Dylan Baddour
@DylanBaddour
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Covering Texas for @InsideClimate News. Previously reporting from Colombia for WSJ, WaPo, Atlantic, Reuters y más. TX born, likes plants
Caldwell County, Texas
Joined September 2013
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The manager of a public entity in Texas says he charges $500 per interview
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When I was a kid, teachers told us how in China, Cuba and the USSR, people got in trouble if they criticized the government
This professor criticized Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick in class.
A politically connected student told her mom.
Within two hours, Texas A&M’s chancellor was texting Dan Patrick directly to let him know the professor had been suspended pending an investigation.
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Peruvian President Vizcarra gives conference on virus. Appeals to people to heed emergency isolation, orders purchase of 1.4 million virus tests, construction of 3,000-bed emergency hospital, replaced health minister with expert in public health. Below, summary of his comments:
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The Venezuelan migration will become the world's largest exodus in 2020. A lack of big, strong images can make the scale of this situation hard to grasp, but don't be fooled. Here's a video I made based on the intro to a presentation I gave in Geneva last week.
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In journalism school at UT, studying US press failures of the War in Iraq, we considered this mantra:
“American media reported from where the missiles were launched while Al Jazeera covered where they landed.”
Still true, it seems
israel passes law to ban al jazeera. pm netanyahu promises to shut them down.
not a sign of a healthy democracy.
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An acclaimed Mexican journalist, winner of global press freedom and human rights awards, now cleaning floors in Canada. This is not right.
Because two master degrees from local universities are not enough for a refugee to get a seat at the table with the good Canadian society, here I am, back to be a janitor again, after 11 years of studying, applying and publishing.
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The author of this excellent article was laid off today. Interesting decision by the Texas Tribune.
At least 41 people in Texas prisons have died of either heart-related or unknown causes during the state’s relentless and record-breaking heat wave this summer, according to a Texas Tribune analysis.
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Rioting in Bogota over police killing of a man who begged officers to take their knees off his back
Que paren cuando los CAIs digan “Por favor” tantas veces como Javier Ordoñez.
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Today I learned ✨HOAs are subject to open records requests under TX Property Code §209.005✨
I only learned that because my HOA hired
@WinsteadPC
to force removal of my front garden
So I filed this request (redacted for PII) and plan to publish my findings for the neighbors
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I've been locked in Peru for a week now. But as I've watched the tide of crisis rise in the US without much drastic, national reaction, I'm glad for the swift and severe measures this country took to stop the spread, even if it means I'm trapped for now.
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One of Central Texas’ most iconic swimming holes has dried up. Jacob’s Well is a window into the Trinity Aquifer, and it’s showing signs of serious distress.
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In Venezuela, the Yukpa were starving. So they walked five days days to Colombia. Now they're encamped beside the river, beneath the international bridge. Hear their accounts of life inside their crumbling country:
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Trump’s special envoy to Venezuela Elliott Abrams speaking near the Venezuelan border: “What do we do if the Maduro government does not fall tomorrow? We continue... Venezuela will be free. Maybe tomorrow. Maybe after tomorrow.”
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Collapsing oil prices push Venezuela ever closer to a long anticipated moment: when President Maduro no longer has the money to pay the armed forces’ wages
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This conflict zone is littered with hundreds of shotgun shells authorities say come from the Venezuelan guard
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“This money is shit.” A trash bag full of Venezuelan cash can barely buy lunch.
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Here I am at the first UN
@Refugees
center for migrants at the Venezuelan border in Colombia. 60 tents currently shelter 350 people for up to 6 weeks each, but officials say this camp will quadruple in size.
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Texas appoints an oil executive to chair its parks and wildlife commission
He runs a company that WSJ called a "clearinghouse for big oil companies looking to unload aging wells that may leak copious amounts of methane"
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One group of students on a Bogotá highway as Colombia’s national day of protests gets underway
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The Rio Grande runs totally dry through Santa Elena Canyon in Big Bend National Park
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Folks, Beaumont and surroundings are in a dire situation now. Will there be fleets of volunteer boaters to help there also? We hope so
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@fbajak
I will give him a few more chances to come around first. This just came in. I don’t know enough about his obscure state-commissioned groundwater conservation district enough yet to deal competently
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Guys, this is nonsense. Bernie is right. I TOTALLY get how Americans of my generation could make this assumption. But I’ve spent 2 years traveling to the Venezuelan border, speaking with displaced Venezuelans from the lowest classes, rendered homeless. They seriously HATE Maduro
Bernie calls Maduro a tyrant & rejects Venezuelan socialist policies. If only Bernie, & other leftists, could see that Venezuela endures a murderous US economic war & right-wing coup attempt precisely because it has a gov't that has devoted resources to its poorest (& darkest).
