{"id":29870,"date":"2020-09-14T10:37:49","date_gmt":"2020-09-14T15:37:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/panamaadvisoryinternationalgroup.com\/blog\/?p=29870"},"modified":"2020-09-14T10:37:49","modified_gmt":"2020-09-14T15:37:49","slug":"fleeing-chaos-venezuelans-flock-panama-struggle-find-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/panamaadvisoryinternationalgroup.com\/blog\/fleeing-chaos-venezuelans-flock-panama-struggle-find-work\/","title":{"rendered":"Fleeing chaos, Venezuelans flock to Panama but struggle to find work"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Nelson Diaz fries empanadas in his home kitchen to be delivered across Panama City. In Venezuela, he was a pharmacist, but in his new home country, food sales earn him just enough to pay rent and send a little to his mother back home. (Photo by Chloe Jones\/Cronkite Borderlands Project)<\/em><\/p>\n

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In Venezuela, Nelson Diaz worked as a pharmacist and lived in the suburbs in an \u201cAmerican-style\u201d house with a big backyard covered in lush grass.<\/p>\n

Now he shares a cramped, dimly lit home with his brother, sister-in-law, niece and nephew in a dangerous part of Panama City. Diaz, 27, makes $1,000 a month selling homemade empanadas to neighbors. His business enables him to send $100 each week to his mother; his greatest wish is to go home and \u201chug her for a month.\u201d<\/p>\n

Emmanuel Viloria and his wife, Edmily, both 27, left their young daughter behind with family when they immigrated to Panama four years ago. Seven days a week, Emmanuel darts through Panama City\u2019s busy streets on a motorcycle delivering food. His earnings provide for his daughter in Venezuela.<\/p>\n

Anibal Rey arrived in Panama on a tourist visa in 2014. He was 20 and had $5 in his pocket. In between working 12-hour shifts as a security guard and janitor, he found time to write songs and now works full time as a musician in the capital. The lyrics to his most recent song are about missing home: \u201cI miss your sun and your warmth \/ It\u2019s in my heart always.\u201d<\/p>\n

None of these immigrants had wanted to leave Venezuela.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe neither had the wish or the desire to leave the country,\u201d Diaz said. \u201cWe had it all (there).\u201d<\/p>\n

Except for a way to survive.<\/p>\n

Hyperinflation, dire shortages of food and medicine, rampant crime and the erratic rule of President Nicholas Maduro have driven out 5 million Venezuelans \u2013 over 85% of whom have left since 2015, according to IOM, the U.N. immigration agency.<\/p>\n

Diaz, Viloria, and Rey are part of the \u201cthird wave\u201d of Venezuelan migrants to Panama that started in the mid-2010s. They are younger and less affluent than those who came before them and have been received less hospitably by Panamanians.<\/p>\n

There are an estimated 150,000 Venezuelans in Panama, 50,000 of whom are undocumented, according to HIAS, a nonprofit founded in 1881 that aids and assists refugees across the globe. Nearly all the rest are noncitizens but have at least temporary legal residency. Many have difficulty finding jobs.<\/p>\n

Diaz\u2019s story \u2013 medical worker turned food laborer \u2013 is typical for immigrants who are trained professionals. By Panamanian law, 56 professions, including pharmacist, pilot, chemical engineer, economist, doctor, nurse and dentist, are reserved for citizens only.<\/p>\n

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A neighbor and co-worker yells to Emmanuel Viloria as they both prepare to leave home for a day of work delivering food on the streets of Panama City. Many of the delivery drivers for the Panama based food delivery company Appetito24 are, like Viloria, Venezuelan immigrants. (Photo by Chloe Jones\/Cronkite Borderlands Project)\u00a0Listen<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

To work legally in other jobs, immigrants must have legal residency and apply for work permits, which can be a lengthy and costly process. They often turn to the informal economy, working for cash and without benefits.<\/p>\n

Rey, who remains undocumented, makes his living playing live shows and writing songs for commercials. Diaz has a temporary work permit and earns all his money from selling his empanadas. Viloria works legally, albeit dangerously, delivering takeout on a motorcycle.<\/p>\n

\u2018Trying to feel like this is home\u2019<\/h2>\n

Appetito24, an app-based delivery service similar to Postmates, is a major employer of third wave Venezuelans living in Panama City, said Roberto Mera, Panama country director for HIAS.<\/p>\n

