10/01/2020 - 17:01
Clarín.com
Society
The National Directorate of Migration, last year, maintained that the number of Venezuelans who entered the country in the last 7 years, from 2012 to March 2019,
exceeded 170,000 people
.
However, the trend of many of them
began to change
at the end of last year, and already in 2020 - due to the economic crisis, the coronavirus pandemic and the change of government - there are more and
more Venezuelans who want to leave the country
.
The situation of many of them is worrying.
The Association of Venezuelans in the Argentine Republic (ASOVEN) assures that there are about
1,000 Venezuelans
who want to return to their country or leave Argentina.
The reasons are various.
Among them are the
lack of work, low salaries, great uncertainty and the political situation
.
“There are about 1,000 Venezuelans who
are desperate to turn
.
But they were just caught by the pandemic and the flight ban.
They are people who
are having a hard time
, their present is very overwhelming ”, explained Vincenzo Pensa Terán, president of ASOVEN.
Of that total, about 370 already had a ticket back to their country, but the quarantine made them stranded.
Precisely, the main problem they are facing is that Venezuela, whose borders are closed,
is not receiving repatriation flights today
.
According to a survey conducted by this association,
78%
of those surveyed stated that their family members worked before confinement in
paid tasks that they classify as unstable
.
Ricardo Echeverría is one of them.
He is 37 years old, he is a journalist and he came to Argentina three years ago.
Before that, he spent three years in Panama, where he had to go due to the rigidity of immigration policies.
"When I was coming here, Argentina had the image that it was a country that was prospering. And I was attracted by that image that reached us abroad. However, when we arrived, I realized that
the reality of the country was very different
from that. image of prosperity that they had told us ".
Ricardo is having a hard time.
Since last year he has been
reducing his budget
to be able to live.
Currently, he is working as a factory operator but has a hard time meeting expenses due to the economic crisis.
He says that the current situation in Argentina is like déjà vu.
"I feel like
I'm living what I experienced many years ago in Venezuela,
" he says.
Ricardo thinks of going to the United States or Spain, because he does not trust the situation in Latin American countries.Photo Germán García Adrasti
He sees
symptoms similar
to those he experienced when he left his country in 2014. "First comes the foreign exchange stocks, then the nationalization of companies, as happened with Vicentín. That is what (Hugo) Chávez did at the time. What is going to follow is the appropriation by the State of the food sector and the entire industry. That will cause everything to fall apart. I have already experienced this. That is why I want to go, "he says.
For Ricardo the situation is very distressing and his plan to emigrate to the United States or Spain.
"Falling back into another Latin American country is like
changing cabins on the Titanic,
" he describes.
With a degree in corporate communication, Ricardo worked for a time as a radio presenter.
But he had to work what he could get.
"I was washing cars, I was as a kitchen assistant in a restaurant, now I am as a worker," he details.
For him,
returning to Venezuela would be a huge mistake
.
"You cannot live there. As much as I have my family, I will not return to Venezuela. In these years, I went to visit them and each time I went, the country looked more like Cuba,
there was misery everywhere
."
Another is the story of León Ruíz, a man from Caracas who has not stopped reinventing himself since his arrival in Buenos Aires.
A graphic designer by profession, he has lived in the country for more than a year and tries by all means to survive.
But his current situation became so
uphill
that he wants to go to everything.
"I came with money to spend a few months to get a job, but it has been
more than a year without being able to get a stable job
."
In June there was a demonstration of dozens of Venezuelans stranded in Argentina due to quarantine.
Photo EFE
He says that with the pandemic, everything became much more distressing since he feels locked up, unable to leave.
"I had planned to return to Venezuela but the quarantine caught me and I was stranded here."
Currently, León is looking for them by giving drawing classes online.
He lives in a rented room that he
can hardly afford
.
"I had to make arrangements with the owner because I can't pay him every month. He lets me stay until the quarantine is over. Then I'll see what I can do. But the truth is that I would like to leave as soon as possible."
There are 4.3 million Venezuelan refugees and migrants in the world and 3,500,000 in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Argentina is not the only country chosen.
For example, since 2014 325,025 people entered Chile, but 74,860 to Brazil.
In Argentina, they mostly live in the City of Buenos Aires and also in the province of Buenos Aires. This is a mostly young population (42% are between 26 and 35 years old) and qualified, with a significant number of professionals who have a university degree. To all of them, Argentina applies this criterion of "Mercosur nationality" which makes entry and registration requirements more flexible.
