Venezuela election dispute traps travelers trying to leave the country
It’s getting harder and harder, and much more expensive, to find a flight out of Venezuela. President Nicolas Maduro has canceled flights to some countries that questioned his self-declared election victory, including two that in normal times are major hubs for travelers heading into or out of Venezuela: Panama, the hub of carrier Copa Airlines, and the Dominican Republic. Peru is also off-limits now. The one option remaining for a regional flight out of the country is to Bogota, but prices have skyrocketed. A flight two weeks from now from Caracas to the Colombian capital, which takes about two hours, used to cost less than $200, but it was priced at more than $800 as of Friday. The lack of options is stranding Venezuelans who live abroad but returned to vote in the July 28 election. Many had hoped they could usher in a change in leadership that would reshape the country and enable them to return permanently. Now, some say they are desperate to leave and afraid they may be trapped. Eugenia, 27, traveled to Caracas from Panama, where she lives with her husband and their three-month-old son, to vote and take the opportunity of being with family to baptize the baby. But now they don’t have a return flight. The baptism was canceled as well, after protests erupted and Maduro’s security agents cracked down on dissenters. Eugenia, who asked not to publish her last name to avoid government reprisals, knew that leaving Venezuela wasn’t going to be easy as soon as protests began the day after the election and demonstrators blocked the main highway leading to the capital’s airport. She said returning to Panama via Colombia will now cost as much as $1,500 a ticket, compared with the $330 they paid for each round trip ticket originally. “We don’t know what is going to happen,” she said. “We fear food shortages and there are rumors that there may be a new national blackout” similar to a 2019 power outage that grounded flights amid political turmoil. <br/>
https://portal.staralliance.com/cms/news/hot-topics/2024-08-05/general/venezuela-election-dispute-traps-travelers-trying-to-leave-the-country
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Venezuela election dispute traps travelers trying to leave the country
It’s getting harder and harder, and much more expensive, to find a flight out of Venezuela. President Nicolas Maduro has canceled flights to some countries that questioned his self-declared election victory, including two that in normal times are major hubs for travelers heading into or out of Venezuela: Panama, the hub of carrier Copa Airlines, and the Dominican Republic. Peru is also off-limits now. The one option remaining for a regional flight out of the country is to Bogota, but prices have skyrocketed. A flight two weeks from now from Caracas to the Colombian capital, which takes about two hours, used to cost less than $200, but it was priced at more than $800 as of Friday. The lack of options is stranding Venezuelans who live abroad but returned to vote in the July 28 election. Many had hoped they could usher in a change in leadership that would reshape the country and enable them to return permanently. Now, some say they are desperate to leave and afraid they may be trapped. Eugenia, 27, traveled to Caracas from Panama, where she lives with her husband and their three-month-old son, to vote and take the opportunity of being with family to baptize the baby. But now they don’t have a return flight. The baptism was canceled as well, after protests erupted and Maduro’s security agents cracked down on dissenters. Eugenia, who asked not to publish her last name to avoid government reprisals, knew that leaving Venezuela wasn’t going to be easy as soon as protests began the day after the election and demonstrators blocked the main highway leading to the capital’s airport. She said returning to Panama via Colombia will now cost as much as $1,500 a ticket, compared with the $330 they paid for each round trip ticket originally. “We don’t know what is going to happen,” she said. “We fear food shortages and there are rumors that there may be a new national blackout” similar to a 2019 power outage that grounded flights amid political turmoil. <br/>
