The Venezuelan President’s Birther Problem

Over the past two weeks, the Venezuelan government has expelled 1,000 Colombian migrants back to their homeland, producing a flood of harrowing images. The exiles give heartbreaking accounts of families separated, personal belongings seized, and of wanton physical abuse. Venezuelan National Guardsmen have even taken to spray-painting the homes of the soon-to be-banished, marking their dwellings with an “R” for reviewed, or else a “D” for demolition. Nearly 5,000 other Colombians, hoping to salvage some of their property and avoid the brutal treatment befalling their compatriots, have fled preemptively, wading across the shallow river marking the porous border between the two countries with whatever possessions they can carry. The Colombian border city of Cúcuta, the regional epicenter of transit and trade, has struggled to handle this influx, housing refugees in makeshift tents set up in local schools and stadiums. More…