Imagine yourself a citizen of a country that has been under an authoritarian regime for the past twenty-three years. You and your family are in a state of food insecurity, violence, and medicinal shortages driven by decades of political turmoil. Would you leave everything behind, risk your life, and perhaps your loved ones’ lives, in search of a better life you may have only seen on television or films? Millions of Venezuelans have had to make this arduous decision and consequently fled their homes due to political persecution, loss of livelihoods, lack of food, medicine, and other basic necessities. Since 2015 more than 7.1 million people have fled Venezuela. The dictatorial government of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, and his predecessor Hugo Chavez, have turned a country once considered the richest in Latin American, due to its housing the largest oil reserves in the world, into a “narco state” where citizens are forced to live with soaring expenses, limited job opportunities, and minimal political freedoms. Maduro’s government is not recognized by the US government and therefore migrants at the US border cannot be deported back to Venezuela. The idea of reaching the land of the free has prompted thousands of Venezuelans to risk their lives by making a 6,000 mile journey into the unknown. In fiscal year 2022, an unprecedented 188,000 Venezuelans have presented themselves at the US southern border.
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