Diáspora Bolivariana: a fresh look at the political and civil unrest in South America from the eyes of a traveler
Tyler "Woody" Wood spent ten years as a professional adventure guide taking tourists on extreme trips around the world. From teaching snowboarding in Summit County, Colorado, leading excursions in the bush of Australia, kayak expeditions on the Franz Josef glacier in New Zealand, to cross-country road trips in the States, hiking in the Canadian Rockies and leading groups up active volcanoes in Guatemala.
Tyler Wood on el Volcán Acatenango near Antigua, Guatemala
All of this was preparing him for his biggest journey yet. In October of 2018, Woody embarked on a self-propelled trip from his home town of West Lafayette, Indiana to the bottom of Patagonia in South America using a kayak, sail boat, a bicycle and a little hitchhiking along the way.
But something was different about this adventure that set it apart from the rest. When Woody entered South America, he encountered an innumerable amount humbling human experiences with those working to make a better life for them and their family. Experiences that stick with him to this day.
Throughout his trip, Woody helped refugees in Colombia, got tear gassed while maneuvering though the riots of Chile and heard horror stories of political protesters “hunted and killed like deer” in Nicaragua.
(left) A map of Woody’s intended route on his adventure to travel from Indiana to the bottom of the Americas
The beauty in humanity
Through all of the political and civil unrest, Woody says he still discovered the “beauty of humanity, first hand.” Even with all of the problems going on in the region, many people were willing to go the extra mile to help out a stranger.
“The first day I left Cartagena (Colombia) was a big one. The start of my slow ascent into the Colombian Andes. The biggest hills I’d ever ridden a bike up, that’s for sure! I was to be slowly gaining altitude for the next week to fully reach the top,” Woody said.
“When I stopped for lunch at a roadside restaurant, a guest pointed out my flat tire. By this point I’d already gotten over 20 flats. Flats became a way of life. I started repairing my bike and a hippy looking man in his 50s with long, thin, white hair, a beer belly and contagious smile appeared. His name was Poncho Geraldino, and he became my hero after finding a tiny piece of metal in my tire.”
After sharing a Coca-Cola together, Woody said the man invited him to stay in his home for the night. There, he met Poncho’s wife and son, as well as his cousin, Marta, who had fled Venezuela.
Tyler and Poncho
“Marta tried her best to explain that the living conditions in Colombia were not like what she was used to,” Woody said. “She explained that in Venezuela she had a nice house with air conditioning and the works. Unfortunately, Poncho’s place had none of this. It just had a roof overhead and walls to block the wind. The running water didn’t seem to be working; so bucket showers and pouring water in the toilet to flush was just…… how it was.”
If the living conditions were better in Venezuela, why did so many flee the country to live in Colombia and other South American countries?
“The running water didn’t seem to be working; so bucket showers and pouring water in the toilet to flush was just…… how it was.”
When Hugo Chávez was elected President of Venezuela in 1998, he promised to “break the country’s elite and redistribute wealth to the poor”. This was done by seizing private assets, including natural resource mining and oil operations and farms. It drove many of the upper and middle class Venezuelans out of the country creating, what demographers call, “the first diaspora“. It created a “brain drain”, or a loss of the country’s highly skilled and educated citizens.
Presidents Hugo Chávez (left) and Nicolás Maduro
According to the Central University of Venezuela, over 1.5 million Venezuelans (6% of the population) fled the country during President Chávez’s tenure alone. When Nicolás Maduro was hand-picked to succeed Chávez as president, those numbers continued to soar.
The UN Refugee Agency estimates that over 4 million (13% of the population) have left Venezuela since 1999, and the end of 2020 will likely see the number eclipse 6 million.
Venezuelans seeking asylum from 2014 to March 2018 (from International Crisis Group)
Aiding Venezuelans in Colombia by bicycle
“On the outskirts of town I noticed people walking alongside the open road with backpacks. Nothing far from expected, but later I began seeing people with kids marching down the highway exposed to the blazing sun for miles,” Woody said.
“I’d read a bit previously about the masses of fleeing Venezuelans, but experiencing this first-hand was something else. The number of refugees increased daily until I passed dozens of families a day. Sometimes 100+ Venezuelans fleeing their homeland in search of something… anything.”
Woody decided that he would do what he always does when he sees something wrong. He was going to help. With many already following his trip on social media, Woody wrote online posts about the stories of people in Colombia he came across and then invited donations through PayPal that would go straight to the refugees he saw walking through the sun each day.
