
The Wall Street Journal (2/13/18) writes that the 550,000 Venezuelans in Colombia “mirror the 600,000 Syrian asylum seekers in Germany”—ignoring the 3.5 million Syrian refugees in Turkey, the 1 million in Lebanon, the 650,000 in Jordan….
A Wall Street Journal article by Juan Forero (2/13/18) ran with the headline “Venezuela’s Misery Fuels Migration on Epic Scale.” The subhead stated, “Residents Flee Crumbling Economy in Numbers That Echo Syrians to Europe, Rohingya to Bangladesh.”
Forero’s article quoted a UN official: “By world standards, Colombia is receiving migrants at a pace that now rivals what we saw in the Balkans, in Greece, in Italy in 2015, at the peak of [Europe’s] migrant emergency.” Further on, Forero says, “The influx prompted Colombian officials to travel to Turkey last year to study how authorities were dealing with Syrian war refugees.”
Two enormous problems with the way Forero and his editors have framed this article should immediately stand out:
- Colombia’s population of internally displaced people is about 7 million, and has consistently been neck and neck with Syria’s. According to the UNHCR, as of mid-2016, Colombia is also the Latin American country which has the most number of refugees living outside its borders: over 300,000, mainly in Venezuela and Ecuador. Forero and his editors picked the wrong country to compare with Syria.
- Greece and Italy do not share a border with Syria, nor do the Balkans as they are generally defined. Colombia and Venezuela, by contrast, share a very long border. Forero’s comparison, therefore, excludes states that border Syria. Three of those bordering states—Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey—collectively absorbed 4.4 million Syrian refugees by 2016; five years after war broke out in Syria, Turkey alone took in almost 3 million.
It’s very important to expand on the first point. Colombia is a humanitarian and human rights disaster, and has been for decades, in very large part due to its close alliance with the United States. Thanks to Wikileaks (CounterPunch, 2/23/12), we know that US officials privately acknowledged estimates that hundreds of thousands of people were murdered by right-wing paramilitaries, and that the killings have nearly wiped out some indigenous groups. Those genocidal paramilitaries have worked closely with the Colombian military that Trump Chief of Staff John Kelly praised in 2014 as a “magnificent” US partner. “They’re so appreciative of what we did for them,” raved Kelly.

Colombian military police (cc photo: Pipeafcr/Wikimedia)
Praise for Colombia’s government has also come from the liberal end of the US establishment, albeit with much more subtlety than from Kelly. In 2014, a New York Times editorial (9/21/14) stated that “Colombia, Brazil and other Latin American countries should lead an effort to prevent Caracas from representing the region [on the UN Security Council] when it is fast becoming an embarrassment on the continent.” So to Times editors, Colombia is a regional good guy that must lead its neighbors in shunning Venezuela.
Colombia’s current president, Juan Manuel Santos, was minister of Defense from 2006 to 2009. From 2002 to 2008, the Colombian military murdered about 3,000 civilians, passing them off as slain rebels. As human rights lawyer Dan Kovalik explained (Huffington Post, 11/20/14) , the International Criminal Court (ICC) “concluded that these killings were systemic, approved by the highest ranks of the Colombian military, and that they therefore constituted ‘state policy.’” The murders occurred with the greatest frequency between 2004 and 2008, which Kovalik observed “also corresponds with the time in which the US was providing the highest level of military aid to Colombia.”
If Colombian and US officials evade prosecution for all of this, it will be with the help of corporate media—as well as the severe limitations powerful governments impose on international bureaucracies like the ICC. Kovalik remarked:
You might say, no official of the US can be prosecuted by the ICC because the US has refused to ratify the ICC treaty. While this may appear to be true, this did not stop the ICC from prosecuting officials from the Sudan—also not a signatory to the ICC.
The closest Forero came in his article to even hinting at any of these gruesome facts was when he wrote that “Colombia has long had troubles of its own, including integrating former Communist guerrillas from a civil conflict that only ended recently.” The “conflict” has not exactly “ended,” given that 170 leftist political leaders and activists were assassinated in 2017.
Putting aside Forero’s epic distortions by omission regarding Colombia, what about his reporting about migration from Venezuela? He wrote:
Nearly 3 million Venezuelans—a tenth of the population—have left the oil-rich country over the past two decades of leftist rule. Almost half that number—some 1.2 million people—have gone in the past two years, according to Tomás Páez, a Venezuelan immigration expert at Venezuela’s Central University.
