Venezuela vs. Colombia: The Battle Over Emigrés

Fredys Villanueva has abandoned his native Colombia for neighboring Venezuela. But he’s not quite like the hundreds of thousands of Colombians who have fled their country’s bloody 44-year civil war for the safety of the land of Hugo Chávez. Instead, he’s like the 2 million or more Colombians who have moved to Venezuela because it offers greater employment opportunities and a more secure social-safety network. Perched on a sofa on the porch of his home in El Aguacate, a barrio outside Caracas, Villanueva is more than happy to be caught in the ideological wrestling match between South America’s most polarizing rivals: leftist Chávez and conservative Colombian President Alvaro Uribe.

After going to Venezuela from Barranquilla, Colombia, in 2003, Villanueva, 55, found steady work with decent pay at an aluminum factory, a job that came with a free house and other benefits. “There’s a health clinic over there,” he says, pointing down a dusty road lined with haphazardly constructed brick houses. “The Cuban modules are nearby too,” he adds, referring to the free clinics, started by Chávez, that use Cuban doctors in poor neighborhoods. “They give me free pills for my hypertension."… more

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