While some craft bags out of worthless bolivars - Venezuelan currency - to sell at markets, others look to a virtual land of opportunity, spending hours in front of computer screens and mobile phones hunting green dragons in the online multiplayer role-playing game RuneScape. Those who remain in the country have been forced to find innovative ways to survive. In November 2019, the number of Venezuelan refugees and migrants reached 3 million. Ninety percent of Venezuelans are now living in poverty, and one of the most extreme and sustained periods of hyperinflation ever recorded means that people working minimum wage jobs are earning the equivalent of $5 a month.Īgainst this cataclysmic economic and societal backdrop, millions of people have fled the country in search of better lives, with many more desperately trying to find their own means of escape. What started as the gradual crumbling of the country’s economy in 2010 snowballed into a devastating avalanche of crime, corruption, and mass starvation, leaving millions of people in the country unable to feed themselves or access basic medical supplies.
Venezuela used to be one of the richest countries in South America, but it has spent the last 10 years engulfed in a political and economic crisis.
