RETURNING VENEZUELAN MIGRANTS FIND COLD WELCOME AMID COVID
RETURNING VENEZUELAN MIGRANTS FIND COLD WELCOME AMID COVID
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RETURNING VENEZUELAN MIGRANTS FIND COLD WELCOME AMID COVID
a man standing in a kitchen: Juan Meza prepares coffee at his house in Guigue© Reuters/MANAURE QUINTERO Juan Meza prepares coffee at his house in Guigue
SAN JOAQUIN, Venezuela (Reuters) - When Juan Meza could no longer bear to hear his daughter crying from hunger, the Adventist pastor sold his family's few belongings, gifted his prized fantasy novels and history books to a neighbor and left Venezuela in 2017 for a job at a shoe factory in Colombia.
a person with dark hair and a sunset in the background: Juan Meza tries to reach a phone signal during a blackout in Guigue© Reuters/MANAURE QUINTERO Juan Meza tries to reach a phone signal during a blackout in Guigue
For years, Meza felt relief that he could afford to feed his daughters and send them to school, until the coronavirus pandemic erupted and he was dismissed.
Back in Venezuela, instead of teaching theology as he used to do, the 42-year-old wanders the streets of the small town of San Joaquin in northwest Venezuela looking to sell chicken to people willing to pay in dollars or barter for flour and rice.
Like 100,000 other emigres who have returned home amid the pandemic, Meza has been pushed back into the hand-to-mouth existence he fled to escape the hyperinflation, shortages and unemployment created by President Nicolas Maduro's government.
a man and a woman walking down a street: Juan Meza walks in the street while selling and trading chickens© Reuters/MANAURE QUINTERO Juan Meza walks in the street while selling and trading chickens
At 3:45 a.m. on a recent morning, Meza was outside his tin-and-concrete home trying to get cell signal on a 2010-era flip phone to find his chicken supplier. The day's profit goal was $5 but if he could not pick up the chickens, he would get nothing.
a man standing in front of a building: Juan Meza offers chickens for sale or trade in San Joaquin© Reuters/MANAURE QUINTERO Juan Meza offers chickens for sale or trade in San Joaquin
"This is apocalyptic but it is just to get us through until we can leave for Brazil," said Meza, standing on his pitch-black, pock-marked street in a threadbare blue soccer jersey. As on most days, the power was out.
While the harsh conditions for returning migrants in military-run quarantine centers have drawn criticism, their experience after leaving them is equally difficult: a daily struggle to obtain food to the backdrop of blackouts, water shortages and constant risk of exposure to coronavirus.
At the start of the pandemic, Maduro said returning Venezuelans would be welcomed "with love and open arms." He railed against the xenophobia many endured abroad.
But as the virus threatened to overwhelm Venezuela's crumbling health system, Maduro began blaming those returning for a case count the government says has reached almost 42,000.
Some officials called returning migrants "biological weapons" sent by neighboring Colombian to infect the population.