Angely López arrived in Costa Rica a day before the president of the Central American country, Rodrigo Chaves, assured that his government will help her and the thousands of Venezuelan migrants who are resting on Costa Rican soil so that they can regain strength here and continue on their way to USA.
The woman and her son Jexay, 15, came hungry, exhausted, with muddy clothes and penniless after losing all their money crossing the dangerous Darién Gap, the border jungle between Colombia and Panama, and being expelled at full speed from Panamanian territory.
This is how she told it this Wednesday before releasing a "blessed God" for having arrived in the Costa Rican capital.
On the same day, the Joe Biden Administration and the Mexican Government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador agreed on a new migratory framework that opens the door to the arrival by plane to the United States of an initial contingent of 24,000 Venezuelans in exchange for returning those who fail to comply. the process like the tens of thousands trying to reach the border on foot.
“The final goal is the United States, but being here is also a halfway goal.
We can rest a bit, recover, receive help without being charged and go out to collect the money to enter Nicaragua and continue crossing to Mexico,” says the 36-year-old woman, a native of Carabobo State, about the journey of almost 4,000 kilometers. .
By the end of 2022 some 200,000 people will have taken that route,
Angely López with her son Jexay.Carlos Herrera
Around Angely López, a line of men swept away with sandwiches and cups of coffee distributed by one of the volunteers from the religious organization that assists them in the Cristo Rey neighborhood, in the south of San José.
Another group of Venezuelans guarded the spaces where at nightfall they would set up the tents to sleep and others, the happiest, rested in the shelters with clean bunks.
In the roundabouts and squares of the city, hundreds of Venezuelans finished their begging day.
The rain had barely allowed them to prolong the request for help in the afternoon to be able to collect the 150 dollars that Nicaragua charges them for letting them cross its territory and the rest of the money for the trip.
Some did not bring enough;
Others were robbed crossing the Darién and others wait here for someone they know to send them money from the United States.
Washington's announcement will allow the entry of Venezuelan migrants as long as they do not travel like Angely and everyone else here.
"By plane?
Uh, that would be a dream”, exclaims Anthony, a skinny young man who listens to the conversation coffee in hand.
If Venezuelan migration through Central America is an unstoppable river of people, Costa Rica represents a haven where 10% of migrants stay a week or more to gather strength, according to calculations by the local Migration Directorate.
For this reason, Costa Ricans see them in the cities camping at night or begging for money under traffic lights with one-meter signs featuring the Venezuelan flag.
“We tell them that we are Venezuelans because that way they show more solidarity with us, they see that we are not homeless and that we only want to raise money to leave.
The people are very friendly,” a young man who identified himself as Carlos Rubio explained at noon.
He smiles and says he's glad to have the opportunity to beg.
“It may be true that the economy is not doing well in Costa Rica,
A group of Venezuelan migrants line up to receive coffee and bread outside the Cristo Rey church in San José, on October 12. Carlos Herrera
“Ticos are in solidarity with migration.
Here they can regain strength,” said the director of Migration, Marlen Luna, who in the last week delivered to President Chaves a report according to which there are more than 2,000 migrants who enter Costa Rica through its southern border every week.
The Government reports that it has no resources and that it can only provide minimal humanitarian attention, help them transit without additional costs or facilitate the charity of private groups.
Local authorities know that the flow will probably be greater in the coming weeks, as warned by an IOM report given Wednesday in Panama.
Closing the border has never been an option in Costa Rica, Chaves recalled.
They have not done so either to the north with the Nicaraguans, who since 2018 have submitted 180,000 refugee applications, although their circumstances are different.
Venezuelans do not ask for shelter or jobs, they just want to continue heading north but many need to heal from wounds or gastric illnesses, recover or clear their minds after the Darién stretch, says priest Sergio Valverde, in charge of the Association of Works of the Holy Spirit , which in the past has also served groups of Cuban and Haitian migrants.
In other cities there are also religious or non-religious groups that provide help, or individuals who coin by coin support them to finance the tour.
Venezuelan migrants set aside a place on a sidewalk in the Costa Rican capital. Carlos Herrera
Angely is embarrassed to ask in the streets and plans to offer her experience as a cook in public schools in Venezuela to help in the Association's dining room in exchange for some money.
A week or two, no more, she thinks aloud as she leans against the wall of the Cristo Rey parish church next to Jexay.
Two other children were left in the care of the grandmother, hoping that soon they will receive dollars from the United States to eat what they need again.
“They were starving,” says the mother with swollen eyes after talking to them and telling them that she has already passed the worst of the road, that she is already in a small country called Costa Rica where they are helping her.
He did not tell them that he lost 200 dollars that he had saved in a river or that he was able to get to San José thanks to the fact that he was able to negotiate at the border to pay 28 dollars for two tickets instead of 34 at the normal rate.
She told them that they are treating her well here, that she feels better.
In the Presidential House and in the Foreign Ministry there is stress due to the migratory problem, without it being declared an emergency.
The volume puts more pressure on the country's social assistance system without the international community having shown enthusiasm in satisfying the requests for help launched by the Costa Rican authorities in international forums in recent years, first to serve Cuban walkers in 2015, for Nicaraguans since 2018 and with Venezuelan travelers in 2022. The weight is carried by charities, recognized the Director of Migration, who sees the problem is far from over: "We need more support for what is coming."
A Venezuelan mother with her son in the dining room of a shelter in San José.Carlos Herrera
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