1
00:00:01,800 --> 00:00:04,920
Speaker 1: All media. It's me James, and before we listen to

2
00:00:05,000 --> 00:00:06,800
Speaker 1: this episode today, I just did want to make you

3
00:00:06,800 --> 00:00:09,920
Speaker 1: a way that I conducted these interviews in French and Spanish,

4
00:00:10,000 --> 00:00:14,239
Speaker 1: mostly Spanish, and then transcribed and translated them. So what

5
00:00:14,240 --> 00:00:17,159
Speaker 1: you're hearing is a translated interview that's being edited for

6
00:00:17,200 --> 00:00:19,799
Speaker 1: brevity and content. I hope you enjoyed the episode.

7
00:00:26,239 --> 00:00:34,120
Speaker 2: LVY awesome. Yeah, the journey is dangerous, but what can

8
00:00:34,159 --> 00:00:37,000
Speaker 2: we do. We can't stay in a country where the

9
00:00:37,040 --> 00:00:40,400
Speaker 2: economy is getting worse and worse. With a salary of

10
00:00:40,640 --> 00:00:44,800
Speaker 2: three dollars a month, you can't survive. Like my friend said,

11
00:00:45,120 --> 00:00:47,479
Speaker 2: if you have a job in other countries, maybe you

12
00:00:47,520 --> 00:00:49,720
Speaker 2: can invest some money. But where are you going to

13
00:00:49,760 --> 00:00:52,159
Speaker 2: get the money to invest If before you had a

14
00:00:52,200 --> 00:00:55,000
Speaker 2: salary that fed you paid for your car, your house

15
00:00:55,040 --> 00:00:57,120
Speaker 2: and your children to enjoy it all with, and now

16
00:00:57,200 --> 00:00:59,600
Speaker 2: you can't even afford to put gas in the car.

17
00:01:00,880 --> 00:01:04,080
Speaker 2: So it's true. Yeah, the darien is dangerous, but nothing

18
00:01:04,200 --> 00:01:07,720
Speaker 2: is impossible. We walk hand in hand with God and

19
00:01:07,760 --> 00:01:10,120
Speaker 2: with the faith that we will get there. But that

20
00:01:10,160 --> 00:01:13,039
Speaker 2: doesn't mean it isn't difficult. But I'll say it again,

21
00:01:13,280 --> 00:01:17,480
Speaker 2: it's not impossible. You suffer, you cry, you go hungry cold,

22
00:01:17,720 --> 00:01:19,399
Speaker 2: but thank God we made it through.

23
00:01:27,840 --> 00:01:31,200
Speaker 1: Bored around the Tuquesa River, the jungle rumbles quiet as

24
00:01:31,240 --> 00:01:34,600
Speaker 1: you pass by on your boat. Insects, frogs, and birds

25
00:01:34,640 --> 00:01:36,760
Speaker 1: all combined to make a sort of deep throbbing that

26
00:01:36,800 --> 00:01:40,280
Speaker 1: emanates from the darkness between the trees. It seems it

27
00:01:40,319 --> 00:01:42,600
Speaker 1: wants to be calling you in and warning you to

28
00:01:42,640 --> 00:01:46,040
Speaker 1: stay away. I've been in the jungle before, in the

29
00:01:46,120 --> 00:01:50,080
Speaker 1: Rwanda Congo borderlands and in Venezuela, but I've never really

30
00:01:50,080 --> 00:01:52,160
Speaker 1: felt the sense of foreboding I did as we rode

31
00:01:52,200 --> 00:01:54,800
Speaker 1: down the river, protected only by our hollow log, looking

32
00:01:54,800 --> 00:01:57,560
Speaker 1: into the triple canopy forest, and knowing that if I

33
00:01:57,640 --> 00:02:00,120
Speaker 1: walk long enough in the shadows, I'd be confronted with

34
00:02:00,160 --> 00:02:02,000
Speaker 1: the remains of people I might have interviewed if it

35
00:02:02,080 --> 00:02:05,040
Speaker 1: hadn't been for a rolled ankle, a slippery rock, or

36
00:02:05,080 --> 00:02:08,800
Speaker 1: a desperate sip of water. To understand what drives people

37
00:02:08,800 --> 00:02:11,280
Speaker 1: to enter the jungle with their children and their dreams,

38
00:02:12,000 --> 00:02:13,760
Speaker 1: I think we also have to understand what drives them

39
00:02:13,760 --> 00:02:16,280
Speaker 1: to leave wherever they're living. And that's what I want

40
00:02:16,280 --> 00:02:19,600
Speaker 1: to talk about today, the story of migrants crossing the

41
00:02:19,639 --> 00:02:22,320
Speaker 1: Daddy and gap is an American one. It's impossible to

42
00:02:22,320 --> 00:02:25,280
Speaker 1: disentangle the people making this dangerous journey from the history

43
00:02:25,280 --> 00:02:29,280
Speaker 1: of support for dictatorship sanctions, an imperial plunder that ties

44
00:02:29,320 --> 00:02:31,680
Speaker 1: the United States to its American brothers and sisters in

45
00:02:31,680 --> 00:02:34,880
Speaker 1: the South. Sometimes I play a game with myself at

46
00:02:34,919 --> 00:02:36,640
Speaker 1: the border where I try and meet people from all

47
00:02:36,639 --> 00:02:39,079
Speaker 1: the countries named in Washington bullets in a single day.

48
00:02:39,639 --> 00:02:42,919
Speaker 1: Since Biden bungled the Afghanistan withdraw, it's become a lot easier,

49
00:02:43,120 --> 00:02:46,760
Speaker 1: but Tibet can be hard. For two hundred years, since

50
00:02:46,800 --> 00:02:49,160
Speaker 1: President Monroe gave the State of the Union address in

51
00:02:49,200 --> 00:02:52,200
Speaker 1: December eighteen twenty three, the US has seen the Western

52
00:02:52,240 --> 00:02:55,400
Speaker 1: hemisphere is its sphere of influence. What is opposed old

53
00:02:55,440 --> 00:02:58,680
Speaker 1: fashioned colonialism. It has used less avert methods of control,

54
00:02:58,880 --> 00:03:02,160
Speaker 1: as well as overt military across the hemisphere. For much

55
00:03:02,200 --> 00:03:05,280
Speaker 1: of the last century, it supported and installed dictators who

56
00:03:05,280 --> 00:03:07,200
Speaker 1: would prevent what it saw as a threat of state

57
00:03:07,240 --> 00:03:10,120
Speaker 1: socialism in its sphere of influence, and allowed them to

58
00:03:10,160 --> 00:03:13,160
Speaker 1: create economic and political climates that were unsurvivable for the

59
00:03:13,160 --> 00:03:18,000
Speaker 1: majority and extremely profitable for US based corporations. The direct

60
00:03:18,040 --> 00:03:21,639
Speaker 1: result of this policy has been economic insecurity, political instability,

61
00:03:21,840 --> 00:03:25,280
Speaker 1: and state violence across South and Central America, resulting in

62
00:03:25,280 --> 00:03:27,880
Speaker 1: people making the very natural humor decision to flee to

63
00:03:27,919 --> 00:03:32,000
Speaker 1: somewhere safer. As in so many other empires, they've made

64
00:03:32,000 --> 00:03:35,320
Speaker 1: the choice to lead a destabilized colonial periphery and seek

65
00:03:35,320 --> 00:03:38,800
Speaker 1: safety instability in the metropol For more than a century,

66
00:03:39,280 --> 00:03:41,320
Speaker 1: money and good to be able to travel seamlessly up

67
00:03:41,320 --> 00:03:44,559
Speaker 1: and down the continent, but people have not. The bananaread

68
00:03:44,600 --> 00:03:47,080
Speaker 1: for breakfast this morning made the journey in a few days,

69
00:03:47,840 --> 00:03:51,200
Speaker 1: but people take months, if not years, pay thousands of dollars,

70
00:03:51,560 --> 00:03:54,440
Speaker 1: climb mountains ford rivers, and risk their lives on trains

71
00:03:54,440 --> 00:03:56,640
Speaker 1: and buses that cost a lot more than the flights

72
00:03:56,640 --> 00:04:00,480
Speaker 1: I took to Panama, but offered considerably less comfort and safety.

73
00:04:01,080 --> 00:04:03,720
Speaker 1: As climate change has have a greater impacts, more and

74
00:04:03,760 --> 00:04:05,720
Speaker 1: more people are forced to leave their homes so their

75
00:04:05,720 --> 00:04:10,000
Speaker 1: livelihoods become less sustainable. The Guna, the indigenous people at

76
00:04:10,000 --> 00:04:13,520
Speaker 1: the Panamanian coast, in an area called Guna Yala, are

77
00:04:13,520 --> 00:04:15,680
Speaker 1: having to withdraw from some of their islands because of

78
00:04:15,680 --> 00:04:19,200
Speaker 1: sea level rise. Right now, agriculture across the world is

79
00:04:19,240 --> 00:04:22,800
Speaker 1: increasingly threatened by extreme weather and rising temperatures, and our

80
00:04:22,880 --> 00:04:24,920
Speaker 1: oceans are less they're able to sustain life than they

81
00:04:24,960 --> 00:04:28,480
Speaker 1: once were due to pollution and overfishing. Forced to leave

82
00:04:28,520 --> 00:04:31,280
Speaker 1: their homes as people have been for millennia by weather

83
00:04:31,320 --> 00:04:34,440
Speaker 1: patterns changing, people head to places that have want to

84
00:04:34,480 --> 00:04:37,280
Speaker 1: caused much of the issue and tried to insulate themselves

85
00:04:37,320 --> 00:04:42,359
Speaker 1: from its consequences. Their American dreams are modest to overcome

86
00:04:42,400 --> 00:04:45,080
Speaker 1: the crippling low paid. They received a home to bring

87
00:04:45,080 --> 00:04:46,520
Speaker 1: their children up in a place where they have a

88
00:04:46,560 --> 00:04:49,520
Speaker 1: good chance of surviving their twenties, to work and get

89
00:04:49,520 --> 00:04:51,760
Speaker 1: paid enough to get by. They want to be able

90
00:04:51,800 --> 00:04:54,320
Speaker 1: to protest and not get shot, and to look forward

91
00:04:54,360 --> 00:04:57,600
Speaker 1: to the future not feared. These aren't guaranteed in the USA,

92
00:04:58,160 --> 00:04:59,680
Speaker 1: and as many of you listening will know, it can

93
00:04:59,680 --> 00:05:01,560
Speaker 1: be high for us to make ends meet here as well.

