Roughly 2.5 million people are expected to leave Venezuela
For the past couple of years, the news cycle in Brazil has been mainly negative. Recession, political turmoil, social unrest. The recipe for disaster, one might add. But a neighboring country is experiencing a crisis that is worse in every single aspect: Venezuela.
The country has become a failed state. As British newspaper The Independent put it, “never has a country that should have been so rich been so poor.”
Data from the International Monetary Fund places Venezuela dead last in terms of economic growth and inflation. It also has the world’s ninth-worst unemployment rate.
Over the past few years, Venezuelan refugees have flocked to Brazil. The number of people entering the Brazilian border has skyrocketed by 22,122 percent since 2014. Last year, 2,000 more Venezuelans requested asylum in Brazil’s border state of Roraima. Back in 2014, the federal police counted 9 asylum requests. Then, in 2015, that number went up to 230.
But as the economic crisis deepened last year under Nicholas Maduro’s administration, Venezuelans came in greater droves to the border. Roughly 2.5 million people are expected to leave the country to escape the crisis.
In response, the Brazilian government will create a camp to house these Venezuelan refugees. The site will be in the northern state of Roraima, which borders Venezuela. Today, government officials arrived in Roraima to set the project into motion.
There is, however, a divergence regarding the number of Venezuelan refugees that Brazil will accept. The Federal Police says that they will amount to 16,000. Meanwhile, Roraima’s state government says that the number is 30,000.
Mercosur sanctions
Mercosur, the South American trade alliance, launched in April a demand to kick Venezuela out of the bloc. Member countries applied a “democratic clause” to Venezuela. The demand, if not complied with, could lead to the country’s expulsion from the regional trade agreement. Currently, the trade agreement includes Brazil, Venezuela, Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay.
The country bloc demands a number of democratic measures: open elections for governor, city mayors (for this year), and for President (in 2018). Finally, Venezuela must liberate its political prisoners. If Venezuela complies with these measures, it will not face expulsion from the trade agreement.
SOURCE: Plus55
