MEXICO CITY — Yenny Morales, 33, left her native Venezuela because she felt she had no other option. Her 9-year-old son has a mental health disability and in a country where 80% of people live in poverty.he couldn’t afford to hire a specialist.
“I had to flee because my son couldn’t see a neurologist. The health of my children comes first,” said Morales, who has been waiting in Mexico for an appointment to request asylum in the United States.
From Sunday’s presidential election In Venezuela, where both current President Nicolás Maduro and the country’s main opposition coalition claimed victory, his concerns have been carried over to his family at home. “This is a fraud,” he said, referring to the widely criticized results. “And now that is what our families are fighting against.”
He said he had not heard from his family since Tuesday morning.
Morales, who lives in a makeshift camp in the heart of Mexico City, is among millions of Venezuelan immigrants increasingly anxious for their friends and family back home. After having traveled through Central America in search of a better life, they closely follow the Protests sparked by the announcement that Maduro He had won a third six-year term.
Sunday’s election was one of the most peaceful in the country’s recent memory, reflecting widespread hope that Venezuela can avoid bloodshed and end 25 years of single-party rule.
“I am very disappointed with what I am seeing,” said Gerardo Uzcategui, 56, who spent four years in Cali, Colombia, before beginning his journey to the United States.
The former police officer who oversaw the security of a government minister said his entire family has fled. He has a daughter in Argentina and a son in Mexico.
“We were happy around 3pm on Sunday, thinking there were going to be changes,” he said. “But 11 at night arrived and everything changed. “It is very, very hard for us.”
Falling oil prices, widespread shortages, and hyperinflation that exceeded 130,000% have caused social unrest and mass emigration in Venezuela, pushing more of 7.7 million people migrate in the last decade.
Morales’ phone is flooded with information about what is happening in his home country. She shared audio of a friend warning protesters to cover their faces, videos of children banging pots and pans, and a photo of a close friend who she claims was killed after the first day of protests.
The Venezuela-based human rights organization Foro Penal reported on Tuesday that 11 people, including two minors, had been murdered in election-related riots.
Herberto Lugo, 48, said he is relieved that his family in Venezuela is safe, as they live in the coastal city of Maracaibo, where the violent protests have not reached them. But that doesn’t change his opinion about Maduro’s tight control over Venezuela.
“We feel uncomfortable and we will not settle for what is happening in our country,” said Lugo, who believes that the opposition leader and former diplomat Edmundo González He was the clear winner of the elections. If he had the chance to return, he said, he would join the protests.
“People in Venezuela are fighting and we hope he leaves this week,” he said, referring to Maduro. “If he doesn’t leave this week, he’ll never leave.”
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This story originally appeared on ABCNews.go.com read the full story
