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Thursday, 28 March, 2024

Photo gallery | The Venezuelans walkers try again to reach Colombia on foot

El Pitazo made a tour of the road connecting San Cristobal to Junin, Capacho Nuevo, Capacho Viejo, and Bolivar towards the border and Colombia, finding along the way Venezuelans of all ages, walking from different parts of Venezuela, trying to leave the country.

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By Mariana Duque.

Some of them go shoeless in what will most likely be the longest walk of their lives. All of them have very little luggage, light clothes, and they look burned by the sun. Some carry children in their arms, in cars, or are walking at a slow pace. Some have tried to give their children away, knowing that they will not be able to make the trip.

You must read A mother offers to give away her 11-month-old baby as she walks to the border

Others are resting on the side of the road that connects San Cristobal to the municipalities of Junin, Capacho Nuevo, Capacho Viejo, and Bolivar. These are the so-called Caminantes, the Venezuelan walkers, coming from different parts of the country, men, and women who decided to migrate in search of a better quality of life.

With children on their shoulders, Venezuelans walk to leave the country: Photo by Carlos Eduardo Ramirez.

On Tuesday, October 27, El Pitazo made a tour of the roads that connect the capital of Tachira with the border municipalities that lead to Colombia. Walkers everywhere you looked. From newborn children, infants, adolescents, adults, and the elderly, some with crutches, canes, and even walkers with walkers, they travel through the mountains of the Andean land to achieve their goal.

From newborn children to the elderly can be seen on the border roads. Photo: Carlos Eduardo Ramirez.

In the pictures taken by Carlos Eduardo Ramirez for El Pitazo, one feature is prominent: the backpack. The school bag with the colors of the Venezuelan flag is the top tool for walkers leaving the country. It was for kids in school, but now, kids and parents are loading the backpacks with their scarce possessions and undertaking a pilgrimage towards the border and an uncertain future.

Several members of a family walking along the roads of the border municipalities. Photo: Carlos Eduardo Ramirez.
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Others used tied-up sheets as bags. Many carry children in their arms or cars. Now, in 2020, migrating is no longer an affair involving a single individual or a couple: whole families are undertaking the trip, neighbors say, they decided to migrate as a family. Parents, children, grandmothers, and even pets are on the road.

Venezuelans, trying to migrate from the country along the Tachira border, walk with water bottles in hand. Photo: Carlos Eduardo Ramirez.

In conversation, it becomes evident that most of them are from the center of the country, not from the border state of Tachira. They claim to be mostly from Barquisimeto, Valencia, Caracas, Yaracuy, and Portuguesa.

All over the area, they are walking or resting in some shadow on the side of the road. They also stop to eat, thanks to the solidarity of neighbors in the municipalities bordering Colombia, who prepare food and water to help them.

Venezuelans of all ages follow the border roads on foot. Photo: Carlos Eduardo Ramírez.

“They don’t stop, they look like ants, they go from San Cristobal, Rubio, Capacho and San Antonio. The great majority of them go through green roads, trying to dodge the ravines. Although, some of them dare to pass in front of the law enforcement because there is an order to let them leave the country without charges, or problems, without arrests,” said photographer Carlos Ramirez.

The Venezuelan flag bag, meant to keep kids in school, now sees walkers off. Photo: Carlos Eduardo Ramirez.
Changing diapers in the middle of the road towards the Colombian border. Photo: Carlos Eduardo Ramirez.
Children of different ages travel with their families to the border municipalities. Photo: Carlos Eduardo Ramirez.

Thousands of Venezuelans in the most disconnected areas of our country visit El Pitazo daily to get indispensable information in their daily lives. For many of them we are the only source of verified news free of political bias.

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