Venezuelans in ‘reverse migration’ pushed to new perils in effort to return home
Jaque, Panama (AP) – When the boat splashed in the wavy pacific waters, Mariela Gómez gathered for 17 hours above the Sloshing Gas Tanks as unclear what was happening in the intense forest.
The 36 -year -old Venezuela mother was among a million immigrants who traveled on the continent in the hopes of reaching the US in recent years. However, when US President Donald Trump is cut, he and thousands of other Venezuelalı is now trying to return “Reverse Migration”.
On Mostly 14,000 immigrants from VenezuelaAccording to the figures of Colombia, Panama and Costa Rica, Trump has returned to South America since the start of immigration pressure.
Gómez, who struggles to buy food even after unsuccessful attempts to stay in the USA, cannot cover the Caribbean, which is more often for Colombia, a $ 280 per capita. For this reason The increasing number of immigrants like him are boarding boats with ferry cargo. Between the capital of Panama and the forest -covered pacific coast of Colombia.
The new route price is half and twice as dangerous.
“We lost hope,” he said. “We’re trying to go back, but we don’t have money to come back.”
‘Only clothes on their backs’
Immigrants in recent years Escape from the crisis in Venezuela He once crossed the dangerous forests of the Darien gap between Colombia and Panama and waited for months for an appointment in the US in Mexico, but when Trump took office, most of these people Left hair in Mexico. Without other options, they returned, hugged on buses from Central America.
Before boarding the precarious motor boats that shoot along the beach, they hang on the cargo boats that move slowly with goods along the other coast in the Pacific Ocean in the Pacific Ocean. The boats are usually filled with 15 to 30 people. According to a United Nations report published in the beginning of this month, hundreds of hundreds have traveled the route.
“People come with very few sources, some come with clothes on their backs,” 56 -year -old boat driver Nacor Rivera said. “Many of them can’t pay for a boat journey, so I had to help many, I was carrying them for free.”
In June, one of the boats carrying 38 people injured a pregnant woman, a disabled person who lost her children and a wheelchair.
They land in the Jungled areas of Colombia, Regional spread with armed groups According to the UN report, hunting of shelters and immigrants with no access to medical care.
“We recommend the authorities to people in this reverse migration to prevent people from falling into crime and human trafficking networks and turn them into victims of violence, SC
Migrants descend with serious dehydration, burns, malnutrition and mental health problems. In the report, those who are free of money, “inhuman conditions may be stranded,” he said.
This was the case of Venezuela immigrant Jesús Aguilar, who was stuck in a rural Panama town in Darien GAP for two months. After trying to clean up a local farm, he managed to slowly come together to pay Colombia for a boat journey.
Trying luck in South America
Like Gómez’s family, others saved money to return to Venezuela for months at Panama City, but they decided to take the cheaper route along the pass by short time.
Gómez sitting on the gasoline tanks, 5 -year -old son’s blanket arson. In 2017, the family fled from the South American country in the face of an increasing economy and government pressure.
For years, in recent years, millions of other Venezuelas, who have escaped from the country, have lived in Colombia and Peru. Gómez, who failed to meet in countries that struggled to manage the oppression of unprotected people, began to look at the United States with the hope of building a new life.
In October, after moving to Darien GAP and the US-Mexico border to Texas, his family was rapidly sweeping by the US Border Patrol and delivered to the Mexican officials. He left them to South Mexico.
Soon after, he decided that his only way was to return home. It was not an option to stay in Southern Mexico without work and with cartels hunting immigrants like him.
At least he said he had a house and family in Venezuela.
Gómez would have risks our lives and puts my child’s life at risk, ”Gómez said. “We just hope that God will protect us.”
Now, he’s not sure when he gets home What will he find in VenezuelaFollowing the controversial elections last year, the government faced a constant pressure on the opposition.
President Nicolás Maduro said that if the government remains in power, staying in his country does not seem to be an option. Im I had to leave my country again, maybe I should go to Chile, ı he thought. “I will have to try my luck in another country.”
“But now we should focus on going to Colombia,” he added.
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Janetsky reported from Mexico City.
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