Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
VENEZUELA WAS A powerhouse. Employment was high. The streets were clean and safe. The hospitals housed some of the best doctors in the region. Colombians crossed the border to take refuge from the civil conflict.
Investors from the United States, Italy and Spain dined in Caracas’ many restaurants.
The Bolivar was strong and its value a source of pride to all who traded in it. The idea that this would crumble was unfathomable.
Today Venezuela is on its knees.
Three million people have left since 2015. Hyperinflation has wiped out life savings and diminished salaries. Food is scarce. People queue outside supermarkets for hours
to get rationed rice or a piece of meat.
In the hospitals people are dying because of a lack of medical supplies. Blackouts have plunged the country into darkness.
In a bright apartment in western Colombia, Adolfo Doza, 60, and his wife Elizabeth Aguirre, 56, try to come to terms with this series of events.
He is Venezuelan, she Colombian, they met in the Colombian capital Bogotá as students and later moved to Venezuela.
It was home to their two children Annick and Adolfo Junior and the place where Adolfo senior founded Induquip, a manufacturing company.
“Venezuela was beautiful,” Adolfo says, “There was no inflation, very little taxes, there was a lot of construction and nearly everyone had a job. I remember when I was studying employers would come into the university and hire students. The economic situation in Venezuela was good. As a family we were not rich but we had a high standard of living.”
Now their family is scattered across the world. Their daughter Annick lives in Dublin. Brothers and sisters live in Venezuela, the United States and Mexico. Four years ago they moved to Cali, Elizabeth’s birthplace. The decision to leave was difficult.
“We had a good life,” Elizabeth recalls, “The company was doing okay and everything was there. We were always hoping things would start to improve instead of getting worse. Then when the doctors said that if Adolfo Junior needed emergency health care, that he wouldn’t be able to get it in Venezuela, that was when I knew we had to go.”
Adolfo Junior, 42, requires care after a traumatic brain injury. Twenty-five years ago he was celebrating his graduation and was hit by a car while crossing the road. Years of recovery followed, leaving him in need of 24-hour care.
Theirs is a middle class story. In Cali, they can afford to rent an apartment, eat and travel. However, Venezuela’s collapse has taken its toll. Savings were lost due to hyperinflation. Induquip has two remaining employees and should they leave, the company may have to close.
The home they raised a family in – that was built lovingly – now lies dormant in Valencia. The secure retirement they worked for has essentially been wiped out.
“The price for my parents is the peace of mind you have in your 70s. That’s the part that is lost. Now they live hoping they will return to Venezuela one day,” Annick tells TheJournal.ie from Dublin.
The decision to leave was made because my mum was scared. She was fearful every day for my brother’s health. Everywhere she went she experienced a challenge and wanted to get out early before something bad happened.”
Annick adds, “My dad, he is the eternal optimist. He always thought things would get better. It wasn’t until he moved to Colombia that he realised how bad things were.”
Annick moved to Dublin more than 10 years ago because she loved Irish culture. Irish life, and the Irish climate, was a world away from Valencia.
“I loved the idea of living in Ireland. My parents thought I was crazy, but I’m happy here. I’ve studied and built a life.”
She is one of thousands of Venezuelans in the country. Previously Ireland was a top destination for Venezuelans looking to learn English.
However due to Venezuela’s political and economic crisis, the number of students and migrants has significantly reduced.
When Hugo Chávez became the President in 1999 Venezuela experienced a shift to socialism. The military man, who was jailed for a failed coup in 1992, resonated with the poor who had grown tired of rampant corruption and social inequality.
According to Adolfo Senior, Chávez was a magician with words: “He never talked about socialism openly. His speeches were like ‘all these buildings will one day be yours’. If you’re poor, you believe that.”
From the early 2000s, Chávez began to nationalise key industries and this, coupled with other economic policies, slowly resulted in economic collapse.
In 2004, the Tascón List was published. More than 2.4 million Venezuelans signed a list, initiated by the politician Luis Tascón, to seek a recall referendum to remove Chávez from power. The signatories were seen as traitors by the government, people lost jobs, and the Dozas were refused travel to Cuba.
“There was a special rehabilitation clinic in Cuba that could help Adolfo Junior” Elizabeth says, “We signed up to go but then the authorities checked the list and we were all on it. We couldn’t go. He needed the care, but that was it.”
