Number of undocumented Venezuelans in the USA growing fast

VHeadline.com news editor, Patrick J. O'Donoghue writes: According to a Reuters report published in El Universal, 160,000 Venezuelans are living illegally in the USA.

Reporting from Miami, Reuters says that the increase in the number of Venezuelans seeking asylum in the USA is provoking some parallels with what happened to Cubans at the beginning of the 60s.

In 1998, when Chavez was elected, 14 Venezuelans sought asylum in the USA, reaching 1,086 by September 30 in the following year.
Venezuelans living in Florida say more people have been coming to the USA after Chavez started talking about 21st century Socialism.

John Hopkins University American Latin American studies director, Riordan Roet is quoted as saying that the middle classes and those who took part in the old Venezuela have legitimate concerns about their future and in some cases, their security, as the regime hardens and the State moves towards economic and social spheres.

Venezuela is in 11th place in the USA's asylum league behind Colombia and Haiti but more Venezuelans have received asylum compared to applicants living in conflict regions such as Iraq.

Cuban exiles that dominate many aspects of life in Florida have been actively supporting Venezuelans opposing Chavez.

The article also resorts to statements from none other than a fugitive leader of the 2002-2003 coup and economic stoppage against the government, Carlos Fernandez, who says that nobody would want to uproot to another country, if he feels okay in his own country.

Fernandez himself emigrated to Venezuela from Galicia, Spain and preferred to flee to Miami rather than return to his country of origin.

Former oil industry manager, Horacio Medina, who led the oil industry strike in 2002 that cost Venezuela millions of dollars, is in Miami having escaped from Venezuela to avoid an arrest warrant.

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