On an overcast Saturday afternoon in March, not far from the capital\u2019s main shopping mall and iconic skyscrapers, a group of motorcycle-delivery drivers in matching red shirts lean on their bikes and laugh like school boys. It\u2019s a slow hour.<\/p>\n

Viloria spends hours here awaiting dispatch. The 15 or so young men with him are bonded by a common plight. Most moved to Panama within the past five years, all are from Venezuela and all miss family left behind. At least once a month, they shoot pool at a local bar.<\/p>\n

The makeshift community helps, but homesickness weighs on them.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re trying to feel like this is home,\u201d Edmily Viloria said. \u201cWe want to bring our family.\u201d<\/p>\n

Delivery is a dangerous job. Many of Viloria\u2019s co-workers have died in traffic accidents, leaving their families with the decision of whether to pay $1,600 to repatriate their bodies to Venezuela. But the pay is decent. Drivers say they make about $300 a week \u2013 enough to pay the rent and send some back home.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Edmily Viloria helps her husband, Emmanuel Viloria, get ready for work in the basement apartment they share with one of his co-workers in Panama City. (Photo by Chloe Jones\/ Cronkite Borderlands Project)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Emmanuel Viloria and his fellow Appetito24 drivers await orders for dinner. The food delivery service is a major employer of Venezuelan immigrants in Panama. (Photo by Chloe Jones\/Cronkite Borderlands Project)\u00a0Listen<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The Vilorias live in a basement apartment off a busy street shaded by high-end high rises. They share the space, which is just a couple miles from where the Appetito24 group meets daily, with one of Emmanuel\u2019s co-workers.<\/p>\n

On a Thursday morning, Emmanuel brews coffee and dresses for work. It\u2019s a rare moment when he and Edmily are awake at home at the same time.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of us is always working,\u201d he said. Later that afternoon, Edmily started an all-night shift as a nightclub hostess.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a little depressing,\u201d she said, \u201cbecause in my country, I talked to my family, my daughter. We\u2019re alone here.\u201d<\/p>\n

The couple left their daughter, Emma, to live with her grandparents in Venezuela when she was 5. She\u2019s 9 now.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt feels bad, so we tried to get her to understand the situation,\u201d Edmily said. \u201cThe first year was difficult for her because she thought that we didn\u2019t want to bring her. But it was because I didn\u2019t have the papers to get her in with a visa, and she didn\u2019t have a passport.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beneath the couple\u2019s modest collection of jackets and shirts hanging near their bed is a white dresser adorned with stickers from the Disney movie \u201cMoana.\u201d All the clothes inside belong to Emma.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Edmily Viloria often reads from a printed prayer she dedicates to her daughter, Emma, who is still in Venezuela. One line reads: \u201cDifficult times are often our best teachers, and there is kindness in all situations.\u201d (Photo by Chloe Jones\/Cronkite Borderlands Project)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Edmily and Emmanuel Viloria’s only child, Emma, visited them in Panama for the first and only time in October 2019. Although there are no plans for a second visit, they keep some of her clothes in their apartment in the hope she can use them soon. (Photo by Chloe Jones\/Cronkite Borderlands Project)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Last October, during a break from school, Emma spent a couple weeks in Panama. It was her first time visiting her parents in their new country. A marker-decorated poster board they welcomed her with at the airport still hangs over their bed.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was good, sentimental, having my daughter here,\u201d Edmily said. \u201cIt already felt like home with dad, daughter and I. We were already better. Imagine if you had been raised far from your mother.\u201d<\/p>\n

They keep the clothes for the next time Emma comes, hoping it will be for longer. Emmanuel doesn\u2019t know where his future lies, but wherever he is, he said he wants to be \u201cwith my daughter, wife, all three of us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before Emmanuel hops onto his motorcycle and roars onto the streets of Panama City, he slips a black polyester sleeve onto his right forearm. Appetito24 drivers aren\u2019t allowed to show tattoos, and he needs to hide a big one: an outline of Venezuela filled in with its national colors.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m an immigrant from Venezuela.\u201d he said \u201cIt is a symbol so that when I\u2019m an old man, I can say, \u2018I got this tattoo when I left my country.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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On break during a night shift delivering food, Emmanuel Viloria shows off the tattoo he got just before leaving Venezuela. \u201cIt is a symbol so that when I\u2019m an old man, I can say \u2018I got this tattoo when I left my country,\u201d he says. (Photo by Chloe Jones\/Cronkite Borderlands Project)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Venephobia<\/h2>\n

