One Risky Birth Shows How Venezuela’s Diaspora Strains Its Neighbors
A pregnant teen braves rivers and gangs to reach a safe hospital, which is struggling to manage a stream of refugees.
Raquel Reyes, a Venezuelan woman who crossed into Colombia to give birth, waits for her moment at Erasmo Meoz hospital in Cucuta.
Photographer: Federico Rios/Bloomberg
Days before her baby was due, Raquel Reyes began bleeding. The hospital in La Fria, Venezuela, lacked staff and incubators and sent the 18-year-old away. She tried Venezuela’s parallel Cuban-run medical service, founded when oil money was plentiful, but the building was abandoned and without electricity.
“There wasn’t even one doctor,” she said. “Everything was dark, and at that moment there was a blackout, so we decided to go to Cucuta.”