Understanding Venezuela
Venezuela
To begin with, let's briefly introduce the country Venezuela and the recent history the country has gone through.
Venezuela is located in the Northern part of South America with borders to Brazil, Guyana, Colombia, and the Atlantic Ocean. With a current estimated population of 33.7 million of which the majority lives in the Capital, Caracas, which stands as the countries center for tourism, industry, and education. Venezuela is home to many cultures such as African, European, and indigenous cultures referred to as "criollo" which creates a diverse country with interests in sports such as Football (soccer), and baseball but also a traditional form of bullfighting.
Located in the Northern part of South America, Venezuela is one of a few countries connecting South America to the Caribbean and to North America. This includes trade routes, tourism but also migration. Recently, Venezuela has experienced a large migration with more than seven million refugees and migrants leaving the country with most escaping to neighboring South American countries and some going north to the United States.
Economic Crisis
The reason behind this mass migration is one of the largest economic crashes in recent history and Forbes Magazine explains the aftermath as “a human rights disaster”. The Venezuelan government was at a time one of the world largest oil exports with a booming economy and in 2015 when oil prices were at their peak, they took on a lot of debt. When the oil prices collapsed, the government resorted to cutting of spending on imports on necessary products the people needed to survive. Forbes Magazine emphasized that this tactic only made the matter worse, and hyperinflation started to destroy the Venezuelan economy.
Venezuelans started to leave, and those who stayed demanded a new government to replace the failed one. This resulted in human rights and liberties being stripped away from the Venezuelan citizens which triggered the start of the mass migration.
Current Numbers
The recent figure from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) say that more than 7.1 million Venezuelans have left of which around 450,000 have made the long journey to the United States. Latest census updates by the Chicago’s Committee on Immigrant and Refugee Rights (CIRR) tell that around 9,000 Venezuelans live in Chicago.
At the current state, 1 US dollar is worth roughly 35 Venezuelan Bolívar Soberano and since 2016, inflation has increased to 53,798,500% and continues to grow by unprecedented amounts every month that passes.