94
00:05:02,560 --> 00:05:05,400
Speaker 1: But despite what you see on social and legacy media,

95
00:05:05,640 --> 00:05:07,720
Speaker 1: things are unlikely to become as bad here as they

96
00:05:07,720 --> 00:05:12,040
Speaker 1: are in Venezuela, Cameroon or Iran anytime soon. I've lived

97
00:05:12,040 --> 00:05:15,320
Speaker 1: in Venezuela, specifically in the formerly jab eastern neighborhood of

98
00:05:15,360 --> 00:05:18,000
Speaker 1: La Pastora in Caracas, and I've seen how hard it

99
00:05:18,040 --> 00:05:20,599
Speaker 1: is for my friends who still live there. Even for

100
00:05:20,640 --> 00:05:23,360
Speaker 1: people with no other disadvantages, making rent and feeding your

101
00:05:23,360 --> 00:05:26,640
Speaker 1: family can be a challenge. That's part of why Venezuelan

102
00:05:26,720 --> 00:05:28,680
Speaker 1: people make up the majority of the folks I met

103
00:05:28,680 --> 00:05:31,520
Speaker 1: men daddian so much so that I'd slipped back into

104
00:05:31,600 --> 00:05:34,760
Speaker 1: using Venezuelan slang in Spanish, and after a few days

105
00:05:34,760 --> 00:05:36,640
Speaker 1: of seeing the same people engaging in the kind of

106
00:05:36,640 --> 00:05:39,520
Speaker 1: friendly mockery and banter that I remember well from Caracas,

107
00:05:39,839 --> 00:05:42,200
Speaker 1: mostly the super form of asking them why they crossed

108
00:05:42,200 --> 00:05:44,960
Speaker 1: a Daddian gap in Man United shirts or worse yet,

109
00:05:44,960 --> 00:05:47,600
Speaker 1: in a Chelsea shit. It's important to steal moments of

110
00:05:47,680 --> 00:05:50,320
Speaker 1: humor in these difficult times, to laugh a little among

111
00:05:50,360 --> 00:05:52,800
Speaker 1: all the suffering, and that's something people in Venezuela have

112
00:05:52,880 --> 00:05:55,960
Speaker 1: done very well for a very long time. But despite

113
00:05:55,960 --> 00:05:58,360
Speaker 1: their humor, I could tell the journey had a serious

114
00:05:58,400 --> 00:06:03,200
Speaker 1: impact on the people I spoke to.

115
00:06:03,360 --> 00:06:05,760
Speaker 3: You have to go through a lot, a lot of jungle,

116
00:06:05,960 --> 00:06:08,960
Speaker 3: a lot of hills. There are people, there are dead

117
00:06:08,960 --> 00:06:12,840
Speaker 3: people on the road, so it's something you cannot really explain.

118
00:06:13,400 --> 00:06:16,160
Speaker 3: It's complicated because everything can be explained in a fashion,

119
00:06:16,200 --> 00:06:19,280
Speaker 3: but it's not the same as living it. It's insanity.

120
00:06:19,480 --> 00:06:23,000
Speaker 3: Three four days with that food and nothing. One thing

121
00:06:23,080 --> 00:06:26,920
Speaker 3: is to live it. Explaining it, talking about it, that's different.

122
00:06:27,240 --> 00:06:28,440
Speaker 3: It's hard to put into words.

123
00:06:29,600 --> 00:06:31,440
Speaker 1: This interview is when I conducted with one group of

124
00:06:31,520 --> 00:06:34,760
Speaker 1: Venezuelan migrants with my voice recorder in the chest pocket

125
00:06:34,760 --> 00:06:36,800
Speaker 1: of my shirt and whatever bags it let me carry

126
00:06:36,800 --> 00:06:39,760
Speaker 1: in my hands. We walked along the last part of

127
00:06:39,760 --> 00:06:42,680
Speaker 1: the trail, discussing what they'd seen. For a while, we

128
00:06:42,760 --> 00:06:44,880
Speaker 1: joked a little. One guy had crossed it a man

129
00:06:44,960 --> 00:06:47,000
Speaker 1: United ship. I talked to him about the team and

130
00:06:47,040 --> 00:06:49,800
Speaker 1: the universal dislike non Manu fans have for Menu fans.

131
00:06:50,560 --> 00:06:53,400
Speaker 1: Then after a while they opened up more about their experiences.

132
00:06:53,800 --> 00:06:56,599
Speaker 1: They had, they said, seen their bodies, and they couldn't

133
00:06:56,600 --> 00:06:58,680
Speaker 1: stop thinking about what happened if they had for them,

134
00:06:58,920 --> 00:07:01,520
Speaker 1: and they wanted to know how when or if the

135
00:07:01,560 --> 00:07:05,640
Speaker 1: dead people's family would ever find out.

136
00:07:07,640 --> 00:07:09,800
Speaker 4: The family waits for that person to come out to

137
00:07:09,840 --> 00:07:12,440
Speaker 4: hear that they made it, because if not, who's going

138
00:07:12,520 --> 00:07:15,680
Speaker 4: to let you know? There's no signal and nobody's going

139
00:07:15,760 --> 00:07:17,600
Speaker 4: to grab the body, and you're not going to carry

140
00:07:17,600 --> 00:07:21,000
Speaker 4: them out. The person stays there and eventually years and

141
00:07:21,080 --> 00:07:23,280
Speaker 4: years go by and the family won't know where they

142
00:07:23,280 --> 00:07:25,920
Speaker 4: are or how they died. Those are the sort of

143
00:07:25,960 --> 00:07:28,680
Speaker 4: things that one doesn't expect to see, and it makes

144
00:07:28,680 --> 00:07:31,000
Speaker 4: you just want to hurry past. Not that you wouldn't

145
00:07:31,000 --> 00:07:33,240
Speaker 4: want to get the documentation from the body and deliver

146
00:07:33,360 --> 00:07:35,440
Speaker 4: it and tell them how this person had passed away,

147
00:07:35,920 --> 00:07:37,960
Speaker 4: But how dare you just go grabbing a dead body?

148
00:07:39,440 --> 00:07:41,400
Speaker 1: Nethuinan elections were held on the twenty eighth of July

149
00:07:41,480 --> 00:07:44,680
Speaker 1: this year. Venezuelan pressions have a six year term and

150
00:07:44,720 --> 00:07:47,760
Speaker 1: the incumbent, the Colasma Duro, has been in office since

151
00:07:47,800 --> 00:07:51,200
Speaker 1: twenty thirty. I let the Venezuelan people and that introduce

152
00:07:51,240 --> 00:07:54,360
Speaker 1: themselves and explain the result of the election. Now there's

153
00:07:54,400 --> 00:07:56,040
Speaker 1: a bit of background noise here, but that's because we're

154
00:07:56,080 --> 00:07:57,800
Speaker 1: walking on the trails and it's hard to avoid.

155
00:08:02,280 --> 00:08:05,360
Speaker 2: I am coming from Venezuela, migrating through the jungle for

156
00:08:05,400 --> 00:08:07,960
Speaker 2: a better future for me and my children. I'll tell

157
00:08:07,960 --> 00:08:12,120
Speaker 2: you it's hard, but it's not impossible. No, that was

158
00:08:12,200 --> 00:08:15,160
Speaker 2: electoral fraud. And I tell you what, one day, you

159
00:08:15,320 --> 00:08:16,120
Speaker 2: just have to leave.

160
00:08:17,840 --> 00:08:21,680
Speaker 1: Maduro was opposed by A Juardo Gonzalez, an opposite candidate

161
00:08:21,880 --> 00:08:24,560
Speaker 1: who represented a wide coalition in creating groups on the

162
00:08:24,640 --> 00:08:27,800
Speaker 1: left and right. While Maduro might have support among Western

163
00:08:27,800 --> 00:08:31,240
Speaker 1: socialists and even communists, the actual Venezuelan Communist Parties youth

164
00:08:31,360 --> 00:08:35,280
Speaker 1: organization formed part of the Popular Democratic Front that opposed him.

165
00:08:35,320 --> 00:08:38,320
Speaker 1: Despite Paul Watchers tallying a massive victory for the opposition,

166
00:08:38,800 --> 00:08:42,800
Speaker 1: Moduro controls the National Lecture Council and proclaimed himself the victor.

167
00:08:43,640 --> 00:08:48,560
Speaker 1: People protested, and Maduro responded with bullets. Gonzales fled to

168
00:08:48,600 --> 00:08:51,079
Speaker 1: the Dutch and then the Spanish embassy, and later claimed

169
00:08:51,080 --> 00:08:54,520
Speaker 1: asylum in Spain, where his family lived. But for regular

170
00:08:54,520 --> 00:08:57,160
Speaker 1: working class Venezuelan's there's no option to hop on a

171
00:08:57,160 --> 00:09:00,319
Speaker 1: flight to safety. Instead, they have to be in the

172
00:09:00,360 --> 00:09:03,640
Speaker 1: long walk north, as many Venezuelans in respect you told me.

173
00:09:04,000 --> 00:09:07,000
Speaker 1: In addition to the electoral fraud, Venezuela is undergoing an

174
00:09:07,000 --> 00:09:09,760
Speaker 1: economic collapse, at least in the Chavis. He said, most

175
00:09:09,800 --> 00:09:12,120
Speaker 1: people could eat. When I lived in La Pastora, I

176
00:09:12,160 --> 00:09:15,280
Speaker 1: was able to access medical care from Cuban doctors. Now

177
00:09:15,400 --> 00:09:22,440
Speaker 1: they say things have become a Survivaldo.

178
00:09:19,880 --> 00:09:40,280
Speaker 5: So you're Venezuela. When Venezuela, well, I would say that Venezuela,

179
00:09:40,720 --> 00:09:42,920
Speaker 5: you know, yeah, you can live but not on a

180
00:09:42,920 --> 00:09:43,640
Speaker 5: minimum wage.