One place Viloria occasionally picks up food to deliver is En la Fonda. Its owner, Poulett Morales, calls the restaurant \u201c100 percent Panamanian\u201d \u2013 no Venezualan dishes.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want Panama to go back to our roots, no fusion,\u201d Morales said. \u201cI think that\u2019s why this restaurant is famous. Because I preserved our roots.\u201d<\/p>\n

Morales isn\u2019t an outlier. Her philosophy echoes a nationalistic sentiment that\u2019s grown in recent years. In 2016, shortly following peak flows of third-wave Venezualan migrants, a political slogan appeared in Panamanian popular culture: \u201cPanama for Panamanians.\u201d<\/p>\n

One flyer prefaced the phrase with a reference to popular Venezualan dishes: \u201cNo more arepas or teque\u00f1os, Panama for Panamanians.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I want as a Panamanian is that if you come to work in Panama, to learn about our roots, not for you to put your roots on my country,\u201d Morales said. \u201cAnd I think that\u2019s how Panamanians feel.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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At the Panama City apartment she shares with her brother, parents and uncle, 8-year-old Antonella Diaz smiles and sings a song that reminds her of Venezuela, which the family left in 2019. (Photo by Chloe Jones\/Cronkite Borderlands Project)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Wendy Mow, a monitoring and evaluation specialist with HIAS, said Panamanian xenophobia is largely directed toward Venezuelans, earning it a special name: \u201cVenephobia.\u201d For her, it is irrational and perplexing that the same vitriol isn\u2019t directed toward migrants from other countries, such as Nicaragua and Colombia.<\/p>\n

On the streets in and around Panama City, Uber drivers offer a window into the state of Venephobia in the capital. Many say they have Veneuzelan friends, but others have more complicated perspectives, preferring the older business owners of the first waves to the younger laborers of the third.<\/p>\n

Uber driver Antonio Perez said he gets frustrated with Venezuelan passengers who go on about their home country and complain about their new one.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey talk about (Venezuela) as if it\u2019s the eighth wonder of the world,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He said he bites his tongue and resists retorting to maintain his 5-star rating, but it bothers him. Panama has seen immigration for years, he said, but Venezuelans are different.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have never had a problem with any other nationality,\u201d he said, \u201cbut Venezuelans do not have respect; they are too much for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Perez, the problem with accepting Venezuelans exists in Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and elsewhere in Latin America.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are not loved, no one wants them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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On the streets of Panama City, Uber drivers offer a glimpse into the general public\u2019s attitude toward Venezuelan immigration. Most are friendly, but Antonio Perez and others are more hostile. \u201cThey are not loved, no one wants them,\u201d he says of Venezuelans. (Photo by Chloe Jones\/Cronkite Borderlands Project)\u00a0Listen<\/span><\/p>\n

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According to Mow and a host of others in the city, the anti-Venezuelan sentiment is reflected in hostile social media posts and biased news reports. Although adults may be able to suppress their ill-will in public, their kids seem to be expressing it for them.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the concerns of HIAS is that (xenophobia) is affecting children,\u201d Mow said. \u201cChildren always say, \u2018Yeah, because my mom told me, because my dad told me, that the Venezuelans are here because they want to steal our jobs.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

After they fled Venezuela for Panama in 2019, Nelson Diaz and his brother were joined by his brother\u2019s wife and their two children, Antonella, 8, and Antoine, 10. To get to their room, the children climb a flimsy steel staircase. It spirals steeply as to not take up much of the main room\u2019s precious space, and it leads to a modest loft divided into two doorless rooms \u2013 one for the adults, the other for the children.<\/p>\n

