Migration to U.S. empties Venezuela's once-booming oil capital
Posted on AllSides December 26th, 2021
From The Center
REUTERS/Leonardo Fernandez Viloria
It took accountant Anibal Pirela six days of travel and $7,000 to reach Austin, Texas from Maracaibo, the capital of Venezuela's once-flourishing western oil state of Zulia.
Pirela traveled with his four-year-old son Daniel, joining a flood of emigrants emptying neighborhoods in Zulia, the top departure point for Venezuelans leaving their crisis-striken homeland.
"The people I know who have left the country are almost too many to count," Pirela, 48, said from his new home in Austin.
The number of Venezuelans detained by U.S. authorities on the southern border soared...