181
00:09:44,960 --> 00:09:48,360
Speaker 3: I would say that, for example, working independently in an

182
00:09:48,360 --> 00:09:52,000
Speaker 3: independent business, maybe you can live good. But working and

183
00:09:52,040 --> 00:09:55,760
Speaker 3: surviving for a minimum wage now, the truth is that

184
00:09:55,840 --> 00:10:00,079
Speaker 3: it doesn't work, and that's serious. Things are still bad

185
00:10:00,120 --> 00:10:02,640
Speaker 3: with the new elections and the new government. Everything is ugly.

186
00:10:02,720 --> 00:10:02,960
Speaker 5: Yeah.

187
00:10:03,800 --> 00:10:06,400
Speaker 3: The streets of Caracas are full of protests. Every day.

188
00:10:06,720 --> 00:10:10,240
Speaker 3: People went out to protest. Sometimes they shoot people. The

189
00:10:10,280 --> 00:10:12,520
Speaker 3: government mistreats people. But if you can live with it,

190
00:10:12,559 --> 00:10:15,880
Speaker 3: and you can live with it it's ugly. Well, that

191
00:10:16,000 --> 00:10:18,000
Speaker 3: is why we left there for a better future, and

192
00:10:18,040 --> 00:10:20,120
Speaker 3: we will keep moving onward onward.

193
00:10:22,360 --> 00:10:25,360
Speaker 1: This group were young men traveling in advance with their families,

194
00:10:25,640 --> 00:10:28,000
Speaker 1: hoping to earn some money, save it up, and send

195
00:10:28,040 --> 00:10:30,720
Speaker 1: it home. They knew what they were getting into when

196
00:10:30,760 --> 00:10:33,560
Speaker 1: they got to the USA, that migrants were often underpaid

197
00:10:33,720 --> 00:10:36,320
Speaker 1: and might struggle to make ends meet, but they still

198
00:10:36,360 --> 00:10:38,560
Speaker 1: thought it was better than staying home and watching your

199
00:10:38,600 --> 00:10:39,800
Speaker 1: children's future disappear.

200
00:10:42,240 --> 00:10:44,600
Speaker 4: If you don't have papers, you don't have a work permit,

201
00:10:44,920 --> 00:10:46,640
Speaker 4: you have to work for it. They want to pay you,

202
00:10:47,120 --> 00:10:48,640
Speaker 4: not for what you demand or anything.

203
00:10:49,640 --> 00:10:51,960
Speaker 1: I met lots of Venezuela families with children who had

204
00:10:52,000 --> 00:10:56,000
Speaker 1: different illnesses or disabilities, things they couldn't obtain or afford

205
00:10:56,000 --> 00:10:59,319
Speaker 1: treatment for in Venezuela. They were traveling to the US

206
00:10:59,360 --> 00:11:01,400
Speaker 1: in the hopes of a better future for their kids,

207
00:11:01,880 --> 00:11:04,360
Speaker 1: or any future at all. I met young men who

208
00:11:04,440 --> 00:11:07,040
Speaker 1: left their children behind but carried the children of strangers,

209
00:11:07,559 --> 00:11:10,600
Speaker 1: even those with whom they didn't share a language. Christian,

210
00:11:10,840 --> 00:11:12,760
Speaker 1: who he heard from earlier, showed me how he'd carried

211
00:11:12,760 --> 00:11:15,120
Speaker 1: someone else's child on his shoulders until he fell and

212
00:11:15,200 --> 00:11:16,120
Speaker 1: hurt his knee.

213
00:11:17,280 --> 00:11:17,760
Speaker 6: We all help.

214
00:11:17,800 --> 00:11:19,600
Speaker 3: I put little children up here on my shoulders to

215
00:11:19,640 --> 00:11:20,880
Speaker 3: carry them, but it isn't easy.

216
00:11:21,840 --> 00:11:24,319
Speaker 1: In the jungle, they'd formed chains using their arms to

217
00:11:24,320 --> 00:11:27,880
Speaker 1: cross rivers and carried little children on those who couldn't swim.

218
00:11:28,120 --> 00:11:30,040
Speaker 1: In Barji Guito, I saw a group of men from

219
00:11:30,040 --> 00:11:32,560
Speaker 1: Angola receiving hugs from Venezuela and women they'd helped in

220
00:11:32,559 --> 00:11:35,600
Speaker 1: the jungle. Without the help of the Angolans, they said

221
00:11:35,920 --> 00:11:38,200
Speaker 1: their children wouldn't have made it. One slip or a

222
00:11:38,200 --> 00:11:40,800
Speaker 1: loss of grip, they told me, would be fatal, and

223
00:11:40,840 --> 00:11:42,920
Speaker 1: the remains of those who had done just that served

224
00:11:42,920 --> 00:11:47,040
Speaker 1: as a grisly reminder. Later, little boys, maybe eight or

225
00:11:47,080 --> 00:11:49,880
Speaker 1: ten years old gleefully recounted seeing a dead body on

226
00:11:49,920 --> 00:11:53,320
Speaker 1: which the head had quote exploded while their parents winked

227
00:11:53,360 --> 00:11:56,880
Speaker 1: in recollection. I wanted to understand a bit more of

228
00:11:56,920 --> 00:11:58,840
Speaker 1: what they were fleeing. That made it worth going through

229
00:11:58,840 --> 00:11:59,120
Speaker 1: all this.

230
00:12:01,440 --> 00:12:03,760
Speaker 5: Venezuela.

231
00:12:03,840 --> 00:12:06,880
Speaker 7: Well, I left Venezuela because I worked in fishing. But

232
00:12:07,040 --> 00:12:09,560
Speaker 7: right now in Venezuela, despite the fact that it is

233
00:12:09,600 --> 00:12:13,240
Speaker 7: a country rich and oil, there's not enough gasoline for

234
00:12:13,280 --> 00:12:15,959
Speaker 7: the fishermen to go fishing. And since I did not

235
00:12:16,120 --> 00:12:19,280
Speaker 7: have the ability to even buy basic things such as food,

236
00:12:19,720 --> 00:12:22,360
Speaker 7: the situation was, well, it was a little complicated. I

237
00:12:22,440 --> 00:12:24,880
Speaker 7: had to immigrate. I had nothing else to do. They

238
00:12:25,000 --> 00:12:27,839
Speaker 7: didn't rob me, well, they were going to rob me

239
00:12:27,960 --> 00:12:30,840
Speaker 7: because I didn't have anything to steal. We passed by

240
00:12:30,960 --> 00:12:33,640
Speaker 7: and the group that was behind us got robbed. They

241
00:12:33,720 --> 00:12:34,839
Speaker 7: raped women in that group.

242
00:12:37,320 --> 00:12:39,480
Speaker 1: Almost every Venezuelan micro and I speG to share a

243
00:12:39,480 --> 00:12:42,720
Speaker 1: similar story. One said he didn't stare security cameras, but

244
00:12:42,760 --> 00:12:45,520
Speaker 1: nobody could afford them now, as it had to choose

245
00:12:45,520 --> 00:12:48,440
Speaker 1: between rent and groceries or medical procedures that they needed

246
00:12:48,480 --> 00:12:52,679
Speaker 1: but couldn't afford. Overwhelmingly they said the same thing. No aifuturo,

247
00:12:53,120 --> 00:12:55,679
Speaker 1: there's no future. One group said to me that they

248
00:12:55,679 --> 00:12:57,920
Speaker 1: couldn't wait for their country to become like Cuba, as

249
00:12:57,960 --> 00:13:00,920
Speaker 1: decades of embargos took their toll on the population. But

250
00:13:01,000 --> 00:13:03,160
Speaker 1: others reminded me in them that least of Cubans seem

251
00:13:03,160 --> 00:13:06,800
Speaker 1: to have doctors. Venezuela has an eighty percent poverty right now,

252
00:13:07,360 --> 00:13:09,200
Speaker 1: and though it sits on one of the largest oil

253
00:13:09,240 --> 00:13:11,640
Speaker 1: reserves of any country on Earth, it's been plagued by

254
00:13:11,640 --> 00:13:14,760
Speaker 1: planting oil prices in the years of hyperinflation, which got

255
00:13:14,800 --> 00:13:16,920
Speaker 1: so bad at one point the shots stopped putting price

256
00:13:16,960 --> 00:13:19,040
Speaker 1: tags on things and relied on staff to give up

257
00:13:19,080 --> 00:13:23,280
Speaker 1: to the minute prices. Today, alongside a regime that lacks legitimacy,

258
00:13:23,800 --> 00:13:26,400
Speaker 1: a state that readily uses horrific violence against its people,

259
00:13:26,880 --> 00:13:30,120
Speaker 1: an election that was essentially ignored, Venezuelan's must also deal

260
00:13:30,120 --> 00:13:35,000
Speaker 1: with shortages of basic goods, poverty, and malnutrition. Unlike Cubans

261
00:13:35,080 --> 00:13:37,320
Speaker 1: who have a relatively good polittal lobby in the USA,

262
00:13:37,760 --> 00:13:40,680
Speaker 1: Venezuelan's coming to the USA do not benefit from special laws.

263
00:13:41,200 --> 00:13:43,360
Speaker 1: Cubans under the Cuban Adjustment Act have a part of

264
00:13:43,360 --> 00:13:46,000
Speaker 1: the citizenship and permanence once they set foot on US soil.

265
00:13:46,480 --> 00:13:49,720
Speaker 1: Venezuelans do not. They're covered by something called a temporary

266
00:13:49,720 --> 00:13:52,600
Speaker 1: protected status, but this does not afford them much in

267
00:13:52,600 --> 00:13:55,800
Speaker 1: the way of stability, protection, or a secure future. His

268
00:13:55,920 --> 00:13:59,920
Speaker 1: Ereka Pinhidro of Alotolado and Incredible organization does valuable work

269
00:14:00,000 --> 00:14:04,080
Speaker 1: with migrant legal aid advocacy and humanitarian relief, explaining just

270
00:14:04,160 --> 00:14:05,720
Speaker 1: how temporary a TPS is.

