https://www.nytimes.com/video/world...ight-on-scraps.html?smid=tw-nytimes&smtyp=cur
Now that
82% of households live in poverty, they don’t seem interested at all in what’s happening in Venezuela. It is a shame, because their voices could really come in handy as the world calls on Maduro to restore democracy and respect human rights.
http://www.latimes.com/world/mexico-americas/la-fg-venezuela-refugees-20171019-htmlstory.html
For many Venezuelans, leaving was simply a matter of survival. Since the late President
Hugo Chavez took power in 1999, the share of population living in poverty has risen to 82% from 45%. Rampant quadruple-digit inflation has meant wages don’t keep up with food prices. Increasing numbers of hungry Venezuelans must scavenge for food to get by.
The country continues to be roiled by political unrest, with government critics accusing President
Nicolas Maduro of mismanagement and of unlawful power grabs.
With Venezuela’s economy collapsing, the exodus shows no sign of abating, although the Venezuelan government is making it more difficult for those leaving by slowing passport processing to a virtual standstill, said Tomas Paez, a sociology professor at Central University of Venezuela, an expert on the widening diaspora that now extends over 94 countries.
“You have all ages, all professions, persons of all education levels leaving Venezuela,” Paez said, adding that as many as 500,000 Venezuelans have fled their country in the last two years and a total of 2.1 million since 1998.
