Andrea Hernandez for BuzzFeed News. Resigned to the pain and the uncertainty of the coming hours, she breathed deeply, the Mickey Mouse stitched on her dress rising and falling. Rivero was alone, carrying only a thin yellow folder with her, containing the handful of prenatal exams she had managed to get done. The 22 women sitting or standing around her in the brightly lit hallway β all at different stages of pregnancy or labor β were strangers in a strange new place.
The women occasionally chatted among themselves, and soon learned that 12 of them had one other thing in common: Like Rivero, they had recently fled neighboring Venezuela, a country in economic and social freefall. As malnutrition has risen, medicine shortages have emptied hospital shelves, turning minor health issues, such as colds and small cuts, into major complications. Eduardo Hernandez and his newborn baby while they wait for the civil registry at the Erasmo Meoz University Hospital of Cucuta in Colombia.
With more than 2. Latin American countries initially greeted Venezuelans with open arms as they have other neighbors fleeing social and political unrest, offering them work permits and access to schools in some cases.
But the goodwill is beginning to peter out, replaced by tighter immigration controls and rising xenophobia. While the entire region is struggling to confront the logistical challenges, Colombia is bearing the brunt of the crisis.
More than , Venezuelans are now living in the country of In a sharp contrast to the public hospitals back home, Rivero got several balanced meals after giving birth. Sitting on the edge of bed , where she spent a day and a half recovering, Rivero made a circle the size of a salad plate with her hands to show how big the steak she had just had for lunch had been.
