Venezuelans Hawk Snacks on Dominican Streets as Revolution Dies

This is not the life Edgar Leon hoped for when he voted for the socialist revolution of Hugo Chavez in Venezuela — standing on a street corner in the Dominican Republic selling snacks and lemonade out of a bucket to support his wife and children back home.

“We were a rich nation,” said Leon. “This is an embarrassment. I never wanted to leave my country.”

He’s one of the record number of Venezuelans who arrived in the Dominican Republic this year, escaping chronic shortages and spiraling prices back home. But these latest emigrants aren’t the Venezuelan doctors, lawyers and university students of the kind who can be found working in cities from Santiago to Miami. The streets of Santo Domingo are hosting a new group of emigrants — the very people who were meant to benefit from subsidized food, cheap housing, labor protection and free education guaranteed by Chavez’s government …. https://www.bloomberg.com