They spend much of their time playing the video game Minecraft on the home\u2019s only TV. Antonella\u2019s bed sits next to a small barred window; it overlooks a street below that many travel websites deem too dangerous for tourists. She and her brother try to avoid the other kids of the neighborhood.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Antonella Diaz and her 10-year-old brother, Antoine, say all their new friends know they\u2019re from Venezuela. Antonella in particular has dealt with bullying, both at school and in her Panama City neighborhood. (Photo by Chloe Jones\/Cronkite Borderlands Project)\u00a0Listen<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Antonella Diaz ascends the rickety staircase to the room she shares with her brother. There, they spends hours playing video games. (Photo by Chloe Jones\/Cronkite Borderlands Project)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cThe (children) from outside bother me,\u201d Antonella said. \u201cThey say (to us), \u2018The one from the house is annoying, it is the Venezuelan who should get out of here.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Diaz said Antonella has come home with ripped shirts and stories of getting hurt by her classmates. Like any family dealing with bullying, he said, they try to teach the children not to pay any mind to the words, but they still leave a mark.<\/p>\n

Antonella is unequivocal when asked whether she likes Panama: \u201cNo.\u201d She says she misses her friends and the food in Venezuela and wants to move back.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn the street here in Panama, they have shouted, \u2018Go back to your shitty Venezuelan country!\u2019\u201d Diaz said. \u201cThey believe we came to steal their jobs, but we are willing to do any kind of work. Waiters, washing cars \u2013 there is a doctor that now washes cars.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Antonella Diaz plays in the courtyard area just outside her front door. She stays close to home to avoid teasing by neighborhood children. (Photo by Chloe Jones\/Cronkite Borderlands Project)\u00a0Listen<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Antoine Diaz plays soccer in front of his family’s home in Panama City. Police advise tourists that the neighborhood is too dangerous to walk through. (Photo by Chloe Jones\/Cronkite Borderlands Project)\u00a0Listen<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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In 2018, the dancehall reggaeton singer Mr. Saik stirred controversy with his hit \u201cLa Chama,\u201d which tells the tale of a female Venezuelan immigrant in Panama who was \u201csomeone famous\u201d in her former life. But she, like Diaz, resorts to selling arepas to get by in her new country \u2013 \u201ca delicious thing,\u201d the song says. But the food vending is widely seen as tongue in cheek metaphor: What she really is selling is sex.<\/p>\n

Diaz takes the song as a joke, but he said kids at school sing the song to Antonella and call her \u201cchama,\u201d comparing her to the girl in the song.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe does not understand that the song has a double meaning,\u201d Diaz said. \u201cWe understand that we are adults, they are not.\u201d<\/p>\n

Somos Lo Mismo<\/h2>\n

As Mr. Saik topped charts and shot music videos in private planes, Anibal Rey toiled in unglamorous obscurity. When he arrived in Panama, he worked 80-hour weeks as a janitor and security guard. It was, he said, \u201ca life of monotony, a life by inertia.\u201d In his precious moments off, he wrote songs on an acoustic guitar, drawing inspiration from John Mayer\u2019s melodies and Jim Morrison\u2019s lyrics.<\/p>\n

Rey, now 26, left Venezuela in 2014, just ahead of the bulk of the third wave. He\u2019s seen Panamanian hostility increase during his years in the capital, which he attributes in part to the growing number of Venezuelans still learning how to integrate into a new culture.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to adapt,\u201d he said of his countrymen. \u201cIf you come to my house, you have to go with my rules, and if I go to your house, I follow yours. Many Venezuelans did not know how to make that change of mind: \u2018I am in another country, I must behave, I have to accept to keep my mouth shut and not be critical.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

As Rey learned to be Panamanian, he gradually gained a following and now earns a living solely from music \u2013 supported by a fanbase he describes as 80% Panamanian and 20% Venezuelan. Although there sometimes is friction between the groups in general society, they come together over his music, Rey said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fans are people who know me, because they know that I am an artist and that I am Venezuelan,\u201d he said. \u201cEveryone is kept at peace, and they like what I do.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the same idea of harnessing the bonding power of music, UNHCR, the U.N.\u2019s refugee agency, organized a late 2019 concert as a part of its Somos Lo Mismo or \u201cwe are the same\u201d campaign.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Anibal Rey performs his newest song in the recording studio at a friend’s apartment in Panama City. The song speaks of missing the beaches in his native Venezuela. He estimates 80% of his fans are Panamanian and 20% are Venezuelan. (Photo by Chloe Jones\/Cronkite Borderlands Project)\u00a0Listen<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Anibal Rey performs at a Panama City bar, a dream since he arrived in Panama with $5 in his pocket. Achieving success, he says, \u201cor achieving it little by little, many Venezuelans say, \u2018Wow. If he could do it, I can, too.\u2019\u201d (Photo by Nicole Neri\/Cronkite Borderlands Project)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Anibal Rey plays at an event in Panama City. Two of his three bandmates are also from Venezuela. They earn a living from playing gigs in the city. Rey writes and performs his own songs. (Photo by Nicole Neri\/Cronkite Borderlands Project)\u00a0Listen<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The campaign was spearheaded by Angela Florez, who said it was born out of the unfortunate realization that \u201cPanama showed growing spurts of xenophobia and discrimination, particularly to Venezuelans.\u201d<\/p>\n

