Las Vegas Review-Journal (Sunday)
Desperate Venezuelans swarm Colombian border
Thousands cross in hopes of purchasing food, baby products
CUCUTA, Colombia — They came looking for flour, pasta and cooking oil. They came looking for blood pressure medicine, spark plugs and condoms. They came looking for loved ones and a way out.
As Venezuelans on Saturday were allowed to cross the border into Colombia for the first time in almost a year, the river of wants they brought with them provided a stark glimpse of the needs on the other side of the border.
Carlos Texeiro traveled more than 400 miles from the city of Maracay with two empty suitcases for the chance to do a few hours of shopping in Colombia. Asked what he planned to take back with him, he said, “Anything I can find.”
But his primary goal was to buy diapers and powdered milk for his granddaughter. Baby products are some of the hardest things to score in shortage-plagued Venezuela.
Texeiro, a candy salesman, said people aren’t going hungry in Maracay yet, but they’ve had to radically change their diet.
“We can get fruits and vegetables,” he said. “What we don’t have are the things we eat every day, flour and pasta. Meat is just too expensive.”
“I wouldn’t say there’s hunger but there’s huge lines, you have to wait in line to get anything you might want,” he added. “and you have to get lucky, very lucky.”
Others painted a darker picture. Nelson Buque said he lost 60 pounds in the past five months. A cabdriver in Miranda state he said sometimes he goes home with cash but still hungry because he can’t find anything to eat.
“If you did find something open there would be lines that stretched for kilometers,” he said.
Trade along the 1,274-mile Venezuela-Colombia border has traditionally thrived. But on Aug. 19, 2015, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro began closing border crossings as he blamed Colombian “paramilitary groups” for attacking guards who were on an anti-contraband mission.
The border had been temporarily reopened a few times since then, sparking waves of Venezuelan shoppers. On Thursday, however, the two governments said they had agreed to keep the border permanently open, but only to foot traffic and only during daytime.
Saturday’s 6 a.m. opening had a festive feel to it, as a military marching band greeted weary travelers, and police handed out balloon animals to children. Families waited to greet relatives they hadn’t seen since the border was closed.
Migration officials here expect 80,000 to 100,000 people to cross the border this weekend. Travelers are required to fill out paperwork, which was causing bottlenecks but also seemed to be limiting the flow of people into the city.
Not everyone was crossing with the intention of going home.
Alexandra Zapata said when she heard the border would be open, she knew it was time to make a decision. She had a job at the mayor’s office in San Cristobal, a position, she says, that would be prestigious in any other country. But in Venezuela she didn’t earn enough to keep food on the table.
While Colombia is flush with goods, it’s also expensive for Venezuelans who rely on their devalued bolivar currency. As she and her boyfriend ate three empanadas, Zapata noted the snack cost about one-tenth of her monthly salary.