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This is the UN's new center for Venezuelan migrants near the border in Colombia. Liset and her son, pictured, left Vzla in Dec and slept in the streets of Maicao. It was scary, she said, but at least they could eat each day, unlike in Venezuela. Now they have a temporary tent.
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THREAD: In a psychosocial support workshop for Venezuelan immigrants in Bogotá, adults were asked to draw something that had spurred their bad feelings. I’ll post some examples. Below: “Farewell to my son.”
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For anyone following the saga of my garden: HOA hired a lawyer to get my plants because when they reported me to the city, the city ultimately declined to issue a citation.
Today I learned ✨HOAs are subject to open records requests under TX Property Code §209.005✨
I only learned that because my HOA hired
@WinsteadPC
to force removal of my front garden
So I filed this request (redacted for PII) and plan to publish my findings for the neighbors
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Friends, I've done it. I'm going to work at a desk (in Austin, TX) as an analsyt focused on org crime in LatAm. Getting married and trying to make some money for a family. Not a farewell to journalism. It's like going to grad school, except they pay me. I'll be back someday.
I've gotten a very good offer for a job outside of journalism. Have to give an answer early next week. 😖
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AP citing Breitbart. The future is now.
Trump says Oscars focused hard on politics before 'sad' end
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In New Braunfels, Texas, the largest natural spring of the Southwest is totally dry. Other springs in the complex are flowing still, but not the primary spring (pictured)
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“In Venezuela the Maduro dictatorship has destroyed a country and created a humanitarian crisis... the international community must come together to end the suffering of the Venezuelan people.” -US State Dept Western Hemisphere assistant secretary
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A broken west Texas gas plant is currently spraying benzene, toluene, and VOCs including methane into the atmosphere. "At the time of this report, the event has not been resolved."
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“I prostitute myself. I don’t like it. I’m an honorable woman. I didn’t need to prostitute myself in Vzla to have food... I’ve cried like you can’t imagine... I’ve had to take drugs to be with clients without crying, without saying, ‘don’t touch me, how disgusting!” -Liudmyla, 23
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Dozens of lawyers have been working pro bono at Bush Intercontinental Airport. Some stayed until 2 am yesterday.
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BREAKING: OAS report shows that Venezuelan exodus could reach 8 million people by the end of next year, making it by far the largest migration crisis in the world, topping the Syrian crisis with 6.7 million people over 8 years
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So much for "Don't Mess With Texas." Industrial facilities reported discharging 16.7 million pounds of toxins into Texas waterways in 2020 - more than in any other US state.
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Colombia will grant legal status to all Venezuelans who entered this country irregularly before 2021, about a million people
#ÚltimoMinuto
#Primicia
@NTN24
@LaNocheNTN24
: Gobierno de Colombia decide regularizar a todos los venezolanos que entraron al país hasta enero de 2021. Decreto Presidencial será dado a conocer esta tarde 📺👉Informe de
@CGurisattiNTN24
y
@JeffersonNTN24
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Another cacerolazo tonight in downtown Bogota. These things start from a few distant clinks then blossom out of nowhere. It means there’s still high energy behind ongoing anti-government protests in Colombia and suggests high turnout at mass demonstrations called for tomorrow.
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This is the impromptu law office at Bush Intercontinental. Attorneys say they'll stay until the last detainee leaves
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Peruvian President: “The virus doesn’t move alone. The people move it. If we the people stop, we will stop the virus.”
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A new cacerolazo erupts in Bogotá, apparently at the news of protesters killed in Cali
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Cool news, friends! Tonight I’m headed for Geneva, Switzerland, to speak with an arm of the EU about the Venezuelan migration and perhaps about how they can help. They asked me to go! It seems powerful bodies may be taking more interest in spending on this situation.
