Fleeing on Foot from a Country in Collapse

The poorest of those fleeing Venezuela do so on foot, facing a dangerous journey that lasts weeks.

Angel 19, from Caracas, was headed to Peru. He wanted to use my phone to text his girlfriend back home every hour. He spoke often of how hard the trek was and his love for her. (Photo: Joshua Collins)

Deivis, 50, from Valencia, fled Venezuela because “Every time the colectivos (paramilitary forces loyal to Maduro) kill an opposition member, the gangs from the opposition kill a colectivo. I have a family. I’m not getting involved with the protests anymore. It’s too dangerous.”

“I just want a better life”

José is 18, from Portueguesa. He grins big-mouthed smiles constantly, showing off his mouthful of green, plastic braces. He “shaves” with tweezers and a tiny mirror every morning and ironically jokes about how easy the trek is.

“This is nothing.” he says during a break in the shade on a particularly hard day. “I have so many blisters on my feet that I don’t even feel the road anymore. You girls done resting yet?”

4 million Venezuelans have fled their collapsing country. It is the biggest migration in South American history and on pace to surpass Syria as the biggest mass-movement of humans since WWII.

The main corridor of immigration runs from Cucuta, on the Venezuelan border in Colombia, to the capital, Bogota. Bogota is where the Venezuelan Diaspora begins.