According to the article, the Colombian office of Migration reported that only in 2017, 796,000 Venezuelans crossed the country border. Of those, 550,000 chose to stay in Colombia, 62% more than the number of Venezuelans living there 6 months ago. The fact is that, since 1998, when Hugo Chávez rose in power, 3,000,000 people from that country fled to about 90 countries worldwide.

Some pictures of Venezuelan citizens in Maiquetía airport. This picture has become a symbol of the Venezuelan exodus in the last decade. (source)

And this is how happened:

Facts

The “Brain Drain” of Venezuela started very early in the beginning of Hugo Chávez mandate. At the beginning, migrants were mostly middle to high-class citizens, 18 to 35 years old. They were well educated, graduates from the best universities in the country. The main reason for leaving the country were high rates of unemployment for professionals, high crime rates and the rejection of the socialist political regime. In fact, that escalated quickly in 2002, when the state-owned Oil Company, Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), went into a strike twice, for several weeks. Thus, more than 20,000 skilled professionals were fired. Most of them and their families fled, to countries like Spain, Canada and USA. In 2004, Hugo Chávez said that the PDVSA crisis was necessary to gain more power:

Video taken from Globovisión Channel

In 2014, a study made by Central University of Venezuela showed that 36% of the Venezuelans that fled the country are graduates, 46% had a master’s degree, 12% had a Doctorate, and 4% had a college degree. That “Brain Drain” initially provoked the reduction of the middle-class population, and if we add the high inflation and currency devaluation to the equation, it made it worse. The percentage of middle-class population went down from 40% in 1998, to a margin between 5%-20% in 2014. 

How is this socialism’s fault?

Army General Guaicaipuro Lameda taking the oath as President of PDVSA. (source)

I want to share a writing of Retired General Guaicaipuro Lameda. He was president of PDVSA in the early years of Chávez government. He talks about the strategy of the socialist regime for an entire generation:

“I had been insisting to President Chávez that they deceived him on the economic issue. 5-year projections showed a growing fiscal deficit, the need for indebtedness or devaluation and, therefore, was necessary to address the issue of growing  production so that Venezuela could become independent of the oil rent, as promised in his electoral campaign and how they had presented me the project for which we were working.

It was the time when the country was told that investors were raining us and that the “submarine was afloat”. However, the investors came to the country and did not get a valid speaker to explain what the business opportunities were and they were disappointed because they had invested time and money without receiving anything as an answer, NOT EVEN A NO!

They left with doubts and vague promises. Chávez accepted that we meet to discuss the issue and he invited 4 people: José Vicente Rangel (External Affairs Minister), Jorge Giordani (Planning Minister), Héctor Navarro (Superior Education Minister) and Aristóbulo Istúriz (Education and Sports Minister), whom I found in the council room of ministers where we were supposed to do the previous meeting before the one with Chávez.

While there, Giordani asks me what I wanted to inform the President and I answered in the following terms:

"The 5-year multiannual projection tells us that we will not have growth, it will be negative, the fiscal deficit will be growing. We are going to have serious borrowing needs, since we are losing control over government spending under populist excuses. The Government is not saving in the FIEM (Macroeconomic Stabilization Fund), it spends everything and we deceive when talking about a growing economy. For that to happen, they should be building warehouses, buildings and all the infrastructure that production requires, and that doesn’t exist. If it is true that we want to end poverty, it is essential that wealth be generated and that adequate mechanisms be designed so that its distribution is fair and equitable, and I do not see that either. "

There Giordani interrupted me and said: "Look, General, you still have not understood the revolution. I´ll explain: This revolution aims to make a cultural change in the country, to change people's way of thinking and living, and those changes can only be made from power. So, the first thing is to stay in power to make changes. The political floor is given to us by poor people: they are the ones who vote for us, that is why the discourse of the defense of the poor. So, THE POOR MUST CONTINUE BEING POOR, WE NEED THEM SO, until we can make the cultural transformation. Then we can talk about economy of generation and distribution of wealth. In the meantime, you must keep them poor and hopeful."

There I interrupted him and asked: "Since you say 'then', tell me how long you think it will take to make that change."

The answer was immediate: "Look, it's a cultural change and that takes at least three generations: adults resist and cling to the past; young people live it and get used to it, and children learn it and make it their own. It takes at least 30 years…

…The political-economic strategy to stay in power is easy to explain. First, the government declares itself an advocate of the poor with two interests: To be the champion and semi-God of the poor and to defeat the adversary. In this sense, the revolution divides the country into two clubs: its friends, the poor; your enemies "Squalid, majunches, oligarchs, traitors, pitiyankees" or as it suits to call them per the circumstance.”

So, the exodus of the well-educated was necessary. The decrease in numbers of the middle-class was well planned, as socialism in Venezuela needs people to be poor (but hopeful) to stay in power.

To close this post, I want to share this video to you. This was a mockumentary about some young Venezuelans, made in 2011, that wanted to leave the country. There were heavily criticized when the video was posted. But after seven years, it became very truthful. The mockumentary is called "Caracas, ciudad de despedidas" (Caracas, city of good byes): 

You can watch it here, and choose to watch it with subtitles in English.

Part II will be about how between 2014-2016 migration reached the middle to low class.

It is our duty to spread the truth. If you agree, i invite you to resteem the post. Let's prevent the Americas for what could happen if we don't take a stand against socialism in all the hemisphere.

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