Cyclone interrupts dream of a better life for Venezuelans in Brazil

Ani Aponte fled with her family from her hometown Venezuela to seek a better life Brazil. Four years later, his dreams of employment and a calm day to day look uncertain after a cyclone devastated their Workplace.

Ani, 34, ironed leather in a tannery that also employed her husband, Yeiferson, in Muçum, the town hardest hit by a cyclone that left almost fifty dead and a similar number missing in its path a week ago. the state of Rio Grande do Sul (south).

But like the rest of the city in ruins, the plant was partially destroyed, with machinery swept away by the current, leaving the future of its almost 500 employees – according to the local press – in the air.

“Our company was lost in the water and we don’t know what to do. We are waiting”says Annie.

The house they rent, in the upper area of ​​this city of about 4,600 inhabitants, was not reached by the floods, but the tragedy left the couple, who lives with their three-year-old son, as well as two relatives, without income.

Ani is also the financial supporter of her mother and her sick father who live with their eldest son, 12 years old, in Venezuela.

The couple arrived in Brazil four years ago, fleeing the economic crisis in Venezuela. He got a job in Rio Grande do Sul, the fourth richest state in the country, and more than two years ago they arrived in Muçum.

“They adopted us as if we were from here”she says gratefully, and although working with fur required effort, she enjoyed a quiet family life.

“Not even in dreams”

These days, Ani is busy volunteering at a church sorting clothes to donate to those affected, who number more than 150,000 across the state.

“First we are going to help lift the mess a little and then we will see what to do,” it states.

And he houses in his house two other Venezuelans also employed at the leather plant, who had to leave the house they rented in a hurry, with water up to their knees.

Aura García, a 57-year-old former hairdresser, was comfortable in Muçum despite the work “heavy”highlighting the low crime rate and absence of people living on the streets.

He left his country because “There is no food, medicine, work, there is nothing” and five years ago he crossed the border into Brazil.

Venezuela, a country of about 30 million inhabitants, has seen more than seven million people emigrate due to its serious crisis, according to the United Nations.

Some 425,000 Venezuelans reside in Brazil, according to the UN agency UNHCR.

Muçum received “wonderful” to Venezuelans, a hundred in total, says Luis Enrique Duarte, 52, who has three daughters living in his native country.

After the devastating storm, everyone is wondering if they should look for work elsewhere.

But returning to Venezuela is not in anyone’s plans.

“We fled because of the economic situation and it is still very bad,” says Annie.

“Not even in my dreams, as long as that president is there I will not return,” Aura points out, in reference to the Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro.

“They will bury me here, in Brazil.”

Source: AFP