Under scalding midday sun, they wore backpacks, wheeled a suitcase and carried blankets and coats for freezing mountain ranges ahead.
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It wasn’t hard to spot these 12 Venezuelan migrants along a highway into Colombia’s interior. We handed them bottles of water and found shade to talk.
“We’re just getting started. We already have torn socks. I already miss having meals. My toes have blisters,” said Melany Oreste, 19, who had worn flip-flops for two weeks since her group’s trek began in their hometown, Charallave, about an hour south of Caracas, the Venezuelan capital.
We met this group during a recent reporting trip to look at Colombia’s efforts to integrate Venezuelan migrants. Some Venezuelans, like her group, are only passing through Colombia on their way elsewhere.
They are on foot because they cannot afford bus tickets, let alone plane fares. They’re known as caminantes, the Spanish word for walkers.
Melany’s group consisted of neighbors, mostly young adults but also two preschoolers riding on shoulders. So far the group had slept in bus stops and doorways. They had relied on handouts for food and water.
As we spoke, a car stopped on the other side of the road. Out jumped two volunteers with On the Ground International, a small humanitarian group in Pamplona, a city up the road. The volunteers handed out sandwiches, hard-boiled eggs and bananas.
The migrants filled their arms, pockets and stomachs. Eider Torres, a 20-year-old in the group, said it was their first food of the day.
The previous day, they trod through the border city of Cúcuta, where a creepy motorcyclist followed them and kept taking photos of them. The neighbors argued whether he was a cop or criminal or both.
Torres said they had no choice but to leave Venezuela.
“The minimum wage is [$3.50] a month and a kilo of rice costs $1.50,” Eider said. “Who is going to work for that? Nobody.”
He said he and the other caminantes were headed to the United States.
“I think it’s the best option,” Eider said. “It’s a country where you can have a little stability because there is work, which there is not in Venezuela.”
When we asked where they were going in the United States, there was a pause.
“New York,” Eider finally said.
He and Melany said no one in their group knew anyone there.
But, she added, they would be happy with any work, “from construction to housecleaning.” All they want is to send money back to loved ones in Venezuela.
We asked whether they had heard of the Darién Gap, a remote mountainous region that straddles Colombia’s Panamanian border. Darién’s many hazards include landslides, venomous snakes and criminal groups that prey on migrants.
Eider said he had seen TikTok videos about it, but saw no alternative route to the United States.
If they could just make it there, Melany said, she and her neighbors could show they are good people.
“We are humble,” she said. “We go with our minds set on working for our families.”
Credits
Reporter: Chip Mitchell
Photographer: Anthony Vazquez
Lead editor: Kate Grossman
Design and development: Jesse Howe