The striking map that shows the roads of the massive exodus from Venezuela

Venezuela is plunged into a colossal economic crisis, with shortages of food and medicine, collapse of water and electricity networks and sharp decline in oil production. The forecasts for this year are terrible: it will experience a contraction of 25% of GDP (accumulated by 61% since 2013), hyperinflation of 10 000 000% and unemployment of 44.3%, according to the forecasts of the Monetary Fund. International was released last Tuesday.

The socio-economic debacle went hand in hand with the growing authoritarianism of a regime it does not even preserve the forms of democracy anymore. Given the drastic deterioration of living conditions and the lack of institutional channels to seek a political alternative, the only escape route left for Venezuelans to flee is to leave the country.

These last years, Some 3.7 million people have left Venezuela, of which 1.2 million are currently living in Colombia, according to data from a shocking report released Friday by the World Bank (World Bank).

"Venezuela's mbadive and rapid migration today poses an unprecedented humanitarian and development challenge for the region"Axel van Trotsenburg, Vice President of the World Bank for Latin America and the Caribbean.

The multilateral organization presented a map that shows graphically the roads followed by the desperate. The vast majority leave by the southwest, across the various legal and irregular border crossings that we have with Colombia. Many remain in the neighboring country, but others continue south.

All who continue the pilgrimage along this path go through Ecuador, where there are already 221,000 Venezuelans. The rest goes to Peru, where there are currently at least 708 000. There a fork is produced. A stream continues along the coast and enters Chile, where there are 288,000 migrants.

The other stream enters from the north in Bolivia, but there is very little left: there are only 5,000. The rest crosses the whole country and continues its way to Chile. The vast majority goes to Santiago.

Those who do not stay, They cross the Andean Cordillera in the direction of Argentina, which has already received 130,000. A small contingent travels to the province of Entre Ríos and crosses some binational bridges in search of a place of life in Uruguay, where there are 8,500. More than 7,000 kilometers separate Caracas from Montevideo, and many make a good part of this route on foot and in precarious vehicles.

Another road leaves from southeast Venezuela, on the border with Brazil. Few people stay in comparative terms: they are 96,000, little compared to the size of the country. In the interior of Brazil, there are two bifurcations. The first is in the north: a large contingent enters Guyana, where 36,400 people live. The others continue to the south.

The second division is on the border with Bolivia. Some come in and from there go to Chile. Others continue to advance to Paraguay, the country of South America that receives the least Venezuelans: only 500 are settled there. Most of it continues in Argentina and Uruguay.

These are the land routes. There is also sea and air. For example, There are many citizens going to Central America and the Caribbean. In Panama, there are 94,000in Costa Rica, 25,000, Trinidad and Tobago, 40,000, Curacao, 26,000, Aruba, 16,000, the Dominican Republic, 28,500 and Mexico, 39,500.

Some are encouraged to go a little further. In the United States, there are already 72,000 and in Canada, 4,600. But the fourth country that most Venezuelans receive is not in the Americas. It is Spain, with 255,000.

Colombia receives $ 31.5 million to support its efforts to badist migrants from Venezuela and provide support to host communities, announced Friday the World Bank (WB), which manages the platform that made the donation.

This contribution from the Global Concessional Financing Facility (GCFF) integrates a $ 750 million development plan being prepared by the Bank contribute to "the sustainability of public finances, competitiveness and migration in Colombia," said the World Bank in a statement.

"These non-refundable resources contribute to the financing of Colombia's important budgetary efforts to welcome and badist migrants of Venezuela in the best possible way, "said Colombian Finance Minister Alberto Carrasquilla, quoted in the statement.

Carrasquilla said at a forum in Washington on the exodus from Venezuela that calculates that your country allocates between 0.5 and 0.8% of its GDP each year to this crisis, an amount equivalent to $ 1,500 million.

For Van Trotsenburg, "The challenge is to be able to mobilize these resources for middle-income countries"like Peru or Chile, which also host many migrants.

The support of the FGCF is part of a package of measures that the World Bank is giving to Latin American countries to help them cope with this large influx of migrants. Funding for Colombia through the GCFF includes contributions from Canada, the Netherlands, Norway and the United Kingdom..

Eduardo Stein, Special Representative of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) for Refugees and Migrants from Venezuela, warned that this "crisis is far from over, even if there was a political solution tomorrow".

A summit to deal with the crisis

Nearly 200 representatives from 14 countries participated this week in the "Third International Technical Meeting on Migration in Venezuela in the Americas", which took place in the Ecuadorian capital, Quito.

This appointment was the last of its kind in this city. According to Deputy Minister of Human Mobility Santiago Chávez, the fourth meeting will be transferred to Argentina and later the process will continue in other countries.

The meeting was held at the Najas Palace, headquarters of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Human Mobility of Ecuador, and was opened by Chancellor Jose Valencia.

At the meeting, 22 countries were invited as observers; United Nations agencies, such as the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR). In addition, international and financial organizations such as the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the Andean Development Corporation (CAF).

The invitation was also sent to regional entities such as the Organization of American States (OAS), The Andean Community, the Southern Common Market (Mercosur), the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) and the International Red Cross.

Eduardo Stein presented at the meeting the report of the regional platform for inter-agency coordination for refugees and migrants from Venezuela.

In turn, the evaluation of the "Quito process" was carried out; there was an exchange of information between the participating countries; and the subregional technical workshop on mechanisms for the registration of migrants, developed a few weeks ago by Ecuador, was discussed.

In the meeting issues related to travel documents of Venezuelan citizens were also discussed, including Argentina, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay and Peru, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

The first day of the III meeting concluded with the concert of the Youth Orchestra of Ecuadorled by the Brazilian teacher Diego Carneiro, and on April 9, the countries adopted a declaration document containing the agreed themes and commitments.

Ecuador held two international meetings on migration in Venezuela: the first of 3 and 4 September 2018, which resulted in the Quito Declaration on Human Mobility, and the second, on 22 and 23 November 2018, which resulted in the "Quito Plan".

In addition, the week before, Quito hosted the second meeting of the International Contact Group (ICG), a meeting of high-level delegations from 16 countries. Community and the Americans, who held a first meeting last month in Montevideo.

(With information from AFP)