With violence and repression in Venezuela increasing as the fraudulent elections fallout continues, the elephant in the room for many Venezuelans looms large— should we leave the country? Hundreds of thousands of citizens are considering it.
A new study by the Venezuelan polling firm Meganalisis surveyed 1,007 people in the country between Aug. 8-11. Their study showed that 43% of respondents are currently considering fleeing their homes.
This time around, with discussions between President Nicolas Maduro's regime and the opposition seeming reaching a stalemate, the Meganalisis suggests mass migration could happen quickly. They argue that about 600,000 people are considering leaving before the middle of next month, with an additional 930,000 weighing in to do so between October and December.
If these numbers materialize, it would bring the figures to around 10.4 million to what's already the biggest external displacement in the Western Hemisphere, according to the Miami Herald. About 7.7 million Venezuelans have left their country over the past decade.
Hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans have already made their way up north to the U.S.-Mexico border in an attempt to enter the U.S. So much so, that the Biden administration has tried tackling the issue by meeting with Mexico to crack down on the trend, as well as place an executive action that shuts down the border once a daily threshold is met.
A new large exodus of Venezuelans would likely exacerbate political tensions in the U.S., where migration is at the front and center of the upcoming presidential election in November.
But the U.S. is not the only country trying to deal with immigration. For instance, Colombia currently houses almost three million Venezuelans.
As persecution of opposition followers continues in Venezuela, Ruben Chirinos, president of Meganalisis, said that Venezuelans who say they are considering leaving the country in the next four weeks have pretty much made up their minds.
"Right at this moment, we have about 100,000 people saying they are planning to leave right now. Those have already made up their minds," Chirinos told the Miami Herald in a telephone interview. "Those that say they are considering doing it in a couple of months might be because they know they have to first work on the preparations, and those who say they are considering leaving next year is probably because they are leaning towards doing it but are still dealing with doubts."
Tensions in the South American country began when the opposition claimed its candidate and retired diplomat Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia beat Maduro in the general elections on July 28 by a margin of 65% to 30%. The group has been able to provide the official election tallies from 80% of the voting stations and the tallies have been independently verified by reputable sources like The Associated Press.
The regime, on the other hand, claims Maduro won the contest against Gonzalez with close to 52% of the vote, but they have been unable to provide any sort of proof for their claims despite repeated calls from the international community to do so.
Meganalisis' survey showed that 93% of Venezuelans don't believe Maduro won the election. Similarly, 70% of respondents said they are angry at the state of affairs in Venezuela, while at times also experiencing helplessness (59%), indignation (59%) and anxiety (48%).
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