271
00:14:06,120 --> 00:14:11,240
Speaker 6: So temporary protected status is it's basically a form of

272
00:14:11,280 --> 00:14:15,040
Speaker 6: protecting individuals who are already in the United States when

273
00:14:15,040 --> 00:14:19,800
Speaker 6: their countries have experienced a natural disaster, if they are

274
00:14:19,840 --> 00:14:23,520
Speaker 6: in war, there's some kind of situation going on that

275
00:14:23,640 --> 00:14:28,360
Speaker 6: makes it difficult for them to return, and so temporary

276
00:14:28,360 --> 00:14:31,960
Speaker 6: protected status was first created in nineteen ninety and the

277
00:14:32,000 --> 00:14:37,040
Speaker 6: first individuals who receive the status were from El Salvador,

278
00:14:37,640 --> 00:14:39,560
Speaker 6: and since then, I think there's been a few dozen

279
00:14:39,600 --> 00:14:42,400
Speaker 6: countries that have been designated. But basically the way it

280
00:14:42,440 --> 00:14:46,800
Speaker 6: works is they designate a country and so if you

281
00:14:46,840 --> 00:14:50,440
Speaker 6: were in the United States before that designation date, you

282
00:14:50,480 --> 00:14:55,600
Speaker 6: can apply for temporary protected status within a designated time

283
00:14:55,600 --> 00:15:00,400
Speaker 6: period and you get a work permit. It's valid for six,

284
00:15:00,560 --> 00:15:04,640
Speaker 6: twelve or eighteen months and then two months before it expires,

285
00:15:05,120 --> 00:15:09,240
Speaker 6: the Secretary of the Department of holand Security has to

286
00:15:09,280 --> 00:15:13,200
Speaker 6: say whether or not they're going to reauthorize GPS. So

287
00:15:13,360 --> 00:15:16,520
Speaker 6: there's like eight hundred and sixty thousand people in the

288
00:15:16,640 --> 00:15:22,240
Speaker 6: US who have temporary protected status and it's not a

289
00:15:22,240 --> 00:15:25,680
Speaker 6: path to citizenship. So basically people are just in limbo

290
00:15:25,800 --> 00:15:28,840
Speaker 6: sometimes for decades, you know, they just have to reapply

291
00:15:29,000 --> 00:15:33,320
Speaker 6: for this permit every eighteen months. So I have quite

292
00:15:33,320 --> 00:15:36,480
Speaker 6: a few salvador and friends who've been in the United

293
00:15:36,520 --> 00:15:39,200
Speaker 6: States since the nineties. They have kids, some of them

294
00:15:39,440 --> 00:15:43,040
Speaker 6: current kids, or a US citizen, and they can't become

295
00:15:43,480 --> 00:15:46,520
Speaker 6: permanent residents or have a path the citizenship unless they

296
00:15:46,560 --> 00:15:49,360
Speaker 6: leave the country and either come back with another type

297
00:15:49,360 --> 00:15:52,280
Speaker 6: of parole or you know, apply through a consulate, which

298
00:15:52,800 --> 00:15:54,760
Speaker 6: many of them are just not willing to take that risk.

299
00:15:55,440 --> 00:15:58,360
Speaker 1: Well, makes things even more complicated for the Venezuelans is

300
00:15:58,360 --> 00:16:01,560
Speaker 1: that many of them are traveling without document. It costs

301
00:16:01,560 --> 00:16:03,520
Speaker 1: three hundred bucks to get a passport, they told me,

302
00:16:03,640 --> 00:16:07,080
Speaker 1: and the weight's considerable. This makes their journeys even harder

303
00:16:07,240 --> 00:16:09,240
Speaker 1: as every country the enter has to approve them to

304
00:16:09,520 --> 00:16:12,760
Speaker 1: without a passport. Getting a visa, they said would be

305
00:16:12,800 --> 00:16:15,360
Speaker 1: nearly impossible, and just trying that result in the government

306
00:16:15,360 --> 00:16:19,040
Speaker 1: coming after them. Such things, they said, are reserved for

307
00:16:19,080 --> 00:16:22,720
Speaker 1: the wealthier citizens, people like Gonzales, who's asylum claim and

308
00:16:22,760 --> 00:16:25,320
Speaker 1: stays at the Dutch and Spanish embassies, and his right

309
00:16:25,360 --> 00:16:27,800
Speaker 1: to join his family in exile are all luxuries that

310
00:16:27,840 --> 00:16:31,440
Speaker 1: most of his country people can't expect. Instead, most Venezuelans

311
00:16:31,520 --> 00:16:34,600
Speaker 1: must ride buses through Columbia, then walk north through the jungle,

312
00:16:34,920 --> 00:16:38,080
Speaker 1: then ride buses stir away on trains, or walk again

313
00:16:38,120 --> 00:16:40,680
Speaker 1: all the way to the border. They all lamented the

314
00:16:40,720 --> 00:16:44,680
Speaker 1: Dadian crossing and so they wouldn't advise it without other options.

315
00:16:44,760 --> 00:16:51,720
Speaker 1: They all made it anyway, community.

316
00:16:51,520 --> 00:17:03,360
Speaker 4: See, because because unfortunately we don't have much in our country.

317
00:17:03,520 --> 00:17:05,520
Speaker 4: You don't have another option. When you're dying of hunger

318
00:17:05,560 --> 00:17:08,320
Speaker 4: and you don't have a future, you can't even study.

319
00:17:09,359 --> 00:17:10,800
Speaker 4: So yeah, it's worth it.

320
00:17:12,600 --> 00:17:16,000
Speaker 1: The economic situation is dire in Venezuela. Many families can't

321
00:17:16,040 --> 00:17:18,679
Speaker 1: make end me, their currency is almost worth us, and

322
00:17:18,720 --> 00:17:21,119
Speaker 1: the majority government seems to have successfully installed itself for

323
00:17:21,160 --> 00:17:24,440
Speaker 1: the foreseeable future. This will mean a continuation of embargos

324
00:17:24,440 --> 00:17:28,400
Speaker 1: and sanctions, which will harm the people more than the regime. Sadly, though,

325
00:17:28,880 --> 00:17:31,600
Speaker 1: economic hardships is not a criteria which won't be grounded

326
00:17:31,680 --> 00:17:33,840
Speaker 1: asylum in the usah Erica.

327
00:17:33,880 --> 00:17:39,320
Speaker 6: Again, so severe economic deprivation can be persecution if it's

328
00:17:39,400 --> 00:17:44,280
Speaker 6: linked to one of the other protege grounds, so race, religion, nationality,

329
00:17:44,359 --> 00:17:47,680
Speaker 6: political opinion, or membership, but in a particular social group. So

330
00:17:47,760 --> 00:17:54,879
Speaker 6: for example, if someone participated in anti Maduro political activity

331
00:17:55,320 --> 00:17:58,720
Speaker 6: and then we're blocked from getting a job or just

332
00:17:58,800 --> 00:18:03,199
Speaker 6: denied economic opportunities to the point where they're starving, the

333
00:18:03,280 --> 00:18:07,880
Speaker 6: economic deprivation could count as persecution, but it's a very

334
00:18:07,880 --> 00:18:12,040
Speaker 6: difficult case to make in the United States. In Mexico,

335
00:18:12,640 --> 00:18:17,000
Speaker 6: you can get protection based on generalized conditions in your country,

336
00:18:17,760 --> 00:18:22,640
Speaker 6: and so you know, Venezuelans betweeing economic collapse or even

337
00:18:23,320 --> 00:18:27,480
Speaker 6: Central Americans fleeing extreme violence have a much easier time

338
00:18:27,560 --> 00:18:31,040
Speaker 6: dating protection in Mexico than they would in the United

339
00:18:31,119 --> 00:18:34,400
Speaker 6: States because of that kind of extra category of protection

340
00:18:34,520 --> 00:18:37,840
Speaker 6: in Mexico. The issue with Mexico is just the very

341
00:18:37,880 --> 00:18:41,199
Speaker 6: limited capacity of this islum system overall, and the very

342
00:18:41,320 --> 00:18:43,880
Speaker 6: dangerous conditions in which people are forced to wait while

343
00:18:43,880 --> 00:18:45,240
Speaker 6: their cases are judicated.

344
00:18:45,840 --> 00:18:49,280
Speaker 1: Going forward from the Dadian, they'll face an enormously difficult journey.

345
00:18:49,760 --> 00:18:51,960
Speaker 1: The US does have a program for Cubans, Venezuelan and

346
00:18:52,080 --> 00:18:54,600
Speaker 1: Haitians and Nicaraguans, then in theory allows them to apply,

347
00:18:55,240 --> 00:18:58,600
Speaker 1: be pre approved and fly straight to the USA, but

348
00:18:59,000 --> 00:19:01,280
Speaker 1: it's so delayed and it's just not an option for

349
00:19:01,320 --> 00:19:03,520
Speaker 1: people who barely have enough money for food, let learn

350
00:19:03,560 --> 00:19:05,040
Speaker 1: a plane ticket there.

351
00:19:05,160 --> 00:19:11,840
Speaker 6: This HMV program is for Cumanations, nick Garaguans, Venezuelans who

352
00:19:12,160 --> 00:19:15,600
Speaker 6: have not crossed into Panama or Mexico in the past

353
00:19:15,600 --> 00:19:18,679
Speaker 6: few years. You do not qualify who've done that or

354
00:19:18,760 --> 00:19:21,399
Speaker 6: have not been inter died at sea. If they're Haitian

355
00:19:21,480 --> 00:19:23,960
Speaker 6: or Cuban, you have to have a sponsor in the

356
00:19:24,040 --> 00:19:27,480
Speaker 6: United States who have some kind of legal status. You

357
00:19:27,560 --> 00:19:30,000
Speaker 6: have to be able to pay for the flight, you

358
00:19:30,119 --> 00:19:33,359
Speaker 6: have to have a passport, and you have to be

359
00:19:33,440 --> 00:19:36,280
Speaker 6: able to wait forever long it takes for your application

360
00:19:36,400 --> 00:19:39,879
Speaker 6: to be approved. And the Department of Homeland Security just

361
00:19:39,960 --> 00:19:44,280
Speaker 6: announced that they are not renewing parole for people who

362
00:19:44,280 --> 00:19:47,440
Speaker 6: are already in the United States. So people from those

363
00:19:47,480 --> 00:19:50,080
Speaker 6: four countries who were in the US head up to

364
00:19:50,119 --> 00:19:53,040
Speaker 6: two years of humanitarian parole, which is not being renewed,

365
00:19:53,400 --> 00:19:56,440
Speaker 6: so they either would need to apply for something else

366
00:19:56,560 --> 00:19:59,120
Speaker 6: or go back to their country, or just I guess,

367
00:19:59,160 --> 00:20:25,920
Speaker 6: stay in the it stints undocumented until their codavy.

