How Latin America Is Responding to the Venezuelan Exodus

 

In recent years, more than 3 million Venezuelans have fled in response to the deepening political and economic crisis in their country, becoming one of the largest and fastest outflows anywhere in the world. More than 80 percent of these migrants and refugees have settled in other Latin American countries or in the Caribbean. For the most part, countries in the region have opened their doors to the Venezuelans, finding creative ways to incorporate them into local economies and societies by regularizing their status and giving them access to public services. Still, this generous welcome is being tested amid growing recognition these arrivals will be more than short-term guests.

In this webinar, Felipe Muñoz, Advisor to the President of Colombia for the Colombian-Venezuelan Border; Francisco Carrión Mena, Ambassador of Ecuador to the United States; and Frieda Roxana Del Águila Tuesta, Superintendent of Peru's Migration Agency—representatives from the governments of Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru, which are home to more than half of the Venezuelan migrants and refugees—discussed their countries' responses to the sudden arrival of hundreds of thousands of newcomers. Andrew Selee, MPI's President, and Feline Freier, Professor of political science at Universidad del Pacífico in Peru, talked on the broader trend across the region and the prospects for future policy responses.