Controversy over the number of Venezuelan exoduses broadcast by the UN

Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza yesterday accused the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) of lying on the latest figure of the exodus of nationals of the country. he had published last week in which he had warned that immigration reached a new high: more than 4 million Venezuelans since 2016.

"In a strategy against Venezuela, they take back the matrix of migration that had disappeared from the media since January.The defeat and despair lead them to retrain their subjects, recalled the obsessive aggression against the country, badured Arreaza of Twitter.

He named UNHCR without reference and accused him of "instrumentalizing the Venezuelan migration". "They lie and inflate the numbers to ask for and receive more resources whose destination is uncertain, in the middle of a parasitic battle, to the detriment of the dignity and human rights of Venezuelans," he concluded. .

Mbadive escape

In the last three and a half years, millions of people have left Venezuela, some by plane, with more means to start a new life, and others, most of them, walk to neighboring countries to settle in a precarious and almost without money looking for a job that allows them to send funds to their loved ones.

The vast majority of Venezuelans emigrated to other countries in the region, such as Colombia, which receives 1.3 million, followed by Peru with 768,000; Chile with 288,000; Ecuador with 263,000; Argentina with 130,000; and Brazil with 168,000.

"These figures are alarming and highlight the need to support host communities in beneficiary countries," said UNHCR-IOM Special Representative for Venezuelan Refugees and Migrants Eduardo Stein.

Stein congratulated Latin American and Caribbean countries "for doing their part to respond to this unprecedented crisis", but added that they could not continue doing so alone, without international badistance.

Last Thursday, the Peruvian government announced that it would begin to apply for a humanitarian visa to Venezuelans who wish to enter and settle in the country in order to put an end to what they describe as "immigration." illegal. "

When the exodus became mbadive and daily, UNHCR and the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the two non-state organizations that refer to the flow of migrants and refugees around the world, came together to manage a regional mission to to help and protect, as much as possible, Venezuelans abroad.

Since UNHCR, more than a year ago, they say that all Venezuelans interviewed in neighboring countries say they have left home and their family because even if they were working or receiving work there. help from the state, none of that was enough. buy commodities or have minimal medical coverage. The UN has begun to warn of a humanitarian crisis in Venezuela, a scarcity situation that the Nicolás Maduro government has finally recognized, but has granted sanctions imposed by the United States, which it has referred to as "blockade".

However, until 2018, the sanctions imposed by the United States only targeted members of the Venezuelan government and the government. Only a year and a half ago, they began to affect the country's foreign trade.

Controversial number: Venezuelan migrants

The figure was released last week by the UN.

4 million That would be the number of Venezuelans who left their country in the last three and a half years because of the economic and humanitarian crisis.