In April 2002, Páez signed his name to a quarter-page ad in the Venezuelan newspaper El Nacional that welcomed the dictatorship of Pedro Carmona, then head of Venezuela’s largest business federation, who was installed after a US-backed military coup briefly ousted the late President Hugo Chavez. I’ve written before (ZNet, 1/16/17) about Western outlets—New York Times (11/25/16), Reuters (10/15/14) and Financial Times (8/22/16)—citing Páez without disclosing his anti-democratic record.
The World Bank has compiled data over the years on the numbers of Venezuelan-born people living abroad. The numbers point to far smaller migrations than Páez has estimated:
During the years Chavez was in office (1999–2013), the World Bank’s figures tell us Venezuelans living abroad increased by about 330,000. By 2013, Páez was estimating that about 1.3 million had left—about 1 million more than World Bank estimates. Would journalists ignore data published by the World Bank in favor of estimates by Páez if he were a staunch supporter of the Venezuelan government?
During those 1999–2013 years, the World Bank figures also say that the number of Colombian-born people living in Venezuela grew by 200,000. Forero’s article implies that migration from Colombia to Venezuela ended in the “late 20th century.”
The World Bank has not updated migration data past 2013, but there is no doubt there was a huge increase in migration from Venezuela since its economy entered into a very deep crisis starting in late 2014. (For an overview of the important role of US policy in creating the crisis and now deliberately making it much worse, see my op-ed, “US Policy a Big Factor in Venezuela’s Depression”—Tribune News Service, 2/2/18.)
According to a Colombian university study of Venezuelan migration to Colombia, it averaged about 47,000 per year from 2011–2014, then increased to 80,000 per year in 2015–16.
US government data show migration from Venezuela to the United States increasing from about 7,000 per year before 2013 to 28,000 per year by 2015, including Venezuelans who have entered without authorization.
From 2000 to 2013, the United States was the destination for about 30 percent of Venezuelan-born people who left to live abroad, according to the World Bank figures. If the Colombian university study and US government data are accurate, then the United States has been the destination for about 20 percent of Venezuelan migrants after 2013. That would mean about 140,000 Venezuelans per year were leaving to live abroad by 2016.
That is not remotely comparable to the 5 million Syrians who fled the country in the first five years following the civil war—and that doesn’t include over a million per year who fled their homes inside Syria (the internally displaced).
That Forero would even try to force this comparison into his article speaks volumes. It’s not hard to guess why it was made, given that US has bombed Syria regularly and has had Venezuela’s government in its crosshairs for almost two decades.
You can send letters to the editor of the Wall Street Journal at wsj.ltrs@wsj.com. Please remember that respectful communication is the most effective.








You are pro slavery. The collapse of the Venezuelan economy is a result of the economic war waged by the PSUV in an attempt to subordinate and make submissive the people of Venezuela. I have spent 3 months there with my family since 2013. Currency controls, price controls and counter productive labour laws are a tool for the ruling bourgeois oligarchy of the PSUV to generate money for themselves and siphon it off the general population. These are also the sole reasons for the countries economic collapse, though the governments sponsorship and support of mass crime has also played a large part. That much is blindingly obvious. What is also obvious is that you are in the pay of these disgusting people. Another thing that is obvious is that you have never spent time in Venezuela, never talked to ordinary Venezuelans who are struggling to live their lives and feed their children in a legitimate way.
Joe, I hope you die of shame. Scum. You are at the same level as a Nazi sympathiser.
Lee Pinnochio Bailey, you’ve never been there, and surprize surprize you work for an oil company…..lmao
Cuba and Venezuela have shown how well a country does without US corporate interference.
Cuba, higher education and better health care than the USA. Fact !
LOL.
I got married in Venezuela, want to see my wedding photos including the Maracaibo Tranvia? Pictures of me on the beach with my then Fiancé in Punto Fijo? Pictures of me with my then soon to be wife and my parents in Maracaibo La Chinita or Símon Bolívar Internation in Maiquetía? So from that accusation you lose any credibility. Have you even been there, or Cuba? One place I have never been to sadly is Cuba, though I will give them one thing over Venezuela, there is far less crime there. That doesn’t mean there is any more opportunity to live a good life there.
