South Florida braces for influx of Venezuelan migrants amid election crisis
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Venezuelan National Guard members ride to a protest this week. Photo: Juan Calero/AFP via Getty Images
Advocacy groups in South Florida are closely monitoring the fallout from Venezuela's disputed election, hopeful that the Maduro regime will fall — but ready for a fresh influx of immigrants as the unrest stretches on.
Why it matters: Venezuelans have taken to the streets in recent days to protest the election results, a reality that some analysts say could worsen the country's crisis and push more people to leave.
- More than 40% of Venezuelans polled in the past few months said they'd consider emigrating if Maduro stayed in power.
- Nevertheless, advocates say hope is pushing people to keep fighting.
What they're saying: "Obviously, if [President Nicolás] Maduro stays in power, there's going to be a new exodus. That's a fact," Adelys Ferro, Venezuelan American Caucus executive director, told Axios Miami.
- But before diving into what that means for Miami and the United States, she noted, "it's important to emphasize that right now, nobody is leaving."
- "There's still so much hope that [the opposition] has evidence to prove that Maduro committed the biggest election fraud" in decades, she said.
Between the lines: Advocates are discussing the possibility of a Venezuelan exodus to Florida, Ana Sofia Peláez, executive director of Miami Freedom Project, told Axios.
- "It's been happening [because] we've seen such a large influx of migrants from [countries including] Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela" to the state in recent years, she said.
Catch up quick: On Monday, without sharing precise vote count data, Venezuelan electoral commission CNE certified Maduro as the winner over opposition candidate Edmundo González Urrutia.
- The CNE is run by members of the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), which has long been accused of election interference.
- PSUV's policies are widely known as Chavismo, after the late Hugo Chávez.
- The opposition says its monitors sent to voting sites to check the count saw tallies that indicated González Urrutia won.
What we're watching: Elected officials nationally and locally are pressuring the CNE to release voting results.
The bottom line: Despite the current "tense waiting game," organizations like Ferro's says they're ready to immediately start coordinating efforts with border organizations should the results remain.
- They also plan to launch social media campaigns to reach and educate Venezuelans trying to leave the country about what to expect when they reach a border.
- "I know first hand many families are considering [leaving] if nothing changes," she said. "But we know we have legal paths to bring them here and we are trying to educate Venezuelans about that."