“I die here”, Peruvian migrant with three decades in Venezuela who lives in extreme poverty

José Burga Palacios, 73, pushes against a fence that is halfway up, while driving away a dozen rowdy dogs that receive him in an improvised house with a canvas roof and exposed brick, where he lives in extreme poverty in Caracas.

He is a Peruvian migrant who embarked for Venezuela three decades ago, in search of economic improvements.

“I came here and I liked Venezuela, the economy,” he tells the voice of america This man from Nueva Arica, who arrived in Venezuela through San Cristóbal, settled in La Guaira, and now spends his days in the capital.

Venezuela has historically been a recipient of migrants, Latin Americans and Europeans, but in recent years has seen millions of people leave fleeing the crisis.

Data from the National Institute of Statistics and Informatics of Peru show that 14.7% of Peruvians who returned to their country between 2000-2017 have done so precisely from Venezuela.

Venezuela today hosts 2.5% of the total number of Peruvians residing abroad, below the United States, Argentina, Spain, Chile and Italy, which account for 81.0%.

But Burga, if he could, would not return to Peru. “What for?” asks this man with a long white beard. For years he lost communication with his family. “I’m dying in my Venezuela,” he says emphatically.

Although he does not have a family in Venezuela either, he clarifies without delving much into the subject.

“I am looking for nationality right now,” he says while showing some papers that he protects as a treasure, necessary to assume Venezuelan citizenship.

At the entrance to the land there are two dilapidated cars from which about twenty dogs that he rescued from the street get off and on. “They are my only family,” he says as one licks his face.

Burga helps himself financially by repairing parts of old vehicles or household appliances. “I am a mechanical technician. All my life I have worked with auto mechanics, all my life.”

And he sporadically receives donations from some passers-by who stop by the barking of the dogs.

Burgo lost everything in the mudslide in the coastal state of Vargas, one of the worst tragedies in the history of Venezuela, which occurred in 1999. “Everything collapsed… I lost everything… my tools… the workshop I had… everything… I I was blank,” he says.

And he didn’t recover.

Now he spends his days in Caracas, in the company of his large canine family, he lives with little, but he claims to be happy. His only concern is who will take care of his animals when he dies.

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