Outbreak halts key financial lifeline
CARACAS, Venezuela — After fleeing Venezuela along with millions of others amid the country’s grueling humanitarian crisis, Misael Cocho made his way by bus to Peru — where he got odd jobs and sent money home monthly to support his mother and his 5yearold son.
But just after Cocho landed his steadiest work so far in Lima, coronavirus cases skyrocketed. He lost his job, sold his TV to buy food and for months hasn’t been able to wire money to Caracas to pay for food for the boy and Cocho’s mother.
The pandemic’s economic fallout left many Venezuelans abroad and the relatives back home who rely on them in dire straits. And as work disappears in countries like Peru and Colombia, humanitarian groups say many Venezuelans who fled hunger are now going hungry.
Cocho, 24, faces a dilemma: Should he stay in Peru in case the economy improves, or go back to Caracas where life is precarious? “The truth is that this pandemic has really hit me hard,” he said.
Venezuela’s population peaked at 30 million in 2015, but 5 million alarmed at the country’s economic implosion migrated elsewhere in South America and to the U.S. and Europe, according to the U.N.’s International Organization for Migration. Most who stayed behind get by on a minimum wage that’s the equivalent of about $2 a month.
About half of the Venezuelans who emigrated to other South American countries are considered “informal” sector workers — laborers, vendors, street performers and waiters, said Provash Budden, regional Americas director for the Mercy Corps humanitarian aid group. Those jobs were hit hard by the virus’ economic impact.
Venezuela was once a wealthy nation sitting atop the world’s largest reserves of oil. But years of political confrontation, corruption and resource mismanagement by the socialist government left most Venezuelans with increasingly scarce water, electricity, gasoline and inadequate medical care.
Of the 15% of Venezuelans who abandoned their country, about 1.8 million went to neighboring Colombia. Others headed to Brazil, Ecuador and Peru. Those who found more success than informal sector workers started businesses and enrolled their children in schools.
But the coronavirus abruptly halted many migrants’ aspirations and limited their ability to help economically hurting relatives back home.
“Like everyone here, my mission in Peru has been to help my family in Venezuela,” Cocho said.