“Hundreds of dollars poured in!” Woody said.
“I assumed the duty of riding up to these people on my bike to hand them money. All they needed to do in return was snap a selfie with me. I was like a hairy guardian angel. I helped everyone: solo guys to groups of 15, young punks to hardworking middle-aged families. I loved seeing the look on their faces when I whipped out the big Colombian notes. Priceless. The joy. The gratitude. The camaraderie.”
Despite the good times handing out money to refugees, Woody notes that it was not always smiles and selfies.
“There were, and still are, miserable people out there. I’m talking starving and desperate. I approached some very sad people, and let’s be honest, $20 was not going to solve their problems.”
There are approximately 1.5 million Venezuelans currently living in Colombia. A large percentage of them work informally. Many of the migrants have lost their jobs with the developments of the COVID-19 virus. With thousands already living on the streets of Colombia, an unknown number are set to walk back to their native Venezuela despite the border being closed.
A group of migrants making their way to Ecuador for work
“I was like a hairy guardian angel”
Woody was not going to let the negativity bring down his spirits nor his willingness to help. Before he left Colombia he extracted 650 000 pesos from an ATM. That equivalent of a few hundred U.S. dollars had to go by the time he crossed the Ecuadorian border the next day.
“I gave a family pushing their kid in a stroller 100 000 pesos. They had two other very young children too, so I gave them some chocolate covered peanuts I had,” Woody said. “They had another family member pushing the luggage up front. This was a giant uphill slope, and all of them were working hard. I gave him 50 000 pesos. With all of the young ones, they deserved it.”
Even though Woody tried finding families to give to the most often, he still stopped to make sure those traveling alone had enough to eat.
“I came across these bros that were way too skinny, so I made sure they had enough for a few good lunches each,” Woody said.
After emptying his wallet and riding dozens of miles through the Colombian Andes, Woody saw four Venezuelans walking the opposite way from Ecuador. This meant they had been turned away from the border.
“I continued slowly past with my head down; fully aware of their heavy stares full of despair,” Woody said. “I’d convinced myself previously that I didn’t have any money to spare….then a man spoke up asking for money…’shit,’ I thought. I kept my head down, but that is when their desperation manifested. The guy began begging, weeping, yelling for just enough for an Arepa. (An arepa is a Colombian staple, kind of a corn pancake.) At around 25 cents each, they’re some of the cheapest food you can get your hands on. He began angrily screaming ‘Arepa!! Solo un arepa!'”
” I couldn’t take it,” Woody wrote. “The situation was so real for them. I felt it hard in my heart. I emptied my change and barely gave enough for just one arepa. Not giving them more is a huge regret. I COULD have given them more. Sacrificed more. But they needed it more. Crazy how you can help hundreds of people, but this one time I couldn’t sticks in my memory the finest.”
Unfortunately, this is a reality for many Venezuelans looking for a better life for themselves and their family. To compare to the 6 million displaced Venezuelans number from earlier, Bloomberg says that “6 million was, at this time, the number of refugees from the Syrian Civil War, which started years before the recorded Venezuelan crisis and was considered the worst humanitarian disaster in the world at the time.”
The crisis, which the Venezuelan government denies existing, has only received 1.5% of the aid as Syrian refugees during the civil war.
Infographic by the Wilson Center Latin American Program
Colombia and Ecuador are not the only places Venezuelans turned to. Going all the way back to 2002, after the failed coup d’etat against President Maduro, the U.S. Embassy in Caracas expressed their concern with the vast number of Venezuelans attempting to enter the United States.
By now there have been over 300,000 asylum seekers from Venezuela who entered the United States. That number is matched in countries like Chile and Ecuador, and places like Peru have seen nearly three times that amount of Venezuelan migrants come to their country.
The diaspora of Venezuelans throughout South and Central America continues to climb. With the addition of COVID-19 to the situation, refugees and migrant workers are being put in an even more desperate situation. Many have nowhere to go, yet continue to set out on foot or hitchhike their way to a place they can create a better life for themselves and their families.
Venezuelan refugees hitching a ride in southern Colombia
writer’s note: I have been good friends with Tyler for over 15 years. I am happy to report that he ended his trip less than 100 miles from the finish line in Patagonia once he heard how bad the Corona Virus situation has gotten. At the time of this article, he has safely made his way back home to West Lafayette where he quarantined for two weeks in a basement while helping his mother with labor around the property.
