Oil workers flee Venezuela: the life story of Nieves Ribullen, left for Iraq in search of a better future

Nieves Ribullen, a tanker in Venezuela who is tired of seeing his country collapse, has set out to look for a better future in an extremely remote country: the Kurdish region of Iraq.

Over the years, he has seen his companions abandon the miserable wages and unsafe working conditions of the dilapidated refineries of Punto Fijo, on the Venezuelan coast, in search of better opportunities in distant lands such as Kuwait, Angola and Chile.

Now it's his turn. He will leave his wife and three children and go to the Kurdish region, where Expects to earn more than $ 3,500 a month, a fortune compared to less than 20 dollars this brings the family every month, in the midst of the growing instability of Venezuela.

The Leader of the Opposition Juan Guaidó has received the support of discontented Venezuelans and some 40 countries who now recognize him as the legitimate president of Venezuela.

But the Exodus of oil workers This means that the country's crude output – which is already at its minimum of seven decades – probably will not recover in the short term even if US economic sanctions are lifted and a government linked to the company comes to power.

Venezuela was once one of the five largest oil producers in the world and produced 3.5 million barrels a day in 1998 when Hugo Chávez was elected president and the so-called "Bolivarian revolution" began. The PDVSA public company is producing today less than a third of this. Critics attribute it to corruption and mismanagement of the socialist regime.

Worse still, production will decrease even more, as the US has imposed new sanctions on PDVSA and its US subsidiary Citgo, in order to deprive Nicolás Maduro's government of more than $ 11,000 million in exports.

Despite the difficulties that Venezuela will have in the short term, Guaidó said the sanctions are important to try to eliminate Maduro and his "dictatorship" of power.

Venezuelan oil workers they started leaving the country in 2003Shortly after Chávez fired thousands – appointing them directly on national television – in retaliation for a strike that paralyzed production. Oil workers accused Chávez of violating democratic norms, and Chávez accused them of conspiracy.

Tomás PáezProfessor at the Central University of Venezuela, who studies Venezuelan exile, believes that Some 30,000 oil workers left in the initial wave.

He said it was difficult to know exactly how much remained as a result of the economic crisis in the country under Maduro, but today, there are Venezuelan oil workers in the country. over 90 countries from Canada to Kuwait.

Many have already made their living in their adopted countries and are not planning to return to Venezuela. And with everyone leaving, there are fewer people able to extract the world's most abundant oil reserves.

In a recent speech with an economic plan for his second six-year term, Maduro has promised to increase production to 5 million barrels a daybut gave little details, apart from the fact that it would take care of itself and eliminate the corruption.

Maduro continues to benefit from the support of some powerful countries, such as Russia and China, which have invested heavily in Venezuelan oil fields. The one appointed by Maduro as president of PDVSA, General Manuel Quevedo, has not responded to a request for comment from The badociated press.

Although the most skilled engineers have long gone – and contribute to the oil boom of neighboring Colombia – the demand for labor is still strong.

"We are in a rare market of qualified people, especially people willing to visit inhospitable places like Kurdistan."said Dane Groeneveld, director of PTS Advance, a California company that recruits oil workers."These are the people who are hired by oil companies around the world"

Ribullen, 43, said that he thought of his family when he made the decision to go to the Kurdish region of Iraqleaving them until you have the money to send them to Chile or the United States. His youngest son, Isaak, was sitting next to him on the couch of his house.

He remembers the time when he started working at PDVSA 16 years ago when Earn enough money to buy a Toyota and take the family of Aruba Holidays. Now he does not have that car anymore and it's been seven years since the family went on vacation.

Sometimes, after working at night, he has to queue in front of the market to buy food for his family. He attributes the economic crisis to Chavez and Maduro.

The conditions are precarious in the refinery, where, he says, everyone remembers the mbadive explosion of 2012 that killed dozens of workers. Workers do not have helmets, gloves or boots from the company.

In the semi-autonomous region of Iraq, he will join many other Venezuelans who live and work there.