Adolfo Junior nods in agreement.
When Chávez died from cancer in 2013, Nicolás Maduro became President. The former bus driver was ill-equipped to manage the country and it fell further into ruin. “Things became a lot worse under Maduro, hyperinflation, business, security, everything,” Adolfo senior says flatly.
Two years of Maduro and the Dozas had left Venezuela.
Elizabeth came first and then Adolfo Junior and Adolfo Senior.
The family regard themselves as lucky. As the situation in Venezuela deteriorates, people are becoming desperate. Many get a bus to the border city of San Antonio del Táchira and cross into Colombia through informal routes known as ‘trochas’, these are run by Venezuelan colectivos and Colombian paramilitary groups.
In the Colombian city of Cúcuta those unable to pay for a bus ticket to Bogotá, Cali or Medellin have to walk and face the extremes of the Colombian climate.
“It’s so sad,” Elizabeth says quietly. She shakes her head and glances to the ceiling. “You see them at the traffic lights and you want to help. When I moved back to Cali I tried to set up an organisation but the demand was too much and we didn’t have funding. Our employees in Venezuela always tell us how hard it is for everyone and it’s difficult to hear. I thank God every day that we could make it.”
The Venezuelan migrant crisis has moved in waves. At first people with wealth established safeguards in the United States, Spain or Colombia. Then those with savings and documentation went abroad to find work. Now, according to UNHCR, an estimated 5,000 people move to Colombia every day.
“I was back in Venezuela last year,” Elizabeth adds, “You could see the poverty, but you could also see the wealthy are still there. That’s something you might not expect. Those people fly to Miami for everything they need. Then in Venezuela they live as normal.”
In Ireland, Annick feels that people’s awareness of the Venezuelan crisis is fleeting.
“People think what’s happened to Venezuela is recent. They don’t understand that this is the complete unravelling of a nation and that is exceptionally painful for everyone,” she says.
“It’s also not just the poor who are suffering. It’s families who can survive but who have lost their savings, businesses, money for their children’s education. That’s what makes it so emotional.”
3.5% of all Venezuelan migrants in Colombia are living in Cali, according to Migración Colombia. On the drive into the city, they can be seen at the traffic lights or huddling together on grassy banks. They drive the taxis, wait the tables and work in industry from retail to agriculture.
Towards the beginning of many of their stories is the phrase: “Venezuela was beautiful once.”
“It’s true” Elizabeth says, “It was. Maybe now we look at those times with rose-tinted glasses, but it was beautiful. Many people had a nice life. We didn’t pay a lot of attention to politics or economics because we could live well. Then, it wasn’t until the very end that we realised we were losing everything.”
Amanda Coakley reports from Cali, Colombia. This article was supported by the Simon Cumbers Media Fund.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
The fact that it says it comes from Anti-Corruption Ireland tells you all you need to know. A bunch of misfits banded together by a shared delusion under the guidance of some extremely nasty pieces of work. Excellent for the fireplace on these cold evenings.
@OnlyHereForTheComments: Admit that the leaflet omitted one of the most sophisticated conspiracies ever: SLICED BREAD! As we now know – metal blades are used to cut the bread. The special blades leave tiny metal particles on each slice you ingest. Those particles then circulate in your bloodstream and settle eventually in your brain causing corrosion. Corroded brains are frankly easier to be subverted. If you eat a lot of sliced bread or sliced buns – like the ones in burgers you may turn ginger. In extreme cases your skin may show orange tinge…Mental effects can manifest (but are not limited to) as urge to inject bleach, or insert UV light source inside your body. You may also be more prone to adultery and violence but touting family values and protection of life (especially life if somebody else’s womb). Weird ha? Believe it or not – but NGO,WHO,BMW,KFC,FBI,deep state and Johnny Depp are all in it.
@OnlyHereForTheComments:
Who pays for these to be printed? where’s that money coming from?
The best article I’ve seen on The Journal in a while. Well done Nicky Ryan, you clearly put a lot of effort into this and it paid off. Informative, factual and debunking the ridiculous information thats been circulated. Great job, I’m very impressed
@Robert Edwards: even122 of his buddies think so too
@Robert Edwards: Agreed Robert !! Fantastic and so necessary journalism
104% of people who say Covid is a conspiracy are aliens. Fact!
