Venezuelan families asserted that as long as the entire Chavista regime and Nicolás Maduro remain in power, everything will be “a circus,” and under those conditions, they will not return to their country. They indicated that if things don’t change for the better, hunger, unemployment, and organized crime will persist.
Don Gregory Malave arrived in Mexico in February 2024 and settled in the Isthmus municipality of San Pedro Tapanatepec in April of that same year, along with his wife Tamara and their four children, ages 17, 15, 11, and 10. “I’ve done all sorts of jobs, in agriculture and as a construction worker,” he revealed.
Yesterday, he said, “I spoke with some of my relatives, and they mentioned that the Trump administration wants to keep the Rodríguez siblings in power, including Delcy, who was appointed interim president, and the Chavista, Diosdado Cabello.”
“This looks like a circus, and if all the Chavistas and Maduro supporters don’t leave, there won’t be any conditions for those of us who left Venezuela to return. We don’t want to go back and face death threats from the mafia and government persecution,” she said.
In Venezuela, she recalled, there’s a starvation economy. A teacher, for example, earns $20 a month, something like 400 Mexican pesos. The pay is meager, and many people just hold out their hands hoping the government will give them a small bag of rice. That’s why we left the country, she explained.
Marialys Pérez has also been living in San Pedro Tapanatepec for two years. She rents a small house with a patio where she started a car wash business, which has allowed her to earn some money, even enough to send to her three teenage children, who stayed with her brother.
In Venezuela, she had a small grocery store, she remembers, but when the economy collapsed, so did her sales. There, the pay is low, there’s no food, and if you’re poor, they’re even harder to sell medicine to. That’s why she left.
For now, she explained that she has no plans to return because her family has told her that Maduro was arrested, but Delcy Rodríguez took his place—the same people who impoverished Venezuelan families.
Rather than returning, she’s thinking about bringing her children to live in Mexico. She, along with about thirty other Venezuelan families, including Gregory’s, will go to Salina Cruz tomorrow, Monday, to continue their application process for refugee status.
The more than 30 Venezuelan families who have been living in San Pedro Tapanatepec for two years were evaluated last November by the Mexican Commission for Refugee Assistance (COMAR) and are awaiting a decision.
Source: oaxaca.eluniversal
