“What I am going to do in Chile has already been done”. Víctor Fernández has been saving up for five months to pay back his homeland, Venezuela, in the face of a re-emerging opportunity.
He left Caracas five years ago, at the height of a deep crisis, in a mass exodus that has driven 6 million Venezuelans to emigrate since 2015, according to UNHCR (UN refugee agency).
However, the image of the devastation he fled with empty shelves and long queues for hours to get food is gone: After Venezuela went through eight years of recession, the loosening of 2018 currency controls in effect for two decades brought improvements. and four hyperinflation.
The de facto dollarization and easing of price controls allowed businessmen and merchants to increase imports with better supply of products and new stores for food, clothing or shoes.
The image of change that floods the social networks is a bit of a disgrace to poverty in a country where three out of four families have insufficient income to meet the basic food basket.
“It’s time to go back,” says Víctor, 32, who arrived in Chile without documents that gave him a permanent job and even had to sleep in a square.
“I slept on the street for 15 days. I talked to my family, said everything was fine, hung up the phone and cried in despair”.
Has Venezuela improved?
President Nicolás Maduro rejects UNHCR data, putting the number of migrants at around 800,000 or “perhaps less.”
Although there is no official number of returns, a third of the population wants to emigrate, according to an opinion poll confirming the negative overall perception of the country.
Speaking on state television, Maduro said, referring to a viral expression on social media, “Some say, ‘Venezuela has been fixed.’ sarcasm when talking about developments in the country.
GDP, which fell more than 80%, rebounded by 4% in 2021. “Non-optimal growth that starts from an incomplete opening (…) and privileges some over others,” explains the Economist. Henkel García, director of Econometric company.
“A fundamentally trade-driven economy without major structural changes.”
Utilities such as water or electricity continue to collapse, especially in the interior of the country.
Regularizing his immigration status in Chile, Víctor “survives” as a delivery man in Valparaíso, 116 km west of Santiago.
What he earns goes to his expenses and relatives in Venezuela, where dollarization has “internationalized” prices.
Despite the problems, he accumulated the savings that he bought a motorcycle in Caracas and invested in its return.
“There are opportunities, there are options,” he told AFP outside of his modest apartment in Chile.
Returnees have had bad experiences as immigrants and many have been subjected to acts of discrimination.
29-year-old manicurist Yara González has returned to her country from Peru. “It was like running on wheels in a cage and getting nowhere,” the woman says.
She remembers a Peruvian woman laughing when she heard her accent. “Are you from Venezuela?” before the woman made the sign of the cross. she asked.
The return exceeded Yara’s expectations.
When he returned, he found a job at a spa, but now works from home and greets clients at a table with two chairs.
“I dare say it’s much more comfortable, even better financially.”
“I would rather stay at home to travel and continue suffering in Latin America,” he adds.
Victor, on the other hand, thinks about his future in Venezuela. It was difficult for him to raise money for the plane ticket, which delayed his return and with it the opportunity to re-hug his son, wife and parents. “Loneliness kills.”
source: Noticias