@Dave Gibney: prove it’s not
@Michael Maher: It’s up to you to prove that it is.
Humans can’t keep secrets, don’t give them so much credit.
@Michael Maher: I spoke to the aliens and they told me in no uncertain terms that it wasn’t them. This was backed up by their lizard people friends. They even took off their skin suits to tell me.
@Conall: can I sign up for your newsletter ?
I just want to cry. Because of these nut jobs, it’s impossible to have a proper debate about how to live with Covid and the fact that debate is so limited allows this nonsense to profligate. There are legitimate questions re how cases are counted, for example. They are counted according to WHO guidelines. WHO guidelines are important for the monitoring of the extent of the virus, but not its impact. They’re important for the study of epidemiology, but not necessarily for public health reasons. But we can’t have debates because of the likes of those people.
@Anne Marie Devlin: if we can’t have a debate, it’s not the fault of these individuals, it’s the fault of media and government for creating a situation where debate is impossible. Not all the experts agree with NEPHET and many are in complete opposition to the current plan. Only problem is that mainstream media has made debate on this issue very difficult.
@Adam Conroy: Actually it is the fault of the individual that can’t properly debate. Stop blaming everything and everyone else for your ignorance
@Adam Conroy: The people who published this leaflet have made a number of statements. The author of this article has rebutted these statements with facts, showing them to be mostly incorrect. Sounds a bit Iike a debate to me.
@Anne Marie Devlin: exactly Anne Marie
@Kavsie: you are correct in your statement, however in March, the view concerning masks was that they would NOT prevent the person wearing it from contracting the virus and that particular piece of advice has NOT changed. The difference now is that they realised that it could prevent someone already infected from transmitting the virus, and since the virus has an incubation period of up to a couple weeks before symptoms show, if ever, it is safer for everyone to wear some form of face covering rather than unknowingly spread it.
@Anne Marie Devlin: Sure I debated your assumptions re “There are legitimate concerns re how cases are counted”& you didn’t answer me!
Also re your assumption re “They’re important for the study of epidemiology but not necessarily for public health reasons”,I gave he definition of epidemiology.Epidemiology is the foundation of public health & epidemiology and public health are studied together in Universities.
Public health is ‘often defined as the organised efforts of society to prevent disease and to promote health’
@Anne Marie Devlin:
you’re just twisting things there – trying to imply that our lack of objectivity in the media is caused by these people who released the pamphlet. In fact it is the EXACT opposite.
This type of pamphlet is being released because there is no objectivity left in the media. And yes, the pamphlet goes to the other extreme I agree.. and thats the unfortunate reality when you lose that objectivity.
Question : take Luke O Neill etc. When did you ever see him challenged on TV/Radio by one of his peers with a counter-viewpoint. The answer is simply NEVER. He talks alone, un-challenged. Almost nightly !! And that type of thing is the root cause of your problem. You say you want to see things discussed openly. Well take that up with the media, not with whoever released the pamphlet. Its easier to blame them, because it means youre still part of the groupthink, but youre zoning in on the wrong culprit this time.
@Domhnall O’Sullivan:
There are doctors, medics, thousands of them worldwide who think the reaction to this virus is dis-proportiante and mis-placed. They don’t align with 90% of what is written in the pamphlet but they still disagree with the measures being taken.
when you lose the objectivity, all of these people get lumped into the one pot. the “against” pot – but theyre viewpoints are very varied and different. that pamphlet is the full on extreme side of it..
How many of you actually know someone who had or has Covid?
@Teresa Ryan: your point Being?
@Teresa Ryan: I personally know three families that got it, none of whom are connected. What’s your point?
@Teresa Ryan: know around five only one made hospital and was quite ill but recovered.
@Teresa Ryan: I know a nurse in James’s. Frightened the sh*#e out of her when she got it. She was severely affected by it.
A neighbors 17 year old grandson also had it. He couldn’t train for 2 months as his fitness was wiped out
@Teresa Ryan: I know this guy off the TV… I think his name is Donald.
@Teresa Ryan: I don’t know anyone from Argentina, therefore it mustn’t exist!
