Click to agree to our updated Privacy Policy and Use of Cookies. BOGOTA — As the new year gets underway, Colombia is struggling as never before to cope with the rush of Venezuelans who have entered the country in recent years to escape dismal economic conditions at home. In nearby Bucaramanga , people are up in arms over reports that a Venezuelan stabbed a Colombian resident who was distributing food.
In Bogota, the capital, three Venezuelans were arrested as suspects in an assault on the Transmilenio bus system. And in the southern town of Ipiales, authorities have counted 32, Venezuelans wanting to cross into Ecuador. These are just some of the consequences of the arrival, in recent years, of more than half-a-million Venezuelans.
More than , of those newcomers, according to government figures, are undocumented. Others put the figures far higher, with some organization saying there may be more than 2 million Venezuelans in Colombia.
Four decades ago, paradoxically, the opposite scenario occurred, as thousands of Colombians entered Venezuela to seek a better life in the oil-rich neighbor country. At the time, Venezuela issued Decree 31 of , part of its Fifth National Plan, ordering equal treatment and fitting social and work conditions for Colombians.
Many of those Colombians are now coming back. Born into a large family, she was just 14 when she went to Venezuela in There she did all types of work before landing a job as a civil servant. Later she became a municipal councilwoman in Chacao, a district of Greater Caracas. But I had the option of doing other things," she says. Working through the same Foundation, she's now trying to assist Venezuelans in Colombia.
