A Venezuelan Migrant's Long, Harrowing Path to Work in Denver

"I saw they had a good future," Alvarado remembers. "It was very lucrative, because the salary of an official was three times the salary of a normal person." He became a police officer in 2003, when he was twenty years old. At the time, Venezuela was ruled by Huge Chavez; Alvarado remembers that Chavez's socialist policies kept individuals from owning two cars but welcomed large American oil and aeronautic companies. In 2013, Chavez died and was replaced by Nicolas Maduro. Alvarado says that right away, the change in leadership began...