Most countries actually have better health care than the USA, so poor choice of example. Though as I said, I have not been to Cuba, so I cannot comment on that either. What I do know Venezuela still has that Cuba lacks: proper internet access (hence the widespread discontent there, though that said the far greater control of
the state over any form of communication means we hardly know)
However, what I am talking about is Venezuela. I don’t tend to like talking about things I am not very familiar with. All of what I said is true, and all will be obvious if you spend any time there. Also, on the advent of the Shale revolution: the importance of Venezuelan oil (which the county has practically lost the ability to even extract) is waning rapidly. Soon the Guyanese will be pumping more oil of the the Essequibo than the whole of Venezuela.
Oh and by the way you can trust me, I’m a Chef.
You work for the Venezuelan, Cuban or Russian government as a propaganda agent in order to protect the wast wealth of those extremely corrupt and murderous elite who don’t care about the well being of the people. The British Conservative party and even American Republicans are closer to “socialist” in the true sense of the word than any PSUV official. At least we have the NHS, at least most republicans refused to repeal Obamacare. In Venezuela they have nothing. Not having private medical insurance is a death sentence there and has been since at least 2013.
Anyway, lets hear a bit about you, maybe then we can see why anyone should view your words with any shred of credibility whatsoever.
By the way, I’m an objective person. I love Venezuela and its peoples. If you and the author Joe Emersberger were right, I would be writing comments on any article criticising the Venezuelan government passionately supporting them and trying to warn the world about the crimes and conspiracies being enacted against their country. Many hours of research, including reading a LOT of articles from propaganda factories like ortelesur and globalresearch etc and reading between the lines, using critical thinking and objectivity; along with my first hand experiences in Venezuela and of knowing a lot of Venezuelans (my family and friends) very well are the reason I am speaking the truth against those corrupt bourgeoisie elite in the PSUV instead.
People are dying. There is no medicine, no healthcare, no food, no nappies, no toilet paper, no shampoo, very little petrol (even in a country with the most oil in the world!), no democracy, no justice; just vast amounts of corruption and crime. The government controls all imports via the army, who they allow to run the black market in order to allow the army personnel to make enough money to keep them on side. The government control everything out of greed. Any advances they ever made in areas of healthcare and equality are long gone, and when they were apparent it was paper that had been placed over a crack. Now there is no money to buy popularity they simply oppress, and take what they can from the people. This is a regime power by greed and that greed breeds contempt for anything that may threaten their comfortable lifestyles. The lifestyles of the ruling oligarchic elite in Venezuela can be compared to the likes of Donald Trump and Richard Branson. Look at the global property portfolios of the criminal elite; people like Diosdado Cabello, Vladimir Padrino Lopez, Tareck El Aissami, Delcy Roldriguez. These properties dwarf those of the vast majority already wealthy politicians from privileged backgrounds in less corrupt and more democratic countries like the United States and United Kingdom, indeed France, Germany, Spain, Australia, Canada etc etc. How could a wage for a political leader in Venezuela be that much higher than in those wealthy developed nations? It isn’t. They stole the peoples money. Thats why Theresa May and the rest of the British cabinet have much smaller houses and a far smaller number of houses across the world. You are defending slavery, hatred, greed, corruption and dictatorship. As my family (my Venezuelan wife’s family) and friends struggle to survive in that hell hole, you are here promoting their suffering and defending the insane wealth of their slave drivers. Then again you are like them, you are making a living from defending their crimes, I bet they pay you handsomely.
The world must say NO to modern day slavery, not just in Venezuela but wherever it can be found.
By the way if you want to go to Venezuela and see the truth that you are trying to hide, I can offer you free accommodation and transport, as well as the essential guidance and advice to avoid you getting mugged and shot or kidnapped. My family would be glad to; so you can see the truth, reveal it to the world and join the global fight for justice, fairness and a reasonable quality of life for the ordinary people of Venezuela.
Joe, Instead of pontificating in Canada. I recommend you have an extended stay in the Kennels / rancho’s surrounding Caracas, (and most the rest of Venezuela) and measure live how long last . (and carry bullet proof vest if go there). I lived / worked there six years (before and after Chavez took power). You can get good coke there. I got to witness too much crime when was there. You have to have noticed that Venezuela has six top ten murder rate worldwide. I have got a lot former Venezuelan fried who had (life threatened) who fled Fort McMurray and Edmonton (and middle east / U.S. / Asia / E.U.) for employment. (the PDVSA coup?) most of Venezuelan that could logically. The Brain Drain. One more thing to consider, Venezuela always had violent past (it and Columbia). It just worse today. You ought read “Caracas Chronicles” or “Dollar Today” web sites / publications , instead worry about exact the diaspora numbers. Instead of getting on “Your Royal Canadian Ass” , take a trip Caracas, Valencia, Ciudad Bolivar and stay there.