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UPDATE: Richard Branson's superconcert in Cucuta Friday
@VenezuelaAid
has been moved to the Tienditas International Bridge, the site where the US aid is warehoused and the bridge now famously blocked with shipping containers. Concert will be RIGHT on the border!
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This is a member of the Venezuelan armed forces who just defected and crossed to the Colombian side. Second time in last 10 minutes. Police have protected him. Tear gas shots continue.
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Here’s one group of Venezuelan military defectors at the border. They provided the photo. Some in this group traveled from Bogotá on Tuesday. They say they are organizing an army of Venezuelan exiles across the continent but don’t have any money or weapons yet.
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“I wanted to work in a hospital, a clinic or a lab, but I can’t here. So, maybe in a restaurant.” —forensic scientist from Mérida, Venezuela, emigrating to Colombia with her daughter
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One member of the Venezuelan colectivo was captured under the bridge, on the Colombian side. Police rushed him away while a crowd yelled, “kill him!”
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Reeling from disaster, Houston gathers strength from Astros’ championship run my latest for the Washington Post
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A huge crowd of protesters, armed with white roses, are marching towards the Venezuelan border. Image via
@HAJBlack
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Many Venezuelans at the border complained of abuse by their own national police. This young man, 20, arrived in Colombia earlier that day, bound for Bogotá, with no desire to ever move back home.
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A West Texas town has been under a boil water notice since 2018. “In the shadow of the country’s most prosperous oil and gas fields, the residents of Toyah, many low-income and Hispanic, have gone nearly five years without safe drinking water” By
@psskow
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“With great sadness I tell you that, yes, this was the first time I ever slept in the streets.” -Former Venezuelan police commander, 64, showing his passport photo from a time when he weighed 20 kilos more
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The
@TexasObserver
enabled me to write my deepest stories, like this one about the Lipan Apaches and being "Labeled Hispanic" in Texas. It was rejected by many publications before it found its home at the Observer, without which it might never have run.
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“We’re going to Cúcuta, and then to... I don’t know. It depends how much tickets cost.” —A Venezuelan leaving home without a plan, just a desire to escape
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Italian mayor: “I’m getting news that some of you would like to throw graduation parties. We will send the police. With flamethrowers”
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Colombian military vehicles at the birder bridge. Behind, a large delegation just arrived in ~50 vehicles to tour the situation. Police here tell me it includes the Colombian president and US officials.
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Here I am at the camp where Venezuelans slept last night, ready to wake up and join the effort to confront their border guards with humanitarian aid products this morning. Stand by for updates as they come.
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"We prefer to die on the border than to go back and die in our country." A 61-year-old woman from Caracas pleads to be let through the Ecuadorian border, where Venezuelans without passports have been blocked since Saturday. Recorded yesterday.
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“If you speak with any Venezuelan, that Venezuelan will have hopes that the US will intervene like it did in Panama with Noriega. It’s because of what Marco Rubio says. I’m hoping for the same.” —A Venezuelan living in Cucuta
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Two months ago, US and Venezuelan figures stood at this border and called on Venezuela soldiers to defect. More than 1,000 did. Then they were abandoned. Now Colombia is stuck feeding them every day and nervously imploring them to stop trying to fight.
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Here's a look at the humanitarian supplies donated by
@USAID
, now sitting in a warehouse on the Colombian-Venezuelan border, as US and Venezuelan opposition officials say they're waiting for a safe opportunity to move across in defiance of
@NicolasMaduro
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Lady Gaga's
#SuperBowl
halftime show was a trip. Here's the wild finale with fireworks atop NRG Stadium.
#SB51
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City social workers in Bogotá seek out Venezuelan families begging on the streets and invite them to enroll their children in a new daycare center for migrant kids
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As I stand here I hear a crowd cheering on the Venezuelan side. Large waving flags are barely visible behind the shipping container blocking this bridge.
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He chastised some Peruvians for irresponsibility in disregarding isolation. When it was voluntary, “it was heeded by a minority of the population.” Some state and city govs aren’t enforcing isolation “with the strictness that this situation requires.”
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WaPo obtains draft EO from Trump suggesting deportation force is forthcoming
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Families put up a Christmas tree at a migrant camp in Reynosa, Mexico, on the Texas border, today.