368
00:20:34,440 --> 00:20:36,760
Speaker 1: I heard the same story hundreds of times that week,

369
00:20:37,200 --> 00:20:40,680
Speaker 1: sometimes off mike and sometimes on mike, sometimes holding my

370
00:20:40,760 --> 00:20:43,719
Speaker 1: voice recorder and notebook, sometimes just sitting on the ground

371
00:20:44,080 --> 00:20:46,480
Speaker 1: or walking on the trail or enjoying a bottle of

372
00:20:46,520 --> 00:20:51,080
Speaker 1: cold water in Bahjigito. Crippling poverty and bad governance in

373
00:20:51,119 --> 00:20:53,400
Speaker 1: their country made it difficult to see a future there.

374
00:20:54,240 --> 00:20:56,719
Speaker 1: They wanted better for their children, so they bought them

375
00:20:56,720 --> 00:20:58,840
Speaker 1: across the mountains and risked their lives in the jungle

376
00:20:59,000 --> 00:21:01,840
Speaker 1: to give them a chance. And I prepared a lot

377
00:21:01,880 --> 00:21:04,280
Speaker 1: for this trip, and I tried to search for everything

378
00:21:04,320 --> 00:21:06,720
Speaker 1: I my experience on the internet. But one thing I

379
00:21:06,720 --> 00:21:08,639
Speaker 1: really didn't expect to learn in the jungle is just

380
00:21:08,720 --> 00:21:11,320
Speaker 1: how much it's possible for parents to love their kids.

381
00:21:12,000 --> 00:21:14,840
Speaker 1: I watched exhausted mothers hoist their babies onto their shoulders

382
00:21:14,880 --> 00:21:17,399
Speaker 1: to keep walking, and somehow come up with a story

383
00:21:17,440 --> 00:21:19,520
Speaker 1: that made the whole thing an adventure, not a tragedy.

384
00:21:20,480 --> 00:21:22,639
Speaker 1: Then did the same thing again the next day, without

385
00:21:22,640 --> 00:21:26,560
Speaker 1: sleeping or eating. I watch fathers carefully lay out their

386
00:21:26,600 --> 00:21:29,200
Speaker 1: sleeping map so that children could rest where they tried

387
00:21:29,200 --> 00:21:31,320
Speaker 1: to do the same on the dirt or hardwood floors

388
00:21:32,119 --> 00:21:34,280
Speaker 1: every day as their savings grew low and they out

389
00:21:34,280 --> 00:21:36,600
Speaker 1: looked more bleak, I watched parents try to smile for

390
00:21:36,640 --> 00:21:40,199
Speaker 1: their kids. The sacrifices I saw them make, starving for

391
00:21:40,280 --> 00:21:42,600
Speaker 1: days to give their kids something to eat, or spending

392
00:21:42,600 --> 00:21:45,000
Speaker 1: their last remaining dollar on clean clothes for their kids

393
00:21:45,000 --> 00:21:48,280
Speaker 1: while they walked barefoot and couldn't afford shoes really brought

394
00:21:48,359 --> 00:21:50,320
Speaker 1: home for me the desire these families had for a

395
00:21:50,359 --> 00:21:52,840
Speaker 1: better future and the sacrifices they were willing to make

396
00:21:52,840 --> 00:21:56,760
Speaker 1: for one Another. Week later, it's still hard for me

397
00:21:56,800 --> 00:21:59,320
Speaker 1: to accept that I'm home safely and they're still in

398
00:21:59,359 --> 00:22:03,200
Speaker 1: as much danger, if not more.

399
00:22:04,040 --> 00:22:07,720
Speaker 8: Our walk lasted five days. Thank god I was always

400
00:22:07,720 --> 00:22:09,960
Speaker 8: strong enough and able to get back up when I fell,

401
00:22:10,040 --> 00:22:13,000
Speaker 8: because if I fell and my children had to see

402
00:22:13,000 --> 00:22:15,280
Speaker 8: me fall and not get up, imagine how bad that

403
00:22:15,320 --> 00:22:18,199
Speaker 8: would be. My children want more in the future, but

404
00:22:18,600 --> 00:22:21,679
Speaker 8: they despaired in the jungle. They said, tell me, Mommy,

405
00:22:21,840 --> 00:22:24,520
Speaker 8: when are we going to get there? Mommy? What could

406
00:22:24,520 --> 00:22:27,000
Speaker 8: I say to them? My dear, we have to have

407
00:22:27,080 --> 00:22:30,240
Speaker 8: patience because we have to make the crossing. We have

408
00:22:30,359 --> 00:22:34,600
Speaker 8: to move forward. If not, we can't get out of here.

409
00:22:35,440 --> 00:22:38,760
Speaker 1: Even among such difficult times, the Venezuelans always greeted me

410
00:22:38,800 --> 00:22:41,160
Speaker 1: with a laugh and a smile, especially after a few

411
00:22:41,200 --> 00:22:43,760
Speaker 1: days of running into each other. When I use venezuhealen

412
00:22:43,840 --> 00:22:46,280
Speaker 1: slang or my accents slowly reverted to the Spanish, and I

413
00:22:46,320 --> 00:22:49,240
Speaker 1: learned in Karrakas only two decades ago, they'd laugh at me,

414
00:22:50,160 --> 00:22:52,680
Speaker 1: as they noted at that time Karrakas had attracted plenty

415
00:22:52,680 --> 00:22:56,280
Speaker 1: of migrants, to recern, some of them, like me, didn't stay,

416
00:22:56,800 --> 00:22:58,639
Speaker 1: but we came. We wanted to see a revolution in

417
00:22:58,680 --> 00:23:02,160
Speaker 1: the flesh, and they welcomed us. For a while in Caracas,

418
00:23:02,280 --> 00:23:04,399
Speaker 1: I lived in a social center in La Pastora. I

419
00:23:04,440 --> 00:23:06,479
Speaker 1: didn't pay rent, but there was a small, empty room

420
00:23:06,520 --> 00:23:08,720
Speaker 1: and no one seemed to mind. Every day I talked

421
00:23:08,720 --> 00:23:11,360
Speaker 1: to strangers, big friends, and try and learn something new.

422
00:23:11,880 --> 00:23:14,520
Speaker 1: The situation there was an ideal. For one thing, we

423
00:23:14,560 --> 00:23:17,080
Speaker 1: didn't really have showers, and also I got robbed at gunpoint.

424
00:23:17,520 --> 00:23:19,359
Speaker 1: So for most of my time in the country, I

425
00:23:19,400 --> 00:23:22,240
Speaker 1: stayed with the Chilean family i'd met. They welcomed me

426
00:23:22,480 --> 00:23:25,199
Speaker 1: a more or left total stranger into their homes and lives.

427
00:23:25,800 --> 00:23:28,600
Speaker 1: In the evenings, we spent hours talking and they'd tell

428
00:23:28,640 --> 00:23:31,600
Speaker 1: me stories about how they'd suffered under Pinochet, the hopes

429
00:23:31,640 --> 00:23:34,359
Speaker 1: they'd had for their country, and how they'd had to

430
00:23:34,400 --> 00:23:37,560
Speaker 1: flee to Caracas like tens of thousands of their fellow Chileans.

431
00:23:37,720 --> 00:23:41,000
Speaker 1: They introduced me to Victor Harr and Jody Pan. I

432
00:23:41,040 --> 00:23:43,600
Speaker 1: introduced them to chumber Wamba, and we shared an affection

433
00:23:43,640 --> 00:23:46,440
Speaker 1: for George Orwell. The song you heard after the adverts

434
00:23:46,480 --> 00:23:48,840
Speaker 1: was not in fact chamber Wamba, but Chilean left his

435
00:23:48,880 --> 00:23:51,800
Speaker 1: folk musician in Victor Haa. He's playing Eldrecho de vi

436
00:23:51,880 --> 00:23:55,159
Speaker 1: videnpaz the right to live in Peace in English, and

437
00:23:55,200 --> 00:23:57,720
Speaker 1: it's one of his most famous songs. It confronts the

438
00:23:57,840 --> 00:24:01,639
Speaker 1: US War in Vietnam. After how I was tortured and

439
00:24:01,720 --> 00:24:04,200
Speaker 1: murdered by the Pinochet regime, it became an anthem of

440
00:24:04,280 --> 00:24:07,520
Speaker 1: protest in the country. Haah and his friend Pabu and

441
00:24:07,560 --> 00:24:10,080
Speaker 1: the Ruda were both symbols of the cultural power of

442
00:24:10,080 --> 00:24:13,040
Speaker 1: the Chilean people and the brutality of the Pinochet regime

443
00:24:13,320 --> 00:24:15,119
Speaker 1: who broke the hands He used to play his guitar

444
00:24:15,200 --> 00:24:18,560
Speaker 1: before they killed him. Harah and the Rudah both moved

445
00:24:18,560 --> 00:24:21,600
Speaker 1: in the same revolutionary artistic circles as my Chilean host

446
00:24:21,680 --> 00:24:24,600
Speaker 1: in Venezuela. At night, they tell me stories about the

447
00:24:24,600 --> 00:24:27,439
Speaker 1: time they spent together. We'd have to speak loudly as

448
00:24:27,480 --> 00:24:28,760
Speaker 1: a man who had adopted me as a sort of

449
00:24:28,760 --> 00:24:31,640
Speaker 1: surrogate grandson of permanent hearing damage from the torture he'd

450
00:24:31,680 --> 00:24:35,040
Speaker 1: endured under the same regime. Luckily, he'd been able to

451
00:24:35,040 --> 00:24:37,880
Speaker 1: flee with his wife to Venezuela, where they were welcomed.

452
00:24:38,400 --> 00:24:40,679
Speaker 1: They never returned to Chile and happily lived out the

453
00:24:40,680 --> 00:24:42,800
Speaker 1: rest of their lives listening to their Victor Haarra records

454
00:24:42,840 --> 00:24:46,440
Speaker 1: in Caracas and living the ideals that had seen them persecuted.