Lots of name calling Lee Bailey. That reduces to an ad hominem argument. The author is making three points that you willfully distract from. The situation in Syria is not comparable to the situation in Venezuela. The situation in Columbia should not be presented as a better situation. And that the US has played a malignant role in causing the humanitarian crisis in Venezuela; as the US has played a principal role in causing the humanitarian crisis in many countries. If from what the author or myself has written you have interpreted as being a denial of a humanitarian crisis in Venezuela then it is because you imagined that message. There is disagreement as to the source of the troubles and the scope by contrast with other humanitarian crisis.
The source of the troubles is the conduct of the Venezuelan government over the last 20 years. There is no disputing this. If I behaved the same way I would not at least not be on the street, hungry and homeless, I would be warm and at least fed: in prison for fraud.
As for scope? Well the insane policies of the PSUV and rampant corruption and looting of the nation of caused more damage to the economy already and a greater lack of food and medicine than even Hitler managed to cause to the UK whilst carrying out relentless bombing campaigns and naval blockades etc during WW2, even worse our adult male working age population for all busy fighting the war. In Venezuela there is a phantom war being waged by the government against people who they consider unimportant and as a potential source of revenue for themselves: the ordinary man and woman on the Venezuelan streets.
If the indisputable source of the problem is the Venezuelan government then it should be easy to prove. Give one argument with one fact based proof. A statistic or an example of corruption from a valid source. You can’t just declare something is indisputable. I honestly don’t know, never said I did, but if you want to convince someone you can’t just use hyperbole and declare your argument to be good
OK. Look at the Simadi and Dicom exchange rates, then look at the dolartoday website for the real exchange rate. Look at OPEC’s own figures regarding oil production. Go and read all the articles detailing the expropriation of assets belonging to international companies. Look at all the orders of the World Bank for Venezuela to pay and compensate these companies for the theft of their assets. Go read about the kidnap of Elias Diaz mothers kidnapping at the hand of the Venezuelan police. Go look at the voting record of the puppet supreme court, or the antics of the puppet CNE (electoral council). Look at statements made by high ranking PSUV/military officials immediately prior to the decisions taken by the sham organisations. Fly there, talk to the staff in the supermarkets, pharmacies and hospitals. Look at the following article: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-39896048 a minister sacked for doing their job and releasing genuine statistics that just happen to show the effect the Venezuelan government has had on that one institution. The evidence is readily available and very easy to find. You do not need to ask me: google is a thing. You cannot use ignorance as a valid excuse to announce your support of a criminal regime. Google this term: “Venezuela ICC”. Read this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cartel_of_the_Suns and scroll down to the references. I could go on and on but I fear my ancient and practically indestructible 1981 IBM Model F keyboard might actually wear out before I finish.
https://www.google.co.uk/search?biw=1280&bih=935&tbm=isch&sa=1&ei=h6mMWsyEFsHJgAbUsKCIBQ&q=casas+de+diosdado+cabello&oq=casas+de+diosdado+cabello&gs_l=psy-ab.12…0.0.0.44460.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0..0.0….0…1c..64.psy-ab..0.0.0….0.MyebETsWZ0U
http://www.panorama.com.ve/politicayeconomia/Diosdado-Cabello-sobre-aumento-del-salario-No-dejaremos-que-el-pueblo-siga-padeciendo–20160815-0045.html
https://dxj1e0bbbefdtsyig.woldrssl.net/custom/dolartoday.xls
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venezuelan_bol%C3%ADvar#/media/File:Venezuela_inflation_on_the_black_market_(DolarToday)_on_a_logarithmic_scale.png
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corruption_in_Venezuela#References
Chris Kelley: “the US has played a malignant role in causing the humanitarian crisis in Venezuela”
Statistic or example from a valid source please.
