Need to Flee Venezuela? Pay Huge Bribe or Stand in Line Forever

This is the longest line in Caracas, a city notorious for them. It’s several lines, actually, rolling out from the intersection of Baralt Avenue and West 8 Avenue. The people standing, sitting and sleeping in them aren’t marking time for bread or medicine or car parts or water. They’ve had enough of all that madness. This is the line to get out.

Specifically, for passports, the burgundy booklets issued by the Administrative Service of Identification, Migration and Foreigners. The multitudes on the pavement outside can’t, of course, afford to pay bribes to speed things along. The going rate for one passport is more than $2,000, over 68 times the monthly minimum wage. It’s more than double what it was last year, when President Nicolas Maduro’s administration first acknowledged the document shortage, an increase reflecting the depth of government dysfunction, the desperation to leave, or both.