Rich Venezuelans head to Florida

http://www2.wsvn.com/news/articles/local/MI41030/

Rich Venezuelans, alarmed by Chavez's socialism, head to Florida
DORAL, Fla. (AP) -- They call it "Plan B."

As Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez further tightens control of the South American country's economy, wealthy Venezuelans who once thought they could live with his socialist edicts are turning to their backup plan -- flight to the United States, particularly Florida.

Venezuelans have long gobbled up condos and pre-construction deals in Florida as investments, but the latest buyers want homes where they can live and business properties that will help them earn a green card.

"First the people who come are the businessmen in the highest circles, then the losing politicians, then the military and then the professionals," said Miami-based immigration attorney Oscar Levin. "You're beginning to see the (Venezuelan) professionals."

This latest and largest potential group of emigrants say they fear the effect Chavez's socialist policies will have on the economy and on proposed educational reforms that could mirror the ideologically imbued education of Chavez ally and mentor, Cuba's Fidel Castro.

"There is so much insecurity, political insecurity, economic insecurity," said Venezuelan Miguel Medina, a business executive who moved to the Miami in August. "You don't know if a contract you signed today will be honored by the government in the future....This was definitely my plan B, but it was time to do the plan B."

Between 2000 -- a year after Chavez took office -- and 2005, the number of Venezuelans living in the U.S. doubled to about 160,000, according to the latest U.S. Census numbers. Nearly half live in Florida.

But those numbers are deceptive.

In 2005, 10,645 Venezuelans received their green cards allowing them to live in the United States, almost doubling the 6,222 who received them in 2004, according to the latest Department of Homeland Security statistics. And another 400,000 Venezuelans came to the United States in 2005 on business and tourism visas. It is unclear how many stayed.

Colombia, with nearly twice Venezuela's roughly 27 million residents, sent the same number that year.

Anecdotal evidence suggests even more are seeking to come here since Chavez's recent nationalization of Venezuela's largest telecommunications company and the electricity sector. The Venezuelan Congress also recently gave him special powers to decree laws for 18 months, and Chavez is threatening to expropriate supermarkets, stores and other businesses caught hoarding food or speculating on prices.

Medina said six family members visited him in the last two months seeking ways to relocate to the U.S. Unlike previous cycles, those seeking to leave and bring their money to the U.S. now are coming from around Venezuela, not just from Caracas, said Medina, an account executive for the credit group ExpoCredit.

Meanwhile Ralph Gomez, who heads the Miami area Tower Investments group and has long specialized in real estate for South American clients, said he's received more than two dozen calls since the year began from people interested in coming to the U.S. Other agents report a similar spike.

Upper-class Venezuelans and their money flowed out of the country after Chavez was elected in 1998 and again when he quashed an unsuccessful coup against his government in 2002, but many professionals still hoped the climate would remain friendly to business. Then came the latest nationalizations. Chavez still pledges to maintain a business-friendly climate, and analysts say the government has paid fair market prices to nationalize the electric and phone companies.

Yet, with 17 percent inflation pushing the Bolivar to more than 4,000 per dollar on the black market, compared to the official rate of 2,150 Bolivars per dollar, many Venezuelans are looking to move their businesses to the U.S. or to set up a new one here.

Those who can afford it often opt for business visas that require a minimum of a $500,000 investment in a company that creates jobs in an underdeveloped area in the U.S.

About 33,000 Venezuelans received some kind of work visa to come to the U.S. in 2005 -- nearly a quarter of all such visas for South Americans -- compared to about 17,000 in 1999.

Those who come are received with open arms in Miami, where their money is welcome and the Cuban exile community views Chavez as the next Fidel Castro. As of 2004, Venezuelans tied with Germans and Canadians as the second biggest group of foreigners purchasing homes in Florida, according to the National Association of Realtors. Only the British bought more Florida homes.

But moving to the U.S., even for the wealthy, isn't simple. Medina moved his family to the Miami three years ago, but it took him until last summer to tie up financial ends, obtain a visa and a job in Florida.

"I would travel back and forth when I could," he said. "It was hard, but I know I am among the lucky ones."

And while Venezuelan emigrants cite the political and economic instability of the country as their main reasons for leaving, many also talk of rampant and random violence.

Marbelia Font, 47, and her husband landed in Miami in September from Caracas to close on a newly built investment property. They thought their two daughters would enjoy the brief vacation.

But when two friends were fatally shot back home in Venezuela, Marbelia and her 13- and 8-year-old daughters stayed. Her husband returned to Venezuela, hoping to earn a visa by moving his manufacturing and construction business to the U.S. Font said he has struggled to obtain necessary legal documents from the Chavez government.

She now lives in the half-furnished home they'd planned to rent in Doral, just west of Miami. It is decorated only with a picture of her husband and the girls. She and her daughters struggle with loneliness, and she is unable to work as she waits for the family's visas to come through.

"It is so hard because the girls were very close to their father, and now they only see him once every three months," she said.

Again, we have another horde of Latin Americans heading toward the US. Like the Cubans--who destroyed Miami and most of Florida--these people have no guts to stay and fight for their land and their freedom. It is more practical for them to come here and try to modify our laws, while holding on to their language, their flags, and their so propagandized culture that does not add to a heap of beans. If their culture was so great, and they loved it so much together with their land, they would stay and face any hardship to defend it, like the colonial Americans did. Their excuse is that they do not have the power to fight any powerful dictator. The Americans also had a powerful adversary, the whole English Crown, that had more men and power than these pygmies from Latin America; but they stood firm and won. Only God knows how much they suffered to achieve their goals and give us this great country. It is our duty to defend and protect it. Even coming here legally, the great majority of these new people have no love for us, for our language, our flag, our culture, and all the principles that we stand for. They only come here to take and no will--or very little--to give. Mexicans, Cubans, Brazilians, Venezuelans, Central or South Americans, Chineses, etc., hate and envy the US, and only want to see our destruction. They have no intention to integrate in their new life and country; they only want to remain what they are, enjoying the privileges of the country they did not build or love. I work daily with them, I know what I am talking about.

All illegal aliens must be arrested and deported, and legal immigration must be controlled. There is a limit for what we can absorb without becoming a land worse than the one they left behind. It is our duty to this sacred soil that so many died for.

Seems fighting for one's country is a job no foreigner wants to do!

I'm fed up with just about everything going on, billions $$ of our taxes going to foreign aid, funding illegals and giving new loans to foreigners with interest free for 10 yrs.

They come here, form little groups and demand we change laws for them...some come here and plea for America to fight their wars for them...like Chalibi from Iraq.

No, they have no allegiance to America, they want to use her! As well as the U.N. always wanting our tax dollars!

The elite decided America had too many good jobs, let's spread them around the world...they ripped them right out of our hands and we let them....the elite decided America had more money and demanded we give $$ to everything and every country!

Once all our jobs are gone, who will foreigners go to next? Who will bail them out....better yet, who will bail us out?

Would this also apply to Cubans under a dictatorial regime? Who would risk their own life but to lose it in bloodshed?

Roxas, the Colonial Americans did. And, because of their bloodshed we have this country today; including you. But courage is the privilege of some people, and many do not think their cause and country are worth to fight for.

When the s*** hits the fan, some run, some stay. Some are only good in packing bags; others are good in making a stand and fight; even if they lose their lives in the fight.

Yes some flee, like the Puritans, because of religious persecution, no? And so did the early Christians... some chose to be martyred while others fled and it was equally acceptable.