Fleeing Venezuela, migrants flood Colombia amid region's worst humanitarian crisis in decades

[Bacchus4.0]

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2018/11/19/venezuela-colombia-migrants-nicolas-maduro-humanitarian-crisis-migrants-food-and-medicine-shortages/1808395002/

MEDELLIN, Colombia — Lis Torrealba, a teenage mother from Venezuela, is perched on the edge of a milling street in downtown Medellin, Colombia, the same way she came to the country: alone, with her one-year-old daughter swaddled in the crook of her arm.

Once a student, Torrealba fled across the Venezuelan border three months ago with no prospects of a visa, a job or a future in Colombia.

“The money in our country, I couldn't even buy candy if I wanted to,” she said. “I can't buy anything, if there's something you need. You would need a stack of money to even pay for a tomato. You would need a big stack of money.”

Now, Torrealba is among more than 1 million Venezuelans who crossed into Colombia fleeing widespread food and medicine shortages, rampant hyperinflation and violence by the regime of President Nicolás Maduro.

United Nations refugee officials said last week that the number of Venezuelan refugees and migrants who have fled their South American homeland has topped 3 million people. More than 1 million are in Colombia and almost 500,000 are in Peru, while the rest are in Ecuador, Argentina, Chile and Brazil. Venezuela is home to about 32 million people.

[GatoGordo]

1. Some reference to the economic and social disaster in Venezuela

Fact: It is easier (and cheaper) to wipe your ass with the Venezuelan bolivar than to purchase toilet paper. If you can find it.

Fact: It is illegal to wipe your ass with a bolivar.

Fact: If you are caught wiping your ass with a bolivar and plastering it on anything that represents Chavismo (face of Chavez/Maduro, etc.), you will be jailed without trial.