Like HIAS, Florez and her colleagues at UNHCR are particularly concerned with bullying in schools.<\/p>\n

\u201cDiscrimination is growing not because of their classmates, but because of principals or teachers or even the parents of their classmates,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Although school children aren\u2019t likely to attend night-time rock shows, their parents might be.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe rationale behind (the concert) was that music brings everyone together,\u201d Florez said.<\/p>\n

To headline the show, they chose Llevarte a Marte \u2013 in English, Take You to Mars \u2013 a popular Panamanian band whose sound is described by music writers as \u201cLatin fusion rock.\u201d Bassist Jairo Barboza welcomes the description, saying the band loves to draw inspiration from disparate styles and cultures.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a part of being Panamanian. It\u2019s a mix of races, cultures. There\u2019s no such thing as 100% pure Panamanian,\u201d Barboza said.<\/p>\n

This ethos is part of what attracted UNHCR to the band, Florez said.<\/p>\n

\u201c(Somo Lo Mismo) is about helping Panamanians remember their story, in that there are no Panamanians who do not have someone in their family line that was born somewhere else,\u201d she said. \u201cWe were a mix of cultures, and that\u2019s what makes this country so great.\u201d<\/p>\n

In tracing the recent xenophobia in Panama, the members in Llevarte a Marte singled out the prominent politician Zulay Rodr\u00edguez. After a failed presidential candidacy in 2019, she earned an influential place in the National Assembly and has introduced a set of nationalistic proposals.<\/p>\n

Venezuelans \u201ccome here to insult us, to slander us and to defame us,\u201d Rodr\u00edguez said in a TV interview in July 2019. \u201cThey say Panamanians are lazy and that our women are fat \u2026 when you are in a country, you respect the rules of the house.\u201d<\/p>\n

About the same time, she proposed a bill requiring radio stations to dedicate less airtime to foreign musicians and more to Panamanian artists. Although the legislation would have benefited Llevarte a Marte, the message behind it doesn\u2019t appeal to the band members.<\/p>\n

\u201cHonestly, it doesn\u2019t make sense,\u201d said lead vocalist David Lamboglia, adding that Panama always has been a country of immigrants \u2013 made better through foreign influence. He and his bandmates want to highlight the similarities among all people rather than their differences.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe message (of the concert) was we are all the same. Somo Lo Mismo: We\u2019re all the same. Regardless of the country, where we come from, or the status that we live in, we\u2019re all human beings,\u201d Lamboglia said.<\/p>\n

Barboza said that although news and social media and politicians can be polarizing, music brings people together.<\/p>\n

\u201cMusic supports people. Music is like a universal language,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Rey, the musician who left Venezuela in 2014, said his music not only brings people together, it inspires them \u2013 particularly those from Venezuela.<\/p>\n

All across Latin America, Venezuelans are in desperate situations. Rey said for those consumed with finding food or supporting family back home, the thought of achieving your deepest dreams can feel outlandish and naive.<\/p>\n

But despite the challenges of a crumbling society in Venezuela and becoming an immigrant, \u201cI always looked for what I wanted,\u201d Rey said. \u201cSo achieving it, or achieving it little by little, many Venezuelans say, \u2018Wow. If he could do it, I can, too,\u2019 both in Venezuela and here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rey is recording his most recent song, \u201cThe Roots,\u201d a sensual ode to his former home. He sings about missing the distinctive feeling of the Venezuelan wind and sun. His lyrics say it all: \u201cThe ocean here doesn\u2019t do it for me.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Nelson Diaz sits at his family’s plastic kitchen table, taking a break from cooking to sing a song about home, titled \u201cVenezuela.\u201d (Photo by Chloe Jones\/Cronkite Borderlands Project)\u00a0Listen<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u2018We miss everything\u2019<\/h2>\n

