by: Brigid Rowlings, LHI Communications Director
Last week, I had the opportunity to visit a Humanities class at Fenway High School in Boston. The teacher had tasked the students with ranking the rights in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights from most to least important. Of course, all of the rights are important, so you may think this was a strange exercise. But as a former History and Social Studies teacher, I knew the Fenway High teacher had assigned this task so that students would read the Declaration closely and think about it critically.
As I was walking around the classroom and talking to students about how they’d ranked the rights and why, I kept being drawn to Article 14—the article that grants people the right to seek asylum in other countries when they are being persecuted in their own country. I think that article stood out to me because just a few weeks ago, a group of Venezuelan migrants were flown from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard, a small island off the coast of my home state of Massachusetts. This hit even closer to home because when I heard the news, my family was on our way to our annual September weekend on the Vineyard.
To be honest, at the time, I did not know a ton about why Venezuelans were seeking refuge in the United States. So, I started to do some research. I was surprised to learn that Venezuelans make up the second largest group of people who have fled their homes, just behind Syrians, whose country has been devastated by a civil war that has been raging since 2011. I learned that since 2013, the Venezuelan economy has been in freefall, and that today, inflation is so bad that today, a plain cup of coffee can cost 7.8 million bolivares. That is $9.60!
Venezuela was once a Latin American country on the rise. Its huge crude oil reserves had once positioned it as one of the world’s fastest growing economies. But, a series of events, which can be traced back to the administration of its former president, Hugo Chàvez, changed all that. Chàvez spent lavishly on social welfare projects aimed at reducing poverty. That sounds great, right? Unfortunately, while spending a lot to improve education, healthcare, and housing, the Chàvez administration failed to invest in national infrastructure, including oil pipelines. Eventually this caught up with Chàvez, and oil production declined just as oil prices fell.
Chàvez’s successor, Nicolàs Maduro, responded to the country’s economic turmoil and challenges to his administration by arresting political opponents and journalists. When Maduro was elected for a second term in 2018, the National Assembly claimed his election was neither free nor fair. Maduro opponents were barred from running, and some even fled the country in fear of being imprisoned. The Venezuelan constitution calls for the leader of the National Assembly, who at the time was a man named Juan Guiadò, to step in as acting president in this situation. More than 50 countries, including the United States, recognize Guiadò as the legitimate president. Maduro, however, refuses to yield.
This political standoff has not made life any easier for Venezuelans. Today, few Venezuelans can afford to feed their families because of high food prices. The hospitals that remain open are short on medicine and can’t count on regular access to electricity and water. Venezuelans report continued persecution of those who oppose Maduro, including protestors.
I now understand why 6.8 million Venezuelans have left their country since 2014. Most people have sought refuge in other Latin American or Caribbean countries. But some have made the journey to the southern border of the United States hoping to be granted asylum.
As a mom, I can’t imagine living in a situation where I couldn’t feed my children or count on the health care system to care for them when they are ill. I can’t imagine turning on the tap praying that water will flow. So I empathize with Venezuelans who are seeking refuge from a completely untenable situation and I’m proud to work for an organization like Lifting Hands International that provides aid to migrants with the help of the border shelters we work with.
LHI’s founder and director Hayley Smith and COO Walker Frahm visited shelters along the border that receive and distribute aid from LHI. Here, Hayley poses with artwork outside a shelter in Tucson, AZ.