...Many of those who escape suffer from illnesses that have long since disappeared in the receiving countries, like malaria and diphtheria, and they run the risk of creating a massive contagion. There are now cases in Brazil of people newly contracting illnesses, such as measles, that were previously eradicated. In addition, the costs of investment in infrastructure, education, nutrition and health are very high, and can alter the budget of some receiving countries. There are also political refugees, like myself; I was forced to emigrate to the United States in August of 2017, after Maduro’s regime removed me from my position as mayor of El Hatillo, Caracas, and ordered my arrest.
But the biggest threat to the region comes from the promotion and protection of illicit activities – including the traffic of drugs, minerals, gasoline and even people – on the part of the Venezuelan government. Maduro’s regime not only conducts the world’s largest legal trade, which is gasoline, but also finances the world’s largest illegal trade: cocaine. Every day planes fly through Venezuelan airspace carrying Colombian cocaine to destinations in Central America and the Caribbean. The nephews of Venezuela’s first family are prisoners in the United States after having been detained in Haiti with drug cargo. The ex-vice president and current minister of industry, Tareck El Aissami, and the current president of the National Constituent Assembly, Diosdado Cabello, have been sanctioned by the United States and the European Union for basically being real-life protagonists of the series “Narcos.”
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