Venezuelans stranded in Costa Rica survive in humanitarian shelters

A month and two weeks ago, Alexander Principal, a 23-year-old Venezuelan, irregularly crossed the Costa Rican border. He had previously crossed the Darien jungle to follow his destiny to the United States, but from one moment to another everything changed.

“I got here just when I began to see on the networks that the situation on the United States border was a little complicated,” this man tells the Voice of America.

Venezuelan migrants began to be expelled in early October from the southern border of the United States under Title 42, a health control measure for COVID-19.

Several were stranded on their way through Central America and Costa Rica has been one of the countries where hundreds of migrants spend the night on its streets every day.

Alexander was one of them, but he quickly found an alternative to survive in San José, where he says he works part-time and spends the rest of the day supporting the charities carried out by the Association of Works of the Holy Spirit, which welcomes hundreds of of migrants and delivers food to them during the three times.

“They gave me the opportunity to be a collaborator and, thank God, I’m still here,” the man tells the VOA.

This association distributes almost 300 plates of food to Venezuelans and people with limited resources daily. A large part goes to their headquarters, but at night they take minibuses to bring plates of food to migrants who are at bus terminals.

That’s where Alexander works, who at nightfall sleeps in a tent with his countrymen. “Right now I am sleeping in the street area, outside the association because it would hurt me to sleep indoors while others are out in the open.”

Ricardo Maliaña, 20, is a Venezuelan originally from Trujillo. He says that he had left his country of origin for two years and then went to live in Bogotá. “I lived there for some time. Things got a bit complicated for me. The government is a little bad there and I decided to take action and come here to the American dream, the famous American dream like all my colleagues, but everything failed, ”he says.

He adds that so far he has not found the resources to return to his country, so he receives food from the organization Obras del Espíritu Santo, while the rest of the time he sells sweets at traffic lights in Costa Rica.

“My resources were exhausted in the push-and-pull that Migration returned me to Panama twice. I wanted to continue, they told me no, that I couldn’t and well I got here, to San José, and I found out the news that the doors to Venezuela were closed in the United States, which was my goal. And there comes a time when I have to stay here stranded because I have no resources, ”she laments.

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