On an afternoon with a light delivery load, Nelson Diaz took a moment to sing a traditional tune many see as an unofficial national anthem of his home country. It\u2019s titled \u201cVenezuela.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI carry your light and your scent on my skin \u2026 I carry the foam of the sea in my blood and your horizon in my eyes,\u201d he sang. \u201cAnd if one day I am shipwrecked and a typhoon breaks my sails, bury my body near the sea in Venezuela.\u201d<\/p>\n

Antonella stood by him in the dining room, watching with wide eyes and clapping when he finished. When the 8-year-old thinks of Venezuela, she thinks of the food, her family, and the pretty beaches. But her uncle also remembers a more sinister place.<\/p>\n

Diaz said he was robbed more than 10 times, including twice in one day.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne with a knife, another with a gun,\u201d he recalled. \u201cThat was one of the moments where I messaged my brother and said I didn\u2019t want to stay. I wanted to leave the country because I felt my life was at risk.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to a 2019 study by the Mexico City-based advocacy group Citizen Council for Public Security and Criminal Justice, Caracas, Venezuela\u2019s capital, had the third highest murder rate of any city in the world in 2018.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had everything, and suddenly we had nothing,\u201d Diaz said, adding that his family would be home in Venezuela if they could return. \u201cWe miss our things, our culture, the air, everything.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Nelson Diaz displays his various credit cards and some cash from when he lived in Venezuela. The country\u2019s currency, the bolivar, has suffered from dramatic hyperinflation in recent years. The nearly 2,500 bolivars on this table today are worth less than 1 cent. (Photo by Chloe Jones\/Cronkite Borderlands Project)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Nelson Diaz video chats with a cousin, Karla Marmol, who moved to Canada after she was targeted by the Venezuelan government. Diaz says he uses WhatsApp to talk with family every day in Panama, Colombia, Chile, the United States, Canada and Venezuela. (Photo by Anthony Wallace\/Cronkite Borderlands Project)\u00a0Listen<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Home, though, is looking as bleak as ever. The International Monetary Fund projects Venezuela\u2019s gross domestic product for 2020 to be $62 billion. In 2014, it was $482 billion.<\/p>\n

In May 2019, the Central Bank of Venezuela released official data for the first time since 2015. It showed rates of inflation at 274% in 2016, 863% in 2017 and 130,060% in 2018. The IMF projects Venezuela\u2019s inflation rate for 2020 to slow to a still-staggering 15,000%.<\/p>\n

Venezuela\u2019s currency, the bolivar, has become effectively worthless.<\/p>\n

On his plastic dining room table, Diaz laid out a collection of credit cards and cash. Once worth more than $200, the 2,255 bolivars they represent are worth less than 1 U.S. cent.<\/p>\n

He said he\u2019s \u201cvery grateful to Panama for opening its doors\u201d to him and his family, but this is not his home.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo me, a home is where one feels welcome, where you\u2019re allowed to grow as a human being, as a professional, where you see a future in the short and long term,\u201d Diaz said. \u201cAnd I feel here in Panama, I will not achieve (my dreams) because there are many limitations where, as a foreigner, you can\u2019t get ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Nelson Diaz shows his Panamanian work permit, which he says cost him $1,500. Panamanian law reserves 56 professions for citizens, including pharmacist, Diaz\u2019s former job in Venezuela. Due to this restriction and others, many skilled immigrants in Panama work as laborers. (Photo by Chloe Jones\/Cronkite Borderlands Project)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

As COVID-19 began to sweep through Central America in March, the situation for migrants only worsened. As Panama went into lockdown, Diaz said, he wasn\u2019t able to deliver food, leaving him broke. When he pleaded with his landlord for leniency on rent, she told him, \u201cIt\u2019s your problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wendy Mow of HIAS said the Panamanian government has offered relief in the form of $80 per month in food, but few people \u2013 either citizens or noncitizens \u2013 are capable of jumping through the administrative hoops to get it.<\/p>\n

