Venezuela’s Troubles Impact Neighbors

As Venezuela’s financial crisis continues, its starving refugees continue to migrate to surrounding nations. In five years, more than two million Venezuelans have left their homes in search of food, hope, and jobs (The Guardian, December 24, 2018). Nearly 100,000 of these refugees have gone to Brazil and more are expected, prompting the Brazilian government to threaten pulling out of the UN migration pact that is forcing the nation to accept refugees from Venezuela.

Crime and violence levels within Venezuela have reached epic levels, and the large influx of migrants into neighboring countries is bringing the same troubles to those nations. Venezuela, once the wealthiest nation in South America, now has a currency that is virtually worthless. In the border towns of neighboring nations, men and women are selling their bodies, and women are selling their hair and breast milk in order to finance their exodus from Venezuela (Fox News, December 22, 3018). A recent survey of Venezuelan hospitals reported that “more than 95 percent of CAT and MRI machines [are] inoperative… 43 percent of laboratories are out of order, 33 percent of beds are broken, and 51 percent of hospitals are gravely short of emergency supplies.” There is also a resurgence of diseases eradicated decades ago and an explosion of infections that are untreatable due to shortages of medicines, pressing desperate Venezuelans to go searching for work and charity in neighboring countries.

The Bible reveals, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death” (Proverbs 14:12). Sadly, the leaders of Venezuela do not seem to be turning to God and His word for answers to its crisis. As the Bible declares, “When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; but when a wicked man rules, the people groan” (Proverbs 29:2). Venezuela is just one more example of mankind’s broader need for righteous and caring leadership—something that Jesus Christ will establish when He returns to the earth. In the meantime, people moved by the suffering in that nation will earnestly pray, “Thy kingdom come” (Matthew 6:10 KJV). To learn more about the peaceful world that is coming, read or listen to “Global Utopia: An Impossible Dream?”