"CHAOS, TOTAL CHAOS - WE HAD TO LEAVE TO SURVIVE"
For years now we´ve received frequent news from the growing financial crises and collapse of the Venezuelan civil society. Inflation is sky high and has reached a level not seen since Germany´s financial collapse in the early 1920´s. People are struggling to find or pay for their daily needs. Transportation and public services works only partly, hospitals and health clinics are lacking supplies and qualified staff and criminal gangs are a constant threat in many towns and cities.
Reading news feeds and watching people on television arriving at their first Colombian destination, exhausted after walking for days to reach the the Colombian border is one thing. To be there, and to see all the people sleeping in the parks and on side walks, and to hear their stories is definitely something else.
Even though the exact numbers are difficult to get confirmed, since 2015, more than an estimated one million Venezuelan migrants have crossed the Simon Bolivar bridge from Venezuela to Colombia and around the same number in total to to Brazil, Peru, and Ecuador. In addition to the registered migrants crossing the Simon Bolivar Bridge, an unknown number of migrants have crossed the border to Colombia illegally (there are 40 known crossing points in countryside near Cucuta alone). These are people who does not have the right documents or a passport needed for a legal border crossing and a residence permit. The UN has compared the migrant crisis in Venezuela with the situation seen in countries with a civil war, and it is definitely the worst migrant crisis in the history of South America.
And who´s to blame?
President Maduro blames the counrty´s problems on the US and Europe for waging an economic war. Critics on the other side say it`s a simple case of economic mismanagement.
While it is certainly easy to point a finger at Hugo Chavez and Nicolas Maduro for politicising the public administration, creating a huge bureaucracy, and making numerous financial blunders, however some would claim it would be more than fair to say that both the above mentioned politicians, as well as the the political opposition, large companies, high rank officials and thousands of civil servants, doctors and intellectuals (some of whom were the first to migrate) are responsible for having failed to to their jobs and to contribute to prevent the crises from reaching this level. Even though Venezuela was the richest and most prosperous country in Latin America some twenty years ago, poverty and corruption was already there and the reason Chavez and Maduro could come to power in the first place. Not the least Chavez´ actions to redistribute wealth and power to the people gave him huge support from a majority of the Venezuelans.
The bridge and the border crossing
The second day after arriving in Cucuta, and guided by new Colombian friends, I´m visiting La Parada, the last village before crossing Simon Bolivar International Bridge over the Rio Táchira river to Vemezuela. Since 2015 the 300m long and 7m wide bridge has been clogged daily with thousands of refugees who say they would die if they remained in their homeland. This morning the bridge is already getting crowded and a constant stream of people are marching towards the Colombian side with plastic bags, suitcases, backpacks, wheelchairs and small children in strollers or in mothers arms. Passing the migration checkpoint seem to go smoothly and unimpeded for most, but a young couple are refused to cross by a migration officer and asked to step into another line that goes back into Venezuela. The young girl bursts in tears and her male companion has to grab her from falling and help to keep her on the feet, while her hope for a new and better life seems to be lost, at least for now.
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| The last migration check point |
As we talk with several people arriving this day, the stories seem to be all the same. In "In Venezuela it is total chaos", some says. "Nothing is working. No jobs, no money or nowhere to by what we need. Schools and health facilities do not work, and even the buses don´t run".
On the sidewalk on the Colombian side of the bridge a group of Venezuelan women are showing posters with pictures of missing relatives to the people passing by. Many bad things happens in Venezuela these days.
The helpers
In La Parada, a busy village close to the Simon Bolivar bridge, we are invited to visit "Casa de Paso, Divina Providencia" a facility that offers food and other services to the migrants arriving from Venezuela. Most of the migrants only stay in La Parada for a few days or less, to get immigration documents or to rest after days walking from their home town somewhere on the Venezuelan side.
Inside Casa de Paso we are met by Juan Carlos Andrade, a young lawyer and coordinator of this center, run by the Catholic Church (the church is coordinating the relief work in Cucuta) in cooperation with Cucuta municipality with support from the UN. Juan Carlos tells us that more than 3,000 people come here every single day. The capacity is actually 2000, and often there is not enough food for all who queue outside. Due to the growing need they want to expand the capacity and buy two of the neighbouring properties, but for the time being there is insufficient funding. Migrants do not just need food. They also need safe places to sleep and psychosocial support. The Centre has initiated various measures such as basic outpatient health care, information about work opportunities and work preparatory courses. In cooperation with other organisations and the municipality, there are also activities and school offerings for some of the children. Colombian authorities also organise school transport for children staying in a camp on the Venezuelan side of the border. Some of these await the opportunity to cross the border. Others are staying there because it is possible to cross the border to get food and other goods they need to survive.
Rebeca Ruiz
On the outskirts of the dining area, we meet Rebeca Ruiz (22) and her two daughters of four and the smallest only two months old, coming from a small town not far from the border with Colombia.
Rebeca came here the first time more than two months ago hoping to give birth to her child at a hospital in Cucuta. She knew she could have complications at the birth and was afraid that it would go wrong if she was staying in Venezuela with no health services. Previously, they had programs for follow-up of pregnant women until birth, but nothing of this works anymore. At the hospital in Cucuta she was rejected because she had no papers showing she had permanent residence in Colombia. She ended up having to go home to her mother, and with the help of a sister-in-law, she gave birth to the youngest daughter who has now become two months. Her husband has also come here and they try to survive by street sales of coffee, water and other goods they get hold of which can make a small profit. But there are thousands in the same situation, so it's hard. What they are going to do next they do not know.
An extreme situation
The situation for the Venezuelan migrants is extreme. Most people who come now are very poor and many can neither afford accommodation nor transport to their next destination. Thousands sleep outdoors in simple tents or under the open sky.
In order to survive, migrants do almost anything and are vulnerable to all forms of exploitation. Even though the majority tries to feed themselves on honest work, robbery and other crimes and prostitution are an increasing problem. I'm also told that migrants has had a negative effect on Cututa's economy because they do not spend the money they earn if they get a job in Colombia, but send most of the money to their family at home. It becomes negative economic circle.
Cucuta is already crowded by Venezuelans looking for work, so most people who come these days continue their travel to the larger cities like Medellin or Bogota and on to Peru and Equador. Many of those who do not have money for transportation do the trip on foot. A trip that can take days and weeks and crosses mountain passes on an altitude more than two thousand meters. During the walk, it alternates between roaring sun, whining rain and severe cold over the highest mountain passes. There are reports of many people who have died on the way.
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