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9(1(=8(/$ %etsabeth &asiTue saYed for eight months for bus ticNets out of 9ene]u ela for herself and her three children $t million boliYars each, they are worth what she earns in a month worNing as a nurse It is less than two dollars at the blacN marNet e[change rate
When socialist 3resident 1icolas Maduro won re election to a si[ year term on Sunday in a vote the opposi tion and foreign governments called illegitimate, &asique decided to leave, first for the western city of San &ristobal and from there to &ucuta, &o lombia.
“7hat was the straw that broke the camel’s back, what pushed me to do it faster,´ &asique, , said while charg ing her cell phone outside the $eroe[presos (Mecutivos ter minal in &aracas, where she was planning to buy tickets for a bus leaving on 7uesday.
1inety nine people bought tickets on Monday morning for that trip, said *reberli RoMas, a passenger who dis played a handwritten wait list she was keeping to avoid disputes between passengers trying to fit on the bus. Ro Mas, a year old accountant who arrived from the town of %arlovento in Miranda state and bought her ticket early Monday, planned to spend the night at the station to avoid losing her spot.
“I’m prepared to sell coffee because us migrants have to be prepared to start from the bottom,´ said RoMas, who plans to settle in /ima, 3eru. It appeared the emigration cri sis 9enezuela had e[perienced in recent years as its economy collapsed would continue since Maduro’s government was unlikely to change poli cies that led to hyperinflation, food and medicine shortages and rising crime.
7he 8nited 1ations has es timated that nearly million 9enezuelans the country left between and .
Over the past weekend, mi grants streamed across the border, skeptical that their votes would change anything in an election many thought would be rigged. Mainstream opposition called for a boycott and turnout was percent compared with percent in
’s presidential election.
“We e[pected that the in cumbents would win, so we decided to leave,´ said -orge +ernandez, a year old en gineering student who sold his 7oyota $valon to buy tick ets for himself and his mother to leave &aracas from the Ru tas de $merica terminal on Monday morning.
+e brought bread and crack ers for the hour trip to 7ruMillo, 3eru, where his sister has been waiting tables for two and a half months.
“7his government has been in power for years and things have gone from bad to worse,´ he said.
(Reuters)