455
00:24:47,520 --> 00:24:50,040
Speaker 1: Their kindness to me, a nineteen year old stranger with

456
00:24:50,119 --> 00:24:52,800
Speaker 1: terrible Spanish and nowhere to sleep at night, reflected the

457
00:24:52,880 --> 00:24:55,320
Speaker 1: kindness they'd received, and I've tried to reflect it in

458
00:24:55,320 --> 00:25:11,520
Speaker 1: turn ever since. Oh no, oh, I never once heard

459
00:25:11,520 --> 00:25:14,840
Speaker 1: any children crying and last blankets or bar chiquito, well,

460
00:25:14,960 --> 00:25:17,000
Speaker 1: not until the deportations took their parents away on my

461
00:25:17,080 --> 00:25:20,040
Speaker 1: last day there. Most of the time, the kids entertained

462
00:25:20,080 --> 00:25:23,680
Speaker 1: themselves one day in Last Blancas, where migrants can wait

463
00:25:23,720 --> 00:25:25,879
Speaker 1: and spend weeks or months they don't have the funds

464
00:25:25,880 --> 00:25:28,520
Speaker 1: to move forward with their journey. I left my picture

465
00:25:28,560 --> 00:25:30,600
Speaker 1: while she made a call and bumped into some little

466
00:25:30,640 --> 00:25:33,200
Speaker 1: children playing a game where they throw water bottle caps

467
00:25:33,200 --> 00:25:36,600
Speaker 1: into half a breeze block from various distances, each of

468
00:25:36,640 --> 00:25:39,880
Speaker 1: them counting how many they could land. I sat down

469
00:25:39,880 --> 00:25:42,600
Speaker 1: next to them, put my recorder on the ground and

470
00:25:42,640 --> 00:25:55,320
Speaker 1: asked nicely if I could join them like a tiny

471
00:25:55,359 --> 00:25:57,320
Speaker 1: pit boss. One of the kids bought me a pile

472
00:25:57,359 --> 00:25:59,440
Speaker 1: of bottle tops, and I chatted with them as we

473
00:25:59,480 --> 00:26:01,639
Speaker 1: threw a bottle cap to the broken piece of concrete.

474
00:26:02,520 --> 00:26:03,640
Speaker 1: What was it like in America?

475
00:26:03,760 --> 00:26:04,280
Speaker 2: They asked.

476
00:26:05,160 --> 00:26:07,680
Speaker 1: They's had a lot of questions about Africa, having probably

477
00:26:07,720 --> 00:26:10,439
Speaker 1: met African kids in the casita just across the way.

478
00:26:11,040 --> 00:26:13,840
Speaker 1: Do they have big buildings in Africa? Does it rain there?

479
00:26:14,359 --> 00:26:16,360
Speaker 1: How long does it take to get there in a bus?

480
00:26:16,840 --> 00:26:19,720
Speaker 1: Then they tested by venezuela and legitimacy by drawing me

481
00:26:19,760 --> 00:26:21,600
Speaker 1: in a ripper in my notebook, and I asked him

482
00:26:21,600 --> 00:26:24,120
Speaker 1: if I knew what it was, what I passed a test?

483
00:26:24,760 --> 00:26:26,560
Speaker 1: They asked me how to say some things in English,

484
00:26:26,840 --> 00:26:28,359
Speaker 1: and they showed me the toys they bought with them,

485
00:26:28,359 --> 00:26:31,080
Speaker 1: which were very few. One of them had a small

486
00:26:31,080 --> 00:26:41,400
Speaker 1: plastic cow of which he was very proud one. After

487
00:26:41,400 --> 00:26:43,639
Speaker 1: a while, they asked what I was doing, and I

488
00:26:43,640 --> 00:26:46,560
Speaker 1: showed them how I record interviews, at which point they

489
00:26:46,600 --> 00:26:49,440
Speaker 1: began recording themselves in each other, wildly stabbing at the

490
00:26:49,440 --> 00:26:51,720
Speaker 1: buttons on my recorder, which I will admit scared the

491
00:26:51,840 --> 00:26:54,560
Speaker 1: crap out of me, but I didn't have the heart

492
00:26:54,600 --> 00:26:57,400
Speaker 1: to take it off them. They stroked the fluffy wim

493
00:26:57,520 --> 00:26:59,800
Speaker 1: protector I use on my microphone. It told me it

494
00:26:59,840 --> 00:27:02,840
Speaker 1: was like a tiny teddy bear. Eventually I was able

495
00:27:02,840 --> 00:27:05,159
Speaker 1: to trade my recorder for several small wooden animals that

496
00:27:05,240 --> 00:27:07,640
Speaker 1: brought with me as gifts, which seemed to be a deal.

497
00:27:07,760 --> 00:27:09,600
Speaker 1: The left all of us feelings that we come out ahead.

498
00:27:10,400 --> 00:27:12,600
Speaker 1: They seemed n't bothered by the suffering around them. But

499
00:27:12,840 --> 00:27:15,679
Speaker 1: Las Blancas is no place for children. They should be

500
00:27:15,720 --> 00:27:18,320
Speaker 1: in school, learning the English phrases they kept repeating to

501
00:27:18,359 --> 00:27:21,080
Speaker 1: me every time I saw them. But for a chance

502
00:27:21,080 --> 00:27:23,520
Speaker 1: to use their English, they first had to endure month

503
00:27:23,600 --> 00:27:33,080
Speaker 1: more danger and deprivation. I guess Son. Some slightly hold

504
00:27:33,119 --> 00:27:36,840
Speaker 1: A children made the journey alone or almost alone. They

505
00:27:36,840 --> 00:27:41,000
Speaker 1: were accompanied by a spaniel called Channel. I saw a

506
00:27:41,040 --> 00:27:42,639
Speaker 1: future while as people are carried with them through the

507
00:27:42,680 --> 00:27:44,560
Speaker 1: day and gap. But to my analysis, is the first

508
00:27:44,600 --> 00:27:52,680
Speaker 1: spaniel that has made the treacherous Crossingezuela.

509
00:27:52,320 --> 00:27:53,439
Speaker 9: Luela.

510
00:27:57,200 --> 00:27:59,920
Speaker 1: Like everyone else, they had terrible memories from the jung.

511
00:28:02,840 --> 00:28:04,679
Speaker 10: The truth is you have to fight a lot to

512
00:28:04,720 --> 00:28:07,280
Speaker 10: be able to get out of there, because not everyone

513
00:28:07,320 --> 00:28:10,200
Speaker 10: gets out of that jungle, and it's even more difficult

514
00:28:10,200 --> 00:28:13,240
Speaker 10: with small children. There are times when one goes without

515
00:28:13,240 --> 00:28:17,359
Speaker 10: food and it's very stressful because all around us all

516
00:28:17,400 --> 00:28:20,080
Speaker 10: we saw was the jungle, and we never saw the

517
00:28:20,119 --> 00:28:23,840
Speaker 10: way out. But it is complicated. The truth is that

518
00:28:23,920 --> 00:28:27,600
Speaker 10: it is very hard the jungle. Well, I would really

519
00:28:27,640 --> 00:28:30,879
Speaker 10: recommend that people never go there. All our feet are hurting,

520
00:28:31,119 --> 00:28:34,239
Speaker 10: we can't walk properly. Our whole body is hurt. We

521
00:28:34,320 --> 00:28:35,600
Speaker 10: went days without eating.

522
00:28:36,720 --> 00:28:39,200
Speaker 1: They were traveling. They said to join their parents, and

523
00:28:39,240 --> 00:28:42,240
Speaker 1: because in Venezuela they told me they were always hungry.

524
00:28:42,800 --> 00:28:44,640
Speaker 1: They saw people sleeping on the streets and worried that

525
00:28:44,680 --> 00:28:46,520
Speaker 1: would be their only option. One day they didn't leave.

526
00:28:49,760 --> 00:28:51,720
Speaker 10: I want to see mom. I haven't seen her in

527
00:28:51,800 --> 00:28:54,600
Speaker 10: three years, and I want to have my American dream too.

528
00:28:56,160 --> 00:28:58,400
Speaker 11: I want to see my dad, my aunt and my uncle.

529
00:28:58,800 --> 00:29:00,600
Speaker 11: I haven't seen them for three years either.

530
00:29:01,520 --> 00:29:03,760
Speaker 1: Despite the hard yet they didn't blame their parents for leaving.

531
00:29:05,520 --> 00:29:07,920
Speaker 11: We know that we made it because of them. They're

532
00:29:07,960 --> 00:29:10,200
Speaker 11: the ones who sent us money for the things we need.

533
00:29:10,320 --> 00:29:12,479
Speaker 11: We were able to get a few things, not everything

534
00:29:12,520 --> 00:29:15,000
Speaker 11: we needed, but it's all thanks to them.

535
00:29:15,360 --> 00:29:17,160
Speaker 1: The end of their interview, as I always do, I

536
00:29:17,160 --> 00:29:20,240
Speaker 1: asked them if there's anything else that they wanted to share.

537
00:29:20,840 --> 00:29:22,920
Speaker 7: I don't know. For our parents, we love them a

538
00:29:22,960 --> 00:29:24,720
Speaker 7: lot and hope we can see them soon.

539
00:29:36,760 --> 00:29:39,360
Speaker 1: Like many of the Venezuelan's I spoke to, their American

540
00:29:39,440 --> 00:29:42,720
Speaker 1: dreams were pretty modest for most of them, though they'll

541
00:29:42,720 --> 00:29:45,800
Speaker 1: be unachievable in the current immigration system. They'll end up

542
00:29:45,800 --> 00:29:48,680
Speaker 1: stuck in Mexico, in Mexico City perhaps for further south,

543
00:29:49,160 --> 00:29:51,920
Speaker 1: but in Tijuana or Juaro's waiting across the border of

544
00:29:51,920 --> 00:29:55,160
Speaker 1: They're lucky, but if they cried across between ports of entry,

545
00:29:55,400 --> 00:29:58,440
Speaker 1: we'll get caught traveling without red string. In Mexico, they

546
00:29:58,520 --> 00:30:02,360
Speaker 1: were being deported or relocated back to southern Mexico, Hesatica

547
00:30:02,400 --> 00:30:03,360
Speaker 1: explaining that process.

548
00:30:03,480 --> 00:30:07,880
Speaker 6: The Mexican National Guard has been detaining people who are

549
00:30:07,920 --> 00:30:10,320
Speaker 6: trying to cross the US medical border, and they had

550
00:30:10,320 --> 00:30:15,560
Speaker 6: been sending them south to Mexico City and Chiapas to Tapachula.

