Venezuela is located on the northern edge of South America. It is geographically positioned in the Northern and Western hemispheres of the Earth. Venezuela is bordered by Brazil to the south; by Guyana to the east; by Colombia to the west and southwest.
Venezuela was once among the wealthiest countries in Latin America, its economy buoyed by profits from vast oil reserves — the largest proven reserves in the world — that supported celebrated universities, a respected public health system, and a flourishing middle class.
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The inflation rate for consumer prices in Venezuela moved over the past 40 years between 6.3% and 130,060.2%. For 2020, an inflation rate of 2,959.8% was calculated. During the observation period from 1980 to 2020, the average inflation rate was 3,608.8% per year. Overall, the price increase was 104,800,492,693,121.28 %.
- In 2019, Venezuela’s estimated gross domestic product (GDP) per capita dropped to 2,299 U.S. dollars from 3,404 U.S. dollars the year before. the country’s GDP has been on a continuous downswing.
- For years Venezuelans have been scraping by, trying to feed their children on meager salaries, watching family members die of preventable diseases, waiting for hours in line for gasoline so they can take a trip to the hospital or the market.
- Political corruption–US imposed sanctions on oil to force the current President from power due to fraud. , There were chronic shortages of food and medicine, closure of businesses, unemployment, deterioration of productivity, authoritarianism, human rights violations, gross economic mismanagement, and high dependence on oil that contributed to the worsening crisis.
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- Migration
In the early days of the crisis, millions of Venezuelans migrated to other countries in South America. Colombia, Venezuela’s neighbor, received the largest part of the exodus — more than two million people.
Colombia, with the support of the United States, offered a generous visa program meant to keep Venezuelans in South America. But wages in Colombia are very low. Mr. Añez, for example, migrated to Colombia, where he made just $5 a day cutting sugar cane.
Peru and Ecuador were other popular countries for Venezuelans seeking new homes. But both suffer similar wage issues. Ecuador is now struggling with rising drug trafficking violence and with common criminals who extort small business owners.
Venezuelans vs DeSantis
Senate Bill 1718 was signed in May by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a hard-line “conservative” who has made cracking down on migration a centerpiece of his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination. The broad-reaching law will invalidate driver’s licenses for people who can’t prove their legal status; require hospitals that accept Medicaid to ask patients for their immigration status; make it a felony to transport immigrants without legal status, punishable by up to 15 years in prison; require employers with more than 25 workers to use E-Verify to confirm employment eligibility; and provide $12 million to transport migrants from the border to “sanctuary jurisdictions.”
The law’s implementation follows decisions by DeSantis and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to transport migrants to California earlier this month, adding Sacramento and Los Angeles to the growing list of major cities led by Democrats that have been targeted by the two Republicans, including New York, Chicago, and Denver.
As a political stunt, Venezuelans became political pons.
A group of Venezuelan migrants who were shuttled from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard under false pretenses filed a lawsuit against Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R), who took credit for the latest Republican effort to transport migrants to Democratic-run areas.
The Lawsuit filed 5 counts against DeSantis. Listed as follows:
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- The lawsuit names DeSantis as the main defendant, along with Florida Transportation Secretary Jared Purdue and five yet-to-be-identified defendants, including a mysterious blonde woman from San Antonio, Texas, who identified herself as “Perla,” and allegedly misled some of the migrants who arrived on Martha’s Vineyard.
- The lawsuit claims the migrants were transported to the wealthy Massachusetts holiday destination under false pretenses, and were told they would have access to housing, education, legal assistance, and other resources upon their arrival.
- Many of the plaintiffs were also told before boarding a plane that they were heading to either Boston or Washington, D.C., and only learned they were going to Martha’s Vineyard when already mid-air, according to the lawsuit.
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4. After the plane arrived in Martha’s Vineyard on Wednesday, the migrants were left “destitute and stranded” on the tarmac and were not provided with any of the assistance they were promised, the lawsuit alleges, leaving them “immensely vulnerable” and unable to reach the people who recruited them for the flights via phone.
5. The relocation interfered with federal immigration laws, violated the plaintiffs’ civil rights, and caused “severe emotional distress,” the lawsuit says, adding that the migrants were “emotionally traumatized” after learning they had been transported thousands of miles from where they needed to continue with their federal immigration proceedings in Texas.
In summary. asylum seekers had to appear in a Texas court to have their refugee status approved. Illegally, Ron DeSantis flew Texas immigrants hundreds of miles away from their appointments to appear tough on immigrants in Florida.
This political stunt caused Florida taxpayers millions to remove Texas immigrants to Martha Vineyard.
References: The New York Times, Forbes