Diaz said he didn\u2019t even apply for it, thinking it was reserved for citizens.<\/p>\n

According to the Migration Policy Institute, Panama in 2017 became the first Latin American country to require visas for Venezualans to enter. To attain one, applicants must have two forms of ID and provide \u201cproof of economic solvency\u201d \u2013 meaning they have the equivalent of $500 USD in the bank.<\/p>\n

Despite such policies to discourage immigrants, an increasingly desperate situation in Venezuela continues to push them out. The increasing restrictions, Mow said, have resulted in more Venezualans traveling to Panama through the deadly jungle known as the Dari\u00e9n Gap.<\/p>\n

Food is like music<\/h2>\n

As an economic negotiator for the Venezuelan government in the early 2000s, Roberto Arias saw the country heading toward disaster far earlier than most. In 2006, he became a part of the first wave of migrants, leaving for Panama City to start a restaurant called Panader\u00eda Los Venezolanos.<\/p>\n

Arias said he had gone back to visit Caracas in recent years.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was not the city I used to live in,\u201d Arias said. \u201cIt was so different. The streets were empty, people\u2019s faces actually changed. The humor and the smile actually left their faces. I saw that and I thought \u2018God, I\u2019m glad I did what I did.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

He said his restaurant has become a hub for Venezulans in Panama City.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like the Ratatouille effect,\u201d he said. His Venezuelan customers tell him, \u201cyou transfer me to my childhood.\u201d<\/p>\n

He takes comfort in the fact that people from all places enjoy his arepas and empanadas: Panamanians, Americans, Argentinians, Canadians and Chinese alike. It brings them together.<\/p>\n

\u201cFood is like music,\u201d he said. \u201cFood is exactly like music.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Roberto Arias stands inside the Venezuelan restaurant he owns in the heart of Panama City. He left Venezuela in 2006, when, as a government negotiator, he noticed the country heading in a dangerous direction. His food, he said, has \u201cthe Ratatouille effect\u201d on immigrants who eat it, making them feel at home. (Photo by Chloe Jones\/Cronkite Borderlands Project)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
\n
<\/p>\n

Nelson Diaz mixes flour in preparation to fry a batch of empanadas. The secret is the right amount of salt, which he says he learned from his mother. (Photo by Chloe Jones\/Cronkite Borderlands Project)\u00a0Listen<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
<\/p>\n

Nelson Diaz fries empanadas based on his mother’s recipe. Diaz calls his business Marucha\u2019s House in her honor, and he sends her $100 a week. (Photo by Chloe Jones\/Cronkite Borderlands Project)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
<\/div>\n

Nelson Diaz, the former pharmacist, is used to cooking empanadas as if his life depends on it. When he was 2, his father died in a car accident. To keep the family afloat, he and his five older brothers went to work on the streets selling his mothers\u2019 fried turnovers. Now, his brothers are spread across the Americas: Panama, Colombia, Chile, United States and Canada. The last time they all were around the same table was 2012.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to live in Venezuela,\u201d Diaz said. \u201cThat is my country. I miss it, every day, every moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

His popular empanada business is called Marucha\u2019s House, named after his mother. He uses her secret recipe and sells them for $1 each.<\/p>\n

As the sun goes down on a typical Wednesday evening, Nelson finishes a fresh batch of empanadas and shouts to the children to come downstairs. The kids cram into the car with Diaz\u2019s best friend, Amanda. Deliveries are often a group activity.<\/p>\n

As they wind through the streets of Panama City, they blast Venezuelan songs of all styles, from all eras. They all know the words, even Antonella. The songs remind them of home.<\/p>\n

After the day\u2019s deliveries are made, in a quiet moment between uncle and niece, Diaz asked Antonella about the kids in the neighborhood who tease her, the ones who tell her she should go back to where she came from.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow do you feel when they say that?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cBad,\u201d she answered, and so Diaz reassured her.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut we have each other, right?\u201d he said. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter, we have to be proud to be Venezuelan.\u201d<\/p>\n

Source: Cronkite News<\/p>\n

Stay Safe!!<\/p>\n\n

\n

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    Nelson Diaz fries empanadas in his home kitchen to be delivered across Panama City. 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