@Paul Furey: It’s not a difficult question. How many people do you know who had of has Covid?
@ruairi: Not the question I asked though.
@Joe Bloggs: You are one of the few who actually knows someone. That’s my point.
@Teresa Ryan: that’s not a point.
@Teresa Ryan: Donald Trump?
@Teresa Ryan: I’ll answer you clearly Teresa, I know 2 people that had COVID, one died back in April from it and the other had very minor symptoms and none of his family contracted it.
How many do you know?
@Teresa Ryan: I know 8 people between here and the UK.
One was hospitalised for a couple of days, but is now fine.
3 were in bed for days and said it was horrible. 2 said it was like a bad cold, but with loss of sense of smell and taste and
2 hardly noticed they had it at all.
But 4 of the above weeks later still are out of breath walking up stairs etc.
I also know my mam has friends that have had it. My neighbour told me 5 people in her workplace had it.
I’m amazed you don’t know anyone who has had it.
@Teresa Ryan: I know 3 lads that had it. Want thier names? They can tell you how rough they felt.
@Teresa Ryan: two who recovered and one who died.
@Teresa Ryan: If you can’t see the correlation Teresa, you exhibit your inability to see how silly your question was in the first place. BTW, I’ve had two neighbours die from it. My cousin had it. Two people I work with are off currently with covid. So yeah, to answer your question; it does exist and it’s not made up.
@Teresa Ryan: I personally know someone who died of it.
@Teresa Ryan: Ruairi’s point was absolutely spot on and a perfect reply to you . . .but it was lost on you.
@Teresa Ryan: One person in my family, a friend of ours and my parents neighbours just got over it.
The morans that post these flyers and march really madden me! Do they not get it, if the hospital get overwhelmed by this virus it has a knock on affect on every aspect of health and the economy. These honestly have too much time, self importance and not enough brainscell to understand that they need to cop on to them self! We are all trying act in solidarity and dont need to listen to this nonsense by people who are too thick to find themself a productive hobby for themselves!
@Claire Joyce: Very good comment,Clare.Re your second sentence,I’ve tried to highlight that for months now but you’ve put it better!
Some who constantly criticize the public health advice and guidelines often talk about people waiting for hospital appointments, procedures and about jobs, businesses and the economy but fail to realise that the very basic public health advice and guidelines thry are critical of are the key to substantially reducing transmission of the virus, therefore more& more patients can be seen, businesses can remain open thereby protecting jobs,etc.
@Nuala Mc Namara: i am one of those who criticize the public health advice, there is a big difference between the likes of me who think that hospital procedures and consultations should have kept going under tight health restrictions and the likes of these people who are basically saying the whole thing is a pack of lies. You have been very vocal on here with you3 respect for the government and thats your opinion which is fine, respect those who may not agree with everything that’s issued as it doesn’t mean we have the same views as these.
@Madethyme: You obviously haven’t seen my other comments re Government!
More patients are been seen since initial lockdown and more could be seen if people try their best to follow the public health advice and guidelines.
We don’t know the full fact yet. There is no proper evidence. There is propaganda on both sides.
@Dolphins: Yes, the truth is always nestled somewhere in the middle.
@Dolphins: yeah apart from the facts we already know…
@Dolphins: Ah I see you skipped the article and jump straight to the comments. Try reading it for facts and evidence. Then read again because it prop take you a few attempts to understand. This method is called learning. You should try it all the time in life.
They got one part right staying indoors most definitely does weaken your physical health, your not gonna get proper exercise sitting on your sofa, and it’s good for your mental health to get out and about.
@SB: and if we follow the guidelines, no one needs to stay indoors…but if these nut jobs continue spreading the misinformation that they do, some will believe them, and end up spreading this damned virus, and we will end up back where we were….indoors in a lock down. One point right out on a page of wrong ones does not justify their actions
@SB: The ironic thing is that the people complaining that we were “only” allowed exercise for one hour during the last lockdown are probably looking at 4chan in their parents’ basements all day.
This would be hilarious if it weren’t for the vulnerable people few who will believe it
Covid Facts by ACI. 60% of the time, it works every time.
There’s no way I’m reading all that.
The media loves this type of stuff because it discredits alternative views.
