Maria Angela Lozano

Gonzalez has been declared President-elect by several governments in the region. Last Monday, US President Joe Biden said Gonzalez was the “true winner” of the 28th July vote.

Lozano, who has a human resources degree from a university in Venezuela’s Maracaibo, has been living for six months with her husband and children Lucia and Gustavo in a makeshift dwelling near a train crossing in northern Mexico City.

She barely earns anything by dyeing other migrants’ hair while she waits for a US consulate appointment she hopes will result in asylum.


Luciana, six, daughter of Venezuelan migrant Maria Angela Lozano, 34, walks after receiving a donated cake known as “Rosca de Reyes” at a displaced persons camp in Mexico City, Mexico, on 7th January, 2025. PICTURE: Reuters/Raquel Cunha.

Her story is hardly unique. Nearly 7.9 million Venezuelans are living outside their country of origin, the second largest displacement in the world, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

Venezuela’s economy in recent years has experienced a prolonged crisis marked by triple-digit inflation and broad US sanctions leading to the exodus of millions of Venezuelans seeking better opportunities.

Colombia is home to some 2.8 million Venezuelans, among them 38-year-old Raydelys Coromoto.


Raydelys Coromoto, a Venezuelan migrant, reacts while Charlotte Slente, Secretary General of the Danish Refugee Council (DRC) comforts her, during her visit to Riohacha, Colombia, on 2nd December, 2024. PICTURE: Reuters/Luisa Gonzalez

Living in a ramshackle home of metal sheets, wood, and plastic in the Caribbean city of Riohacha, Coromoto runs a small market to support her family.

“Sometimes we spend the day without food. We only get enough for the children”, said Coromoto, who fled to Colombia two months ago, seeking better health care for one of her children who suffers from multiple disabilities.



Others Venezuelans in Riohacha, like Abigail Suarez, echo Coromoto’s sentiments.

“The situation in Venezuela is very ugly,” she said. “I wanted to have a different environment, a different home.”


Abigail Suarez, a Venezuelan migrant, attends an interview with Reuters accompanied by her daughter, in Riohacha, Colombia on 2nd December, 2024. PICTURE: Reuters/Luisa Gonzalez

Despite the perils faced by migrants, the Venezuelan diaspora will continue to grow, said Donna Catalina Cabrera, a migration specialist at Javeriana University in Colombia.

“After the Christmas holidays and the beginning of the year and after Maduro’s new term in Venezuela, people are going to leave the territory again looking for opportunities in other countries”, Cabrera said.


People cook food during a visit by Charlotte Slente, Secretary General of the Danish Refugee Council (DRC), in Riohacha, Colombia on 2nd December, 2024. PICTURE: Reuters/Luisa Gonzalez

Chile, already home to a large Venezuelan populations, may very well see those numbers increase.

At a refugee facility in Santiago, Venezuelans waited in line to be attended.

One woman, who asked not to be named, declared “I’m here seeking asylum, having fled my country.”

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