Venezuela’s Crisis Reaches Neighbors

this year, joining the estimated 1.5 million who have already fled.

As their numbers have swelled — and as a larger share arrive without savings and in need of medical care — some in the region have begun to question the wisdom of open borders.

Ms. Campos said she sued the federal government because the influx of Venezuelans led to a spike in crime, drove down wages and set off an outbreak of measles, which had been eradicated in Brazil.

The population of Boa Vista, the state capital, ballooned over the past few years as some 50,000 Venezuelans resettled here. They now make up roughly 10 percent of the population. At first, residents responded with generosity, establishing soup kitchens and handing out donated clothes.

By last year however, local residents in Pacaraima, the border town, and Boa Vista, 200 kilometers from the border, felt overwhelmed. “Boa Vista was transformed,” said Mayor Teresa Surita. “This has started generating tremendous instability.”

On a recent morning, squatters who took over the Simón Bolivar plaza were preparing meals on small wood burning stoves. The mood was grim. A stomach virus had spread through the camp, leading to bouts of vomiting and diarrhea. Adding to their discomfort, neighboring residents, in an act of defiance, had burned a row of bushes that the Ven- ezuelans had been using to defecate.

Ana García, 56, said she could scarcely believe her new reality in Brazil. She was a homeowner who lived comfortably on a social worker’s salary in Venezuela. But as her paycheck became worthless because of soaring inflation, she quit her job of more than a decade, hoping to get a payout large enough to go abroad.

Instead, she received only enough to buy a bag of rice, half a chicken and a banana. As food became increasingly scarce, Ms. García set out on a nearly 900-kilometer journey with her 18-year- old daughter.

“I never thought we could find ourselves in this situation. We’re not used to living like indigents,” Ms. García said, tears in her eyes. “But Venezuela is destroyed. People are dying of hunger.”

In February, the federal government gave the military control of the response to the refugee crisis. Since then, in collaboration with the United Nations, the Brazilian Army has been building temporary shelters across the city. By the end of May, it hopes to have 11 shelters with a capacity for some 5,500 people.

Venezuelans may apply to be resettled in larger cities in Brazil, but that process is off to a slow start because of funding constraints. The United Nations recently asked international donors to contribute $ 46 million to address the crisis, but it has only secured 6 percent of that goal.

Mercedes Acuña, 50, said she felt blessed to have been among the first admitted into a shelter. She arrived in Brazil two months ago, but she has come to agree with those who say it’s time to shut the border.

“I realize we’re all in need,” she said. “But their country is being invaded.”

At the General Hospital of Roraima, the director, Samir Xuad, said the patient population has surged from 400 per day to 1,000 over the past couple of years. Supplies as basic as syringes and gloves have run out, Mr. Xuad said, and during busy periods, patient gurneys line up in hallways.

Outside of work, he said, residents of Boa Vista have become fearful of crime and wary of the mobs of window washers who approach drivers at stop lights.

“Roraima was a place where you could sleep with your door open at night,” he said. “That is no longer the case.”

Throngs of Venezuelan prostitutes now work the streets. Among them is Camilla Suárez, 23, who had worked at a waxing salon in Caracas. As food grew scarce, Ms. Suárez, who has a toddler, figured that she stood a better chance of providing for her child and her parents by working in Brazil.

“I knew Brazilian women liked getting waxed,” she said, but she struggled to find work. Soon, sex work became a last resort. “There are lawyers, nurses here among us,” Ms. Suárez said.

On a good day, she makes $90. That covers rent and food for a week, plus about $30 to send home.

“With that, my family can eat well for three whole days,” she said proudly. “And I mean well. Breakfast, lunch and dinner.”