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Here's the moment in Minute Maid Park when the Astros win the World Series
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Hundreds of Venezuelans are stranded on the Ecuadorian border. Departed from Colombia, not permitted without passports in Ecuador, they have nowhere to go. Many sold everything to come here. Others walked for two weeks. Everyone slept in the cold last night.
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@ColinLeyden
@WinsteadPC
😂 The got more than a records request from me, too. Turns out that TX Property Code Section 209.007 entitles homeowners to a hearing over alleged violations of HOA rules, and requires HOA to turn over all evidence at least 10 days before hearing. I have requested 2 hearings.
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Venezuelans at the Ecuadorian border are trying to organize to force themselves through the border in a single group of more than 1000. “They can’t stop us if we all go together.” Ecuador yesterday closed its borders to Venezuelans without passports, leaving people stranded.
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Peruvian president: “If we heed isolation, we won’t have to expand the emergency (order).”
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As part of president’s emergency decree this morning, 1.4 M tests will be ordered to get an idea of the virus’ presence in the country. Emergency funding for business and repatriation of Peruvians stuck abroad. 7 towers each 20 stories to be converted into emergency hospital.
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Peruvian President: “There are some irresponsible citizens... who are mocking our state of emergency.”
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As populations grow, water supplies shrink and an international water-sharing agreement comes under pressure along the Texas-Mexico border.
“All the cities on this river are going to fight for the water”
1st in a series for
@TexasObserver
@insideclimate
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Each rubber-banded bundle of Venezuelan bills there is worth 2,000 Colombian pesos, or about US$0.70
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I’m leaving the small conflict zone here. Full story soon via The Washington Post. Seems like I’ll be on the ground here for plenty of time to come. Keep following along.
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“There are so many mothers like me, who have to say goodbye to our children because there is no way to survive in Venezuela.” —A Venezuelan grandmother with her grandson, waiting to bid farewell to her only son as he stands in line for a visa stamp, bound for employment in Peru
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@nkus
When I called he said “good luck getting access buddy” and hung up. When I called back he said the story had been done “17 times” and I should find something else. He isn’t even an antagonist in the plot, just legit tired of talking to reporters I guess.
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Young Venezuelan musicians rap on Bogotá public transportation about leaving their families, living as immigrants and suffering the pain of watching their country crumble to catastrophe.
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I met this guy again today. He is William, 26, from Caracas. Special forces. Made up an intelligence mission to travel to Cucuta to defect Saturday. He said, “90% of the special forces favor that the tyranny falls. But for fear, terror, doubts, they don’t stop supporting it.”
This is a member of the Venezuelan armed forces who just defected and crossed to the Colombian side. Second time in last 10 minutes. Police have protected him. Tear gas shots continue.
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He says this emergency has required drastic decisions to be made with urgency. He thanks his health minister but says the situation requires someone with specific expertise in public health. He’ll announce her replacement this evening.
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Venezuelans pray and shed tears at sunrise before marching out to confront their border guard this morning
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Helmet and riot shield of a Venezuelan defector from the GNB, the Bolivarian National Guard of Venezuela
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Reservoirs on the lower Rio Grande fell below 20% full yesterday
Combined storage is dropping about 0.3 percentage points per day
Officials tell me it’s possible the reservoirs dry up entirely this year - a serious disaster
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In far South Texas, Hidalgo County declares disaster due to low water supply.
Reservoirs on the lower Rio Grande are 23% full.
Forecasters expect another hot, dry summer ahead.
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Artwork made from worthless Venezuelan currency on a sidewalk in Cúcuta, kilometers from the Venezuelan border
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This is how Venezuelans slept last night—the same way many sleep every night—while waiting to confront their guard this morning from this side of the border. Photo illustrates something I hear a lot out here: “what else do we have to lose?”
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Back in Bogotá! No time to travel, sure. But I’ve been paying rent here for an apartment full of my stuff ever since I left for a short vacation in March that ended with my wife and I trapped in Peru then evacuated to Texas. Long story. Anyway, I live here again.
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In December I met the Yukpa in the video below. In January they were deported in a convoy of buses back to their Venezuelan homeland. Now I'm back, and so are the Yukpa; 700 of them. They walked back. Deportations won't keep people in Venezuela when there's no food to eat.
In Venezuela, the Yukpa were starving. So they walked five days days to Colombia. Now they're encamped beside the river, beneath the international bridge. Hear their accounts of life inside their crumbling country:
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