Hi Chris. I didn’t mean Lee only, But all of “number crunchers” that trying to useless point about something they no experience with. Too much BS (from all “sides of the coin”. The situation in Syria, and Venezuela it not same. The driving force in Venezuela (and Columbia, Bolivia, Mexico and too many other locations around the globe) is the drug trade. The problem this piece, Lee Bailey and you don’t really understand what you write. It’s pain and simple BS. I still recommend that both of you (and a lot others) move to the Ranchos and Kennels around Caracas. (in replacement to all former Venezuelans that left). (You can call population control – the prevent global warming due to hot air floating around)
I think you are writing the wrong name. I am agreeing with you. I have spent enough time in Venezuela living with my family. I am sharing the truth with the world. We need to save the Venezuelan people from this evil slave driving, drug dealing corrupt regime of the PSUV elite who steal all the wealth and dignity and human rights of the warmest, friendliest, most entrepreneurial and industrious people on the planet: the ordinary Venezuelans.
Why are people fleeing Venezuela in such numbers, comparisons be damned?
The real issue is that once again the NYT is making a case for regime change. Being a reasonable person I could be convinced that this was true if I could shown one example of when regime change, orchestrated by the US, brought positive change to a society. There are many examples of the opposite only
I agree. Regime change is needed, but it needs to be like that of the end of Mussolini in Italy. The Venezuelan PSUV elite need to be strung up on lamp posts by the people of that nation.
Surprised you didn’t compare Venezuela to Nazi Germany, close though.
Well if you read my other comments, I did compare the effects of PSUV governance to the people of Venezuela to the effects of Nazi Germany to the people and economy of wartime United Kingdom.
For Chris Kelly. Have you ever been in Venezuela lived there. You should ” move to the Ranchos and Kennels around Caracas. (in replacement to all former Venezuelans that left). (You can call population control – the prevent global warming due to hot air floating around)” and “Being a reasonable (LOL) person I could be convinced that this was true if I could shown one example of when regime change, orchestrated by the US, brought positive change to a society. There are many examples of the opposite only”. (try Chile and Japan and majority of Europe after WW11 and Cold War. you obviously don’t what you talking about. have good live in El Norte. and visit all “cool” – “progressives(?) places. And further – buy some coke from Venezuela (or some from Bolivia, Columbia).
There are many examples of despotic regimes. Colombia is an example. No one is calling for regime change in Colombia. Trolls
You are a troll. Where is the massive crisis in Columbia? Where is the starvation and lack of availability of basic goods? Where is the collapse in healthcare in Columbia? Where is the destruction of democracy in Columbia?
Your a joke for defending the abuses of the Venezuelan regime.
Where is the crisis in Colombia?
False posives scandal:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/“False_positives”_scandal
Colombia is widely referred to as the country with the ‘worst human rights record in the western hemisphere’:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_rights_in_Colombia
Times change, I’m not going to defend Columbia’s past rights record. It looks like they may be improving, so lets judge on merit and by the actions. By all accounts, I hope for the sake of its people that Columbia is turning a new leaf. Sadly, its neigbour Venezuela is proving a huge destabilising factor with its people not only emigrating to all surrounding countries in huge and increasing numbers, but some of them turning to the ELN (where they know they will be better fed as members than even in the PNB/Guardia Nacional/Fanb) Sadly, Venezuela’s rights record especially since 2014 makes Columbia look akin to Sweden.
Besides, its a country that has had a very different situation for the past 50 years, simply compare the wikipedia page on Columbian conflict a list of conflicts in Venezuela:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colombian_conflict
https://www.historyguy.com/wars_of_venezuela.htm
HIstory and political geography must be taken into account.
That is unintelligible
In the past twenty years we have had many examples of regime change that have all been total failures and there is therefore no reason to conclude that more regime change will yield different results.
You are partially right. A change of regime in Venezuela occurred in 1999 and look what has resulted. Its a disaster of proportions not usually seen out of war zones, with the exception of Zimbabwe. Presumably you are also a Zano-PF & Mugabe supporter as well then. The likelyhood in Venezuela is that a new regime would roll back disastrous insane non-nonsensical policies maintained under the PSUV that have led to the collapse of the economy and hopefully also independence for institutions like the supreme court, CNE, the end of the constitutionally illegal constituent assembly and hopefully a return to a far stronger constitution with far greater checks and balances on democracy like the one Chavez threw out. There is no reason to believe that the disaster would continue following a change in government in Venezuela. There is no reason to believe that the situation of the whole country would not improve massively.
