Venezuela’s Refugee Crisis: why don’t we care?

Under the soft orange glow of a street light in the guerrilla controlled town of Arauca, Northern Colombia, animal like silhouettes sit in puddles of water on the broken pavements. A frenzied rustling of rubbish bags, sees further shadows emerge from nearby alleyways to join them. Venezuelan families are feeding. Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro feasts on steak dinners in exclusive restaurants while families in Venezuela eat from bins to survive. Communications minister Jorge Rodriguez’s comment in Ecuadorian newspaper El Comercio that “there is no humanitarian crisis in Venezuela, it’s false and it’s rubbish” shows the delusional rhetoric of a government in denial. More…