Venezuela Exports Its Crisis

Don’t bother looking for Pacaraima in your guide book. A pokey Brazilian town in the Amazon rainforest, it’s best known as the last trading post before the Venezuelan border. But thanks to Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and the disaster he’s made of South America’s fifth largest economy, some 30,000 Venezuelans have poured into Pacaraima since the beginning of the year. Officials in Brazil’s Roraima State report that Pacaraima’s population has swelled nearly threefold. Over half of patients seeking treatment in public hospitals in Pacaraima are Venezuelans. Petty robbery, prostitution and other street crimes are on the rise, with Venezuelans as victims and perpetrators. More…