I can think of a few reasons to beleive that a US backed regime change would be disastrous: Iraq, Syria, Libya Afghanistan, Honduras.
How can any disaster be bigger than the current one?
Seriously! You think the world being able to provide aid and end the humanitarian disaster would be a disaster?
What on earth have the Venezuelan people ever done to you?
Who the hell are you to support the widespread suffering, starvation and slavery of a whole nation? No, seriously. Who the hell ARE you. Are you going to try to convince me you are not being paid to support such a sick and twisted greedy criminal regime who are causing damage not only to Venezuela but all other countries in the western hemisphere?
Or is this just some kind of sick joke your trying to make?
An almost identical article – using the same distorted figures, ignoring Colombia’s human rights record, and making the same entirely bogus comparison to the millions of Syrian refugees, appears in the latest issue of Mexico’s Progreso magazine (18 Feb). Its title is “El Exodo del Hambre” and its author is one Rafael Croda. We appear to be witnessing a coordinated journalistic campaign. I wonder if Messrs. Forero and Croda are in any way related?
Are people trying to argue that masses of people are in fact not leaving Venezuela?
Thats hilarious!
ENCOVI – pro-opposition Venezuela academics who come out with ridiculous surveys once a year – also just demolished the numbers that Paez and his corporate media fans have been spreading about migration from Venezuela.
ENCOVI estimates 815,000 people leaving Venezuela since 2012 — and 90% of those leaving in the 2015-2017 period. In other words, their estimate is less than half Paez’s estimate for the past 3 years and about 1/3 of his estimate for the post-1999 period. How wild are your estimates when not even an ENCOVI survey (which claims about 90% poverty!) backs them up?
Here he is, the very billionaire who has interrupted the flow of beer and diapers, running for office. Of course, he CAN guarantee that imports will resume, because it was his decision to cease them. The “clamor” to put this fellow into government can only be heard in the halls of Bloomberg, the Wall Street Journal, Exxon/Mobil and the CIA. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-12-22/venezuelans-clamor-for-billionaire-to-save-nation-from-calamity
Hi
1) I was just wondering if in the Humanitarian Crisis in the border with Venezuela the statistics of authors add the thousands expelled or that departed back to Colombia since 2014?
2) Or just like some want to argue that there is not a Humanitarian crisis at the boarder and that most Venezueleans in the thousands are only crossing to do some shopping in Colombia or Brazil in 2018 ?
Have Any of you done some research regarding this 2 points?
Hi Pedro,
The university study I cited in my article looked at Colombia’s official figures and accounted for undocumented people staying to live in Colombia. That could include the two categories you cite.
As for the term “humanitarian crisis” I would never tell Venezuelans living through their crisis not to call it a “humanitarian crisis” – nor would I say that to the millions of internally displaced in Colombia and the hundreds of thousands of Colombians officially classified as refugees abroad. I would also not say to the people living in poverty and extreme poverty throughout the Americas “don’t call it a humanitarian crisis”. I wouldn’t tell Greeks that they should not describe what they are going through as a humanitarian crisis either even though their country is still wealthier than most in the world. Those words can be applied reasonably in many cases where people suffer needlessly throughout the world, and even within rich countries like Canada and the USA.
However, when the western media bombards people lies – claiming Venezuela is a “dictatorship” and that it is a “humanitarian crisis” like Syria’s – then it is extremely obvious what they are trying to justify. The U.S. and its allies have destroyed serval countries over the last 20 years alone. The priority for anyone living inside the U.S. Canada etc.., should be preventing them from adding another victim to the list.
Foreros article statics are till 2016.
What I was referring is if some one have data for 2017-18 from inmigration (legal or iligal estimates) to Colombia of Venezuelans in addition to the coming back Colombian exodus 2014-2018.
My question is how many (Total) are there. ?
UN population division statistics updated to 2017 shows Venezuela’s migrant stock – total population of former residents living abroad (all countries) – as 647,439. I think that is implausibly low. The ENVOVI study which I mentioned above (done by a stridently anti government academics) estimates about 800,000 leaving in total (to all countries) in the 2015-2017 period.
Most outfits take 1.5 – 2 years to update stats (US Census Bureau, UNICEF, UN’s various orgs etc…)
great mythbusting piece by the brilliant Joe Emerberger. keep up the good work, and support Venezuela Solidarity now!