The rational argument is that Sweden has not had a massive amounts of deaths with no lockdown. And that we would predict in the region of 5000 based on their outcome. So we should be having a debate about what is a lesser evil, 5000 dead from covid or mass societal damage from lock down.
Why are they posting from Gemma and not from the experts who spoke about a controlled spread last week
@Niall Dunne: The Swedes claim they had a lockdown, just that it was “lighter” than others. In any case, in spite of their “light” lockdown, they had 6 times the number of deaths as Germany and Denmark, nine times the Finnish death toll and eleven times the Norwegian toll. If Sweden had done as well as the neighbouring countries, who jumped on the virus early and hard, about five thousand Swedes could still be alive.
The second wave is not causing nearly as many deaths so far in any European country – and won’t if we have the common sense to abide by the guidelines – because the vulnerable are being careful and because treatment is better, but that’s too late for 5,000 Swedes. And imho, 5,000 is a massive amount of dead people.
@Niall Dunne: Oh Sweden again…this utopian myth has been totally debunked – even they admitted there were mistakes made. They now have common sense rules similar to ours and their numbers are going up again so the whole herd immunity argument is shot.
Anyone who believes nonsense from the anti corruption group who promote this conspiracy theorists stuff need to have reality check on there life and the direction its going
Thank you for addressing this dangerous far right disinformation. Sadly it’s becoming all too common in Ireland.
Saw that leaflet mentioning 5G and anti-vaccine conspiracies, that’s all you need to see before throwing it in the recycle-bin.
@Dave O’Shaughnessy: please don’t recycle it. It’s toxic material and should be disposed of accordingly
@Anne Marie Devlin: I may not agree with everything you say, but that one brought a smile to my face. Thanks.
@Dave O’Shaughnessy: Your children and future generations will not thank you.
Thank you. It’s about time someone took the loons on head on. the traction they have been getting on social media is worrying. I think people’s ability to think for themselves is being affected by their frustration with the necessary restrictions. It leaves people open to manipulation by the far right as it easier to dismiss the need for restrictions if you can dismiss the virus as over hyped or a hoax etc again thanks for the good work on debunking their crap all in one place.
I love your use of the word “nonsense”. The tinfoil hat brigade in full flow. They are off their rockers but the sad thing is people believe their nonsense.
@Fi Harte: Amazing that some new commenters on here since February who have put forwards some of these ideas are not commenting on this article!
Anyone read all of that?
@Gary Mc Aree: maybe that’s what it is with me so Gary, my lungs working harder, I find it hard to breathe when my mask goes on it the morning, I find myself taking huge breaths as if trying to get more oxygen, I asked the doctor I work with why and he said it’s lack of oxygen, nothing that’s going to kill me but that’s what it is
@Lucille Ball: sounds more like emphysema to me babe
Thank you for your fact checking. But of cource the Germans are just as full of world order theories as well as the Irish. These leaflets etc. appear to be well organised. What is the point behind it all?
@Eamonn Ferry: Leaflets like these appear well organised because these days, even stupid people have access to desktop publishing, the internet, etc. Centuries ago, they could only have talked nonsense to their immediate community, but now they can see each others’ nonsense online and their fist thought is “hey, that person agrees with me – we must both be right!”, when in fact they’re both talking nonsense. Add in manipulative people leaving nonsense for them to find, and we have today’s situation.
Excellent rebuttal to dangerous nonsense
this pamphlet is full of BS.
bring back media objectivity. discuss the important issues openly. are the measures necessary? Is the test for cases way too sensitive? was immunity even partially built during the summer – how could it be built more?
Let the medics/experts who disagree with the narrative debate these things openly and then pamphlets like this will disappear or become so marginalised they wont matter..
This was a great laugh to read! It’s these type of conspiracy theories that have these nit wit anti maskers out on the streets protesting!
@Edel Quinn: You wont be laughing for long after you get your vaccination The question is will you do some real research or just go with the Journal’s spin. You really should.
Thanks for this article. Can you put it in a nice leaflet and send it out now please?
A little behind the curve with this article. There’s been various forms of this same leaflet doing the rounds for a few months. Unfortunately some people are starting to believe this nonsense because they’re disillusioned with what has happened.
If some of these lies had been debunked publicly earlier they might not have gotten any traction but sadly more and more people are getting swayed in their thinking.
have your say