551
00:30:16,040 --> 00:30:20,560
Speaker 6: Now there's been this huge effort to stop people from waiting,

552
00:30:20,600 --> 00:30:22,959
Speaker 6: not only at the US Mexico border, but even in

553
00:30:23,000 --> 00:30:28,120
Speaker 6: Mexco City. So we're seeing Mexican Immigration and National Guard

554
00:30:28,240 --> 00:30:32,880
Speaker 6: doing sweeps of migrant camps, of apartment buildings, doesn't matter

555
00:30:32,880 --> 00:30:35,920
Speaker 6: if the person has a CVP one appointment. Sometimes they'll

556
00:30:35,960 --> 00:30:39,440
Speaker 6: just send them souths to either Chiapa's an increasing lead

557
00:30:39,480 --> 00:30:42,920
Speaker 6: to Basco. So Vie at Mossa, which is where people

558
00:30:42,960 --> 00:30:46,880
Speaker 6: are arriving in Tabasco, has one shelter and I think

559
00:30:46,960 --> 00:30:50,080
Speaker 6: the capacity is around two hundred and fifty three hundred people,

560
00:30:50,880 --> 00:30:54,640
Speaker 6: and earlier this year they were sending twenty thousand migrants

561
00:30:54,640 --> 00:30:57,960
Speaker 6: a month there and then they posted the military ships

562
00:30:58,000 --> 00:31:01,120
Speaker 6: so that people can't leave, and it's very dangerous there.

563
00:31:01,120 --> 00:31:04,000
Speaker 6: It's a drug tracking area, so it's you know, not

564
00:31:04,040 --> 00:31:06,200
Speaker 6: only are people sleeping in the streets, but they're sleeping

565
00:31:06,480 --> 00:31:08,280
Speaker 6: on the streets of some of the most dangerous cities

566
00:31:08,280 --> 00:31:11,200
Speaker 6: and massacre win very few services there to help them

567
00:31:11,600 --> 00:31:12,640
Speaker 6: even get their next meal.

568
00:31:13,080 --> 00:31:15,160
Speaker 1: This, of course, didn't happen without the inmfluence of the

569
00:31:15,240 --> 00:31:18,560
Speaker 1: United States. In many ways, Joe Biden has done exactly

570
00:31:18,560 --> 00:31:20,800
Speaker 1: what Donald Trump promised to do. Not only has he

571
00:31:20,840 --> 00:31:24,080
Speaker 1: built more wall, he's also forced Mexico to pay for

572
00:31:24,080 --> 00:31:27,640
Speaker 1: a significant amount of the US's immigration enforcement. But when

573
00:31:27,640 --> 00:31:29,840
Speaker 1: people are sent back to the south of Mexico, they'll

574
00:31:29,880 --> 00:31:32,120
Speaker 1: just make their way north again, only this time with

575
00:31:32,240 --> 00:31:35,880
Speaker 1: fewer resources and even greater risk. They're all proud of

576
00:31:35,880 --> 00:31:38,200
Speaker 1: where they're from. About half the groups I saw had

577
00:31:38,280 --> 00:31:41,560
Speaker 1: Venezuela flags and the cats or backpacks, but they're also

578
00:31:41,680 --> 00:31:43,840
Speaker 1: very aware of the betrayal they get as Venezuelan's in

579
00:31:43,880 --> 00:31:46,200
Speaker 1: the US media, and many of them made the very

580
00:31:46,280 --> 00:31:49,320
Speaker 1: valid point if American is afraid of Venezuela gangs, they

581
00:31:49,320 --> 00:31:51,040
Speaker 1: ought to consider how much more afraid people are in

582
00:31:51,120 --> 00:31:52,400
Speaker 1: a country where they actually exist.

583
00:31:52,800 --> 00:31:57,960
Speaker 12: Yahvencelanma parazon is and female.

584
00:31:59,440 --> 00:32:02,920
Speaker 7: I'm thirteen. Please don't believe that because one person from

585
00:32:02,960 --> 00:32:06,160
Speaker 7: Venezuela does crime, that all Venezuelans do crime.

586
00:32:06,880 --> 00:32:09,240
Speaker 1: But at least they get it betrayed in the US media.

587
00:32:09,600 --> 00:32:12,480
Speaker 1: Many African migrants don't even get that. Of course, it

588
00:32:12,720 --> 00:32:15,840
Speaker 1: doesn't mean they don't know about the USA his powers

589
00:32:15,840 --> 00:32:19,360
Speaker 1: in her anglophant Cameronian group again talking about their impressions

590
00:32:19,360 --> 00:32:22,160
Speaker 1: of America where they'd like to live when they arrive here.

591
00:32:22,680 --> 00:32:25,800
Speaker 9: You know, America is a very beautiful country, and America

592
00:32:25,840 --> 00:32:29,960
Speaker 9: has human rights, take care about the citizens. In fact,

593
00:32:30,000 --> 00:32:32,920
Speaker 9: they care about humanity. See, I don't want to have

594
00:32:33,000 --> 00:32:36,240
Speaker 9: a friend that I'm gonna stay with for the meantime.

595
00:32:36,360 --> 00:32:40,040
Speaker 1: Then it gets that's great. Yeah, that helps a lot.

596
00:32:40,600 --> 00:32:42,120
Speaker 1: Do you know which city your friend lives in?

597
00:32:42,680 --> 00:32:47,080
Speaker 9: She's in Maryland, Maryland? Okay, yeah, So if I'm asks,

598
00:32:47,120 --> 00:32:51,080
Speaker 9: if you don't mind me asking, of course, what do Americans?

599
00:32:51,120 --> 00:32:54,920
Speaker 9: How do they treat or how do they say immigrants?

600
00:32:55,320 --> 00:32:58,800
Speaker 1: Oh, my friend, it's changing a lot. African migrants in

601
00:32:58,840 --> 00:33:01,800
Speaker 1: particular will struggle with a lack of resources. The absence

602
00:33:01,800 --> 00:33:05,440
Speaker 1: of solidarity structures an obvious anti blackness along the journey.

603
00:33:05,840 --> 00:33:07,840
Speaker 1: Along with this, people they meet along the way simply

604
00:33:07,920 --> 00:33:10,600
Speaker 1: lack context of their journeys and why they're leaving what

605
00:33:10,640 --> 00:33:13,719
Speaker 1: they're fleeing. Language barriers may exclude many of them from

606
00:33:13,840 --> 00:33:17,040
Speaker 1: using CBP one which is only offered English, Spanish and

607
00:33:17,080 --> 00:33:20,400
Speaker 1: Haitian Creole. Less than fifteen percent of asylum cases are

608
00:33:20,400 --> 00:33:23,400
Speaker 1: conducted in English, but the app ignores huge swass of

609
00:33:23,400 --> 00:33:27,080
Speaker 1: the world outside the Western Hemisphere. And by Jiquito, I

610
00:33:27,160 --> 00:33:30,280
Speaker 1: used French to speak to minor student's speak English and

611
00:33:30,320 --> 00:33:32,760
Speaker 1: began to notice the complete absence of signage. And I

612
00:33:32,760 --> 00:33:36,440
Speaker 1: think other than Spanish and sometimes English and Creole, this

613
00:33:36,640 --> 00:33:39,360
Speaker 1: is likely an issue throughout their long journeys. Here's one

614
00:33:39,360 --> 00:33:41,680
Speaker 1: migrant from Angola, and I should probably know at this

615
00:33:41,680 --> 00:33:44,240
Speaker 1: point that Angolan people tend to speak Portuguese, that's a

616
00:33:44,320 --> 00:33:47,080
Speaker 1: national language. But French, with the language I shared with

617
00:33:47,120 --> 00:33:51,280
Speaker 1: some of them, as I don't speak Portuguese, pretty complete.

618
00:33:53,680 --> 00:33:57,600
Speaker 13: It was too much, very complicated. Like me, I did

619
00:33:57,600 --> 00:34:01,440
Speaker 13: a week in Brazil, at Brazil and for par Peru

620
00:34:01,520 --> 00:34:05,560
Speaker 13: to nicol Klee. Then here I did. We did four days,

621
00:34:05,640 --> 00:34:10,440
Speaker 13: four days walking. There are many mountains, many risks, there

622
00:34:10,440 --> 00:34:12,680
Speaker 13: are many animals along the route. You have to follow

623
00:34:12,680 --> 00:34:16,759
Speaker 13: the path for four days and there's no food. But

624
00:34:16,800 --> 00:34:20,560
Speaker 13: we are glad to arrive today. This is the first group.

625
00:34:20,680 --> 00:34:23,560
Speaker 13: There's the second, third, fourth, fifth group. They're still on

626
00:34:23,600 --> 00:34:26,400
Speaker 13: the road. I'm very proud of the fact that we

627
00:34:26,440 --> 00:34:29,920
Speaker 13: made it despite the suffering. But God was with us.

628
00:34:30,200 --> 00:34:31,360
Speaker 13: That is what is important.

629
00:34:33,040 --> 00:34:35,759
Speaker 1: There are numerous instances of French speaking migrants trying to

630
00:34:35,760 --> 00:34:38,160
Speaker 1: approach the border near me in scis Cedra and being

631
00:34:38,200 --> 00:34:40,600
Speaker 1: turned away for not having an appointment on that that's

632
00:34:40,640 --> 00:34:43,640
Speaker 1: not available in a language they can understand. These language

633
00:34:43,640 --> 00:34:46,359
Speaker 1: barriers might stop the migrants getting information, but they don't

634
00:34:46,360 --> 00:34:49,680
Speaker 1: stop them helping one another. His powers group describing the

635
00:34:49,719 --> 00:34:53,400
Speaker 1: isolation they felt, but also the kindness they experienced. Do

636
00:34:53,480 --> 00:34:57,160
Speaker 1: you think people on the trip treat African people differently?

637
00:34:57,600 --> 00:35:03,839
Speaker 9: Yes, they're not living communicated. They are just by themselves.

638
00:35:04,320 --> 00:35:08,520
Speaker 9: They don't associate. They look at all differently. Yeah, client

639
00:35:08,600 --> 00:35:11,880
Speaker 9: personally art I had some more support.

640
00:35:12,800 --> 00:35:13,879
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I saw.

641
00:35:14,840 --> 00:35:16,920
Speaker 4: I saw how kind the person was.

642
00:35:17,680 --> 00:35:21,080
Speaker 1: Because of their obvious foreignness and perceived an ability to communicate.

