The plight of Venezuelans

Diego Pineda, 26, crossed the Brazil-Venezuela border on February 12, 2017, in search of food and work. Pineda walked 200 kilometers from Pacaraima, the Brazilian border town, to Boa Vista, Roraima’s capital, and was planning to seek asylum upon arrival. February 12, 2017.
© 2017 Human Rights Watch

Enriqueta Rivero, 70, crossed the Brazil-Venezuela border on February 12, 2017 in search of medicines for hypertension. For over three months, Rivero had been unable to purchase at home the medicines her doctor had prescribed. She said she had been eating garlic instead to control her symptoms. February 12, 2017.
© 2017 Human Rights Watch

Pablo López, 23, a member of the Venezuelan Warao indigenous community, moved to Brazil in search of food he could not afford in Venezuela. López worked unloading trucks for about US$1.40 per hour and lived with approximately 100 other indigenous people on the street in the Brazilian border city of Pacaraima. February 12, 2017.
© 2017 Human Rights Watch

Four-month-old baby who became ill with chicken pox at a shelter where more than 180 Venezuelans lived in Boa Vista, Roraima’s capital. In January 2017, the humanitarian organization that ran the shelter informed state authorities of the first chicken pox case but they did not provide vaccinations. Within weeks, five others got chicken pox, including the baby. February 11, 2017.
© 2017 Tamara Taraciuk Broner/Human Rights Watch

Two-year-old girl who arrived at a shelter in Boa Vista, Roraima’s capital weeks earlier weighing seven kilos. Malnutrition in Venezuelans arriving at the shelter was “apparent,” the director of the Center of Migration and Human Rights of the Roraima Diocese told Human Rights Watch. February 11, 2017.
© 2017 Tamara Taraciuk Broner/Human Rights Watch

María José Pacheco, 33, a teacher, and her husband, Germán Pacheco, 34, moved from Venezuela to Brazil in search of food and work. They earned money to live in Boa Vista and send back home to their children in Venezuela by selling fruit at traffic lights. Both were on a waiting list to request asylum in Brazil. February 11, 2017.
© 2017 Tamara Taraciuk Broner/Human Rights Watch

Bárbara Rosales, 21, went to the hospital at the Venezuelan city of Santa Elena de Uairén with complications in her six-month pregnancy in January. The hospital lacked the medicine she needed and sent her to Brazil in a car accompanied by a nurse but without any medicines. Rosales was immediately hospitalized in Brazil. Five days later, her baby was born, weighing one kilogram. When Human Rights Watch visited the hospital a month later, the baby remained in intensive care.
© 2017 César Muñoz Acebes/Human Rights Watch

María Patricia Molina, 27, moved to Brazil when she was seven months pregnant due to insecurity and the shortages of food and medicine in Venezuela. Sasha, her daughter, was born at Roraima’s Maternity Hospital on February 15, 2017. Molina had requested asylum, and was waiting for a decision by the Brazilian refugee agency when Human Rights Watch met with her. February 15, 2017.
© 2017 César Muñoz Acebes/Human Rights Watch

Olimpo Lozada, 68, was driven to Brazil by a family friend due to complications from a gallstone that could not be treated in Venezuela, according to his wife. The hospital director at Roraima’s General Hospital, where he was hospitalized, said that had Lozada obtained adequate treatment when he first developed symptoms, he would not have required hospitalization for emergency surgery. February 14, 2017.
© 2017 César Muñoz Acebes/Human Rights Watch

Diego Pineda, 26, crossed the Brazil-Venezuela border in February 2017, in search of food and work. Pineda walked 200 kilometers from Pacaraima, the Brazilian border town, to Boa Vista, Roraima’s capital, and was planning to seek asylum upon arrival.
© 2017 Human Rights Watch