'Like a natural disaster had hit': Venezuela's crisis is spilling over its borders — here's what it's like at ground zero of the exodus

Protracted political, social, and economic crises in Venezuela have sparked a mass movement of people. Venezuelans have fled throughout the region and around the world, as far afield as Chile, Spain, and various points in between.

But Colombia, which shares a 1,400-mile border with Venezuela, has become a focal point for their migration. One border town in particular, Cucuta, has borne the brunt.

Adam Isacson, the director for defense oversight at the Washington Office in Latin America, spent February in Colombia, stopping in the departments of Norte de Santander and Arauca on the eastern border and Putumayo on the southern frontier. While there, he visited Cucuta.

In the interview below, edited for length and clarity, he revealed what he saw at the front line of Venezuela's exodus.

"I just didn't expect it to look exactly like the most alarmist news reporting, but it did."

Christopher Woody: The situation on the ground in Cucuta sounded pretty serious from what you wrote about it. What were your impressions from being there?

"They need something. They're way overwhelmed."

Woody: At a recent event in New York City, Colombia's consul general said of the influx of Venezuelans, "It's an ongoing crisis at the moment, so I don't have a happy ending, but still, we're working on it." It seemed like they're just trying to catch up.

The statistic is 25,000 ER visits last year, up from like 1,500 in 2015 — that just comes out of the Health Ministry budget. There's no emergency fund, and if they've made a concrete request to international donors, I haven't heard about it yet.

[Joseph McManus, Trump's pick for US ambassador to Colombia] in his hearing last week said there are a lot of discussions right now inside State and AID, but I don't think the Colombians have specified what they need yet. But they need something. They're way overwhelmed.

"That makes a lot of ... the poorest 10% to 20% very angry at the Venezuelans."

Woody: Colombia's consul general also mentioned what seemed like to be a pretty severe backlash developing among Colombians, because, like you said, it's straining a lot of their resources. In your time there, did you get sense that was the attitude among Colombians?

Isacson:

"A lot of people just kind of get stuck in Cucuta."

Woody: There seems to be a transitory nature to the movement of some Venezuelans. A lot of them are coming over for a day or a few days, or that those border areas are just a stopping point where they head on to elsewhere in Colombia or to another country. Did you get a sense of that?

Isacson:

"They were describing it like a natural disaster had hit."

Woody:

'Like a natural disaster had hit': Venezuela's crisis is spilling over its borders — here's what it's like at ground zero of the exodus

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