643
00:35:21,560 --> 00:35:25,000
Speaker 1: African migrants are often targeted for crime in Mexico. Since

644
00:35:25,080 --> 00:35:29,880
Speaker 1: leaving Panama, I've heard from migrants who are raped, kidnapped, ransomed,

645
00:35:30,200 --> 00:35:32,920
Speaker 1: and I even heard about one who was killed Because

646
00:35:32,920 --> 00:35:36,040
Speaker 1: of their difficulties accessing this CVP one app Many face

647
00:35:36,120 --> 00:35:38,960
Speaker 1: longer weights in Mexico, which may in turn leave them

648
00:35:39,000 --> 00:35:41,600
Speaker 1: open to extortion or see them decide to cross the

649
00:35:41,640 --> 00:35:45,480
Speaker 1: border between ports of entry. I've met hundreds of migrants,

650
00:35:45,920 --> 00:35:49,200
Speaker 1: mainly Mauritanians and Geneians, who have made this difficult choice.

651
00:35:49,360 --> 00:35:53,000
Speaker 1: Since Biden's Asylent Bank came into force. Due to the distance,

652
00:35:53,040 --> 00:35:55,920
Speaker 1: African migrants also face a longer, more expensive, and more

653
00:35:56,000 --> 00:36:00,160
Speaker 1: dangerous journey. His premier from Zimbabwe, describing her journey, has

654
00:36:00,200 --> 00:36:02,480
Speaker 1: to get about the situation.

655
00:36:02,800 --> 00:36:06,520
Speaker 12: For me, it was tough. I just ran away to

656
00:36:06,640 --> 00:36:11,840
Speaker 12: South Africa and South Africa was not safe. Solophobia and

657
00:36:13,520 --> 00:36:18,960
Speaker 12: they almost kill me and my boyfriend and even my

658
00:36:20,239 --> 00:36:24,920
Speaker 12: my big father was abusive, too much agressive because of

659
00:36:25,520 --> 00:36:33,759
Speaker 12: the politics. I'm opposition party, so it was now even

660
00:36:33,840 --> 00:36:36,880
Speaker 12: in South Africa, I was not safe at all. It

661
00:36:37,080 --> 00:36:40,080
Speaker 12: was those people, they were like following me and my daughter.

662
00:36:40,239 --> 00:36:43,640
Speaker 12: So I spent three months on the road coming here.

663
00:36:43,840 --> 00:36:48,080
Speaker 12: I leave South Africa, I think fourth of July till

664
00:36:48,200 --> 00:36:52,280
Speaker 12: now I'm in Panama. I'm still working using basses.

665
00:36:53,239 --> 00:36:56,840
Speaker 1: Jesus, how did you get away from Africa to America?

666
00:36:57,000 --> 00:36:58,239
Speaker 1: Did you fly or take a boat?

667
00:36:59,080 --> 00:37:03,600
Speaker 12: The thing is I f from Juannspek to Brazil. Then

668
00:37:03,760 --> 00:37:07,879
Speaker 12: I seek asylum in Brazil. Then I wanted to stay

669
00:37:07,880 --> 00:37:13,200
Speaker 12: in Brazil, so people said no, ye in Brazil, you

670
00:37:13,360 --> 00:37:18,080
Speaker 12: can't because of language. Yeah, yeah, Portuguese. So I start

671
00:37:18,160 --> 00:37:21,200
Speaker 12: also using depots root like you list take this pass

672
00:37:21,280 --> 00:37:24,000
Speaker 12: from point A to point BA. So we take a

673
00:37:24,080 --> 00:37:28,280
Speaker 12: bus from Brazil to Bolivia, then from Bolivia to Peru,

674
00:37:28,560 --> 00:37:32,279
Speaker 12: Peru to Equad to Colombia. Then you start working with

675
00:37:32,480 --> 00:37:35,400
Speaker 12: using Darren Cape too. I'm here in Panama.

676
00:37:35,719 --> 00:37:38,160
Speaker 1: African migrants will end up in different shelters, a little

677
00:37:38,200 --> 00:37:41,720
Speaker 1: more remote, will have less connectivity, again, making their asylum

678
00:37:41,840 --> 00:37:45,799
Speaker 1: process harder. Unlike migrants from the Western Hemisphere, they might

679
00:37:45,840 --> 00:37:49,560
Speaker 1: struggle to find solidarity networks even inside the USA without

680
00:37:49,600 --> 00:37:52,040
Speaker 1: a significant diaspora. Many of the migrants I met the

681
00:37:52,120 --> 00:37:55,120
Speaker 1: jungle have struggled to find sponsors. That's the people I

682
00:37:55,160 --> 00:37:58,719
Speaker 1: spoke to here, including Primerose and her daughter, still looking

683
00:37:58,800 --> 00:38:00,640
Speaker 1: for someone to give them a helping hand as they

684
00:38:00,680 --> 00:38:03,360
Speaker 1: start their new life. We spoke a lot over the

685
00:38:03,400 --> 00:38:06,960
Speaker 1: WEEKO is there, and we've spoken most days since. It's

686
00:38:07,120 --> 00:38:09,680
Speaker 1: heartbreaking for me to see her daughter going for months

687
00:38:09,719 --> 00:38:11,760
Speaker 1: with our education or even a safe place to sleep.

688
00:38:12,360 --> 00:38:15,160
Speaker 1: I've seen photos of them sleeping on the street They've

689
00:38:15,239 --> 00:38:18,760
Speaker 1: ridden crowded busses north, and I've heard their frustrated attempts

690
00:38:18,760 --> 00:38:21,319
Speaker 1: to comply with the arcane and complicated restrictions on their

691
00:38:21,400 --> 00:38:24,359
Speaker 1: right to come here and ask for help. And it's

692
00:38:24,400 --> 00:38:26,360
Speaker 1: been really hard since I got home to reconcile this

693
00:38:26,560 --> 00:38:28,880
Speaker 1: with a national discussion that seems to see migration as

694
00:38:28,920 --> 00:38:31,480
Speaker 1: a number that we have to decrease a migrants to

695
00:38:31,560 --> 00:38:33,279
Speaker 1: something other than people who want to come here for

696
00:38:33,360 --> 00:38:36,319
Speaker 1: all the same reasons. I live happily and peaceably as

697
00:38:36,320 --> 00:38:40,359
Speaker 1: our neighbors. Now that they've come this far, maggants from

698
00:38:40,360 --> 00:38:43,120
Speaker 1: outside the Western Hemisphere have to keep going. They can't

699
00:38:43,120 --> 00:38:45,400
Speaker 1: even file their claims on CBP one until they make

700
00:38:45,400 --> 00:38:48,760
Speaker 1: it to Tapatula, which is hundreds of dollars and thousands

701
00:38:48,760 --> 00:38:52,040
Speaker 1: of kilometers from Panama. They likely don't have the funds

702
00:38:52,080 --> 00:38:54,320
Speaker 1: to go back home even if they want to, and

703
00:38:54,400 --> 00:38:56,400
Speaker 1: they are far more likely to be robbed or kidnapped

704
00:38:56,400 --> 00:38:59,680
Speaker 1: along the way. However, their story is often aren't told.

705
00:39:00,560 --> 00:39:02,880
Speaker 1: Reporting on the board is still largely focused on Spanish

706
00:39:02,880 --> 00:39:06,160
Speaker 1: speaking migrants, with some space for Chinese or Haitians. The

707
00:39:06,280 --> 00:39:08,640
Speaker 1: migrants from Africa rarely get much care or attention in

708
00:39:08,680 --> 00:39:11,600
Speaker 1: the media. In part this has helped them before the

709
00:39:11,680 --> 00:39:15,360
Speaker 1: demonization the Venezuelan migrants are all too aware of, but

710
00:39:15,480 --> 00:39:17,800
Speaker 1: in part it also leads to a lack of concern

711
00:39:17,920 --> 00:39:21,040
Speaker 1: for their needs. I went to end today was Gabriel

712
00:39:21,520 --> 00:39:24,680
Speaker 1: from Equatorial Guinea sharing his message for Americans.

713
00:39:25,320 --> 00:39:33,000
Speaker 14: Ah Aca know as Yeah, A lot of people get

714
00:39:33,040 --> 00:39:37,400
Speaker 14: this confused. Africa is not a country. A lot of

715
00:39:37,440 --> 00:39:40,840
Speaker 14: them think when they see you and you're black person,

716
00:39:40,960 --> 00:39:45,160
Speaker 14: they say, are you African? And it's like, there are

717
00:39:45,239 --> 00:39:51,000
Speaker 14: lots of countries in Africa, Ghana, Nigeria, you got, Guinea,

718
00:39:51,600 --> 00:39:55,400
Speaker 14: you got the more Atanian people. There are loads of countries.

719
00:39:55,480 --> 00:39:56,640
Speaker 14: I wish people would know.

720
00:39:57,080 --> 00:39:57,800
Speaker 2: How do I say this?

721
00:39:58,520 --> 00:40:02,040
Speaker 14: I wish they'd take us into a count because really

722
00:40:02,160 --> 00:40:06,200
Speaker 14: they don't consider us when they say Africa is a country.

723
00:40:06,600 --> 00:40:08,719
Speaker 14: They don't care about us the way we care about them.

724
00:40:09,280 --> 00:40:12,400
Speaker 14: And this is the way of seeing things which doesn't

725
00:40:12,480 --> 00:40:16,120
Speaker 14: consider us as human, not the same as them. You understand,

726
00:40:16,600 --> 00:40:19,880
Speaker 14: they see us as Africans or animals, something like that.

727
00:40:24,719 --> 00:40:25,279
Speaker 10: It could happen.

728
00:40:25,360 --> 00:40:27,160
Speaker 7: Here is a production of cool Zone Media.

729
00:40:27,400 --> 00:40:30,400
Speaker 10: For more podcasts from cool Zone Media, visit our website

730
00:40:30,520 --> 00:40:34,040
Speaker 10: coolzonemedia dot com or check us out on the iHeartRadio app,

731
00:40:34,160 --> 00:40:36,080
Speaker 10: Apple podcasts, or wherever.

732
00:40:35,880 --> 00:40:36,960
Speaker 8: You listen to podcasts.

733
00:40:37,480 --> 00:40:39,359
Speaker 10: You can now find sources for it could happen here,

734
00:40:39,440 --> 00:40:42,360
Speaker 10: listed directly in episode descriptions. Thanks for listening,