Nicolás Maduro, inaugurated for a third term in Venezuela after a questioned re-election, reiterated this Tuesday that economic sanctions “caused” Venezuelan migration between 2017 and 2019, without mentioning that an exodus of people was also recorded outside that period, as a consequence of the crisis that the country was already experiencing before the foreign measures.
«No one should forget in this world (…) that they were the criminal economic sanctions (…) that in the year 17, 18, 19, requested by the extremist right, by the failed opposition of (former deputy Juan) Guaidó and company, the that caused, like, let’s say, a natural element, the migration that Venezuela had never had before,” he expressed in a meeting broadcast on the state channel VTV.
However, according to experts, although economic sanctions affected the nation’s activities such as oil, they are not the origin of the crisis that, for years, was marked by a contraction of the gross domestic product (GDP) and high inflation that was hyper between 2017 and 2021, as well as a serious generalized shortage, especially accentuated since 2015, which lasted until 2018, when it began to subside.
Meanwhile, the Chavista government controlled prices and the exchange sector, and carried out numerous inspections of businesses and private companies.
Maduro also attributed the migration to “the action of coyotes (human traffickers) directed – in his words – by the same opposition” who, according to the ruler, “began to take Venezuelans with a false offer through the networks to some countries in South America and then to the United States.
“It’s a mix,” he said, in reference to the factors that he points out as causing the diaspora, which Chavismo estimates at 2.5 million people – of which, he assures that 1.2 million have already returned -, while the Interagency Coordination Platform for Refugees and Migrants (R4V) estimates it at about 7.89 million Venezuelans.
In addition, the Chavista leader called on Venezuelans abroad this Tuesday, as he did on previous occasions, to return to this “blessed land” that “awaits” them to be “happy working” and where, he added, “they will also rescue “, the most precious right, which is the right to party (celebrate).”
Maduro addressed the issue of migration one day after the new US president, Donald Trump, put an end to two programs that were created by his predecessor, Joe Biden (2021-2025), to deter irregular migration: the application CBP One mobile and humanitarian permit (known as parole) for citizens of four countries, including Venezuela.
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