MEXICO CITY (AP) — Simply days earlier than Mexico started requiring visas for Venezuelan guests in an try to sluggish their migration to the U.S. border, Mayerlin Mayor left her native Maracaibo together with her 7-year-old daughter Victoria.
The 36-year-old faculty instructor dwelling together with her dad and mom may not make ends meet within the face of triple-digit inflation. They traveled by bus from the western Venezuela oilfields to Medellin within the mountains of Colombia, the place they boarded a flight to Mexico.
On Tuesday, mom and daughter tried to ford the Rio Grande to Del Rio, Texas, with different migrants and smugglers. Victoria Lugo Mayor was swept away by the present, her physique recovered later by Mexican authorities. Her mom made it throughout and was detained by U.S. Border Patrol.
“It’s very painful.... It’s a strong blow to the household,” Guillermo Castillo, Victoria’s uncle, mentioned by cellphone from Venezuela.
Mexico introduced this month it might impose the visa requirement on Venezuela starting Friday, based mostly on a tenfold improve within the variety of Venezuelan residents arriving in Mexico lately in search of to journey “in an irregular method to a 3rd nation,” a transparent reference to the US.
Final 12 months, U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration provided non permanent authorized residency to a number of hundred thousand Venezuelans who've fled their nation’s financial and political disaster, however has leaned on Mexico to assist sluggish the circulation of migrants to the shared border.
On Dec. 11, Mexico suspended a 17-year-old program that had allowed Brazilian residents to enter with no visa. The transfer got here after Mexico detected an uptick in Brazilian migrants touring to Mexico with the intention of reaching the US.
“This case of the woman lays naked the drama that Venezuelans who're compelled to depart our nation live by,” mentioned Carlos Vecchio, diplomatic consultant of Venezuela’s opposition chief Juan Guaidó in Washington. “The painful factor is that the tragedy can be so nice that they're able to risking their lives.” He famous that some 80,000 Venezuelans entered the U.S. illegally final 12 months, greater than six instances as many because the earlier 12 months.
The United Nations has estimated that greater than 6 million Venezuelans have left the nation lately, greater than 10% of the inhabitants. The Venezuelan economic system has cratered underneath the administration of President Nicolás Maduro.
However Vecchio doubted Mexico’s visa requirement would cease Venezuelans from utilizing Mexico as a bridge to the US. Till the basis of the issue — the nation’s financial, political and social crises — is handled “there is not going to be a technique to cease the exodus.”
Mayor was launched by Border Patrol with a discover to seem in courtroom. She was assisted by a neighborhood humanitarian group in Del Rio. Vecchio’s workplace was working with U.S. and Mexican authorities to convey Victoria’s physique to the US.
Castillo, Victoria’s uncle, mentioned that Mayor may not elevate her daughter in Maracaibo, the place the collapse of the oil trade has led to power shortages of gasoline and failures of the water system.
“It's important to attempt to go away and provides a chance to the youngsters as a result of right here sadly, right here there isn't a future,” mentioned Castillo, who works as kitchen assistance on an oil barge.
Mayor’s sister, Mayibeth Mayor, advised native information website El Pitazo, that her sister and niece left Jan. 13, every week after Mexico introduced that the visa requirement would start Jan. 21.
Castillo mentioned he didn't know the way a lot Mayor spent for the journey, however knew it was a lot that nobody else from the household may accompany her. “There isn’t the cash proper now as a result of what you will get is to considerably eat,” he mentioned.
Within the Mexican border metropolis of Ciudad Acuña this week, earlier than crossing the Rio Grande, Mayor despatched a photograph of herself and Victoria, wearing a pink jacket and denims, to her household.
“She was the enjoyment of the home,” Castillo mentioned.
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Torrens reported from New York Metropolis.