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World

Drew Binsky got paid to travel the world

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It took 1,458 flights and 1,117 buses and trains for Drew Binsky to reach his goal of traveling to every country in the world.

And he did it in less than a decade.

CNBC spoke with Binsky nine hours after he touched down in his last country — Saudi Arabia — about how he financed his 10-year travel spree.

Visiting every country in the world

According to your tally, you’ve been to 197 countries. How do you define “country?”

You’re hitting me with a hard one right away. It’s very political. The U.N. has 193 recognized sovereign states. I add four to that — Kosovo, Palestine, Taiwan and Vatican. Some of these are observer states of the U.N., and they are also the four most recognized of all the unrecognized “countries.” I think I’m like the 250th person to visit every country.

Is there a name for this group?

The “every country” club. It’s a small community, and I’m friends with maybe 20 of them. There’s a lot of drama. It’s like: “You actually haven’t been to North Korea because you only went to the border of South Korea.” I don’t get involved in all that.

You’re planning to stay in Saudi Arabia for two weeks. What’s the average amount of time you spent in each country?

The average is about a week. There are about 10 countries that I spent more than three months in, and I spent more than six months in Vietnam, Philippines, Thailand, South Korea and Czech Republic.

But some of them — Luxembourg, Monaco, Liechtenstein, and there’s a couple of countries in the middle of South Africa — you can go in and do everything you want to do in 24 hours. In the future, I plan to stay a minimum of two weeks because you can really soak it in.

How do you organize your visits?

It might be shocking to hear this, but my plan is to have no plan. I really like to be spontaneous. The best moments in life happen when you step out of your comfort zone and you don’t know what’s going to happen next.

I have a unique way of traveling in that I rely on my social media followers and local friends. They pick me up, and they show me their country. Most of the time I arrive in a country I don’t know where I’m sleeping that night.

Binsky said getting visas to places such as South Sudan (here) is the hardest part of travel planning.

Courtesy of Drew Binsky

So planning isn’t too hard?

Getting visas is the single biggest challenge. I’m very fortunate to have visited 160 countries without needing a visa. But the 40 visas that I needed — Iran, Turkmenistan, North Korea, South Sudan, Venezuela, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria — they’re hard for political reasons.

Which countries did you save for the end?

I handpicked my last six countries because I’m shooting a docuseries, and I wanted the last six to be different. So we did Ghana, Ecuador, Venezuela, Palau, Jamaica and Saudi Arabia.

Traveling during the pandemic

How did the pandemic affect your plans?

I had six countries left in March 2020, which I planned to visit in a twelve-week span. Here we are 18 months later, and I finally finished.

I’ve had about 80 Q-tips shoved up my nose over the last 18 months. But I did manage to visit 20 countries: Mexico because they were the only country open in June 2020, then Egypt, Afghanistan — pre-Taliban takeover — Iraq, Dubai, Turkey, Tanzania and Dominican Republic. It’s been a battle but one that’s been fun to fight.

Binsky works while he travels, like here in Myanmar.

Courtesy of Drew Binsky

To confirm, you visited 20 countries during the pandemic?

Yes, which is crazy — fourteen were revisits, plus my final six countries.

Did you get Covid along the way?

I did. I haven’t publicly talked about it. I picked it up in Iraq, and then in Afghanistan I realized that I couldn’t taste or smell. I tested negative in Iraq, but they barely put the Q-tip in my nose — it was like a fake test. I wasn’t super sick, but I stayed in my hotel for seven nights, which was pretty miserable. But I didn’t want to infect anyone.

Earning money on the road

What are your major sources of income?

I started out teaching English in Korea. I made $2,000 a month, and housing was free. I was 22 years old, so it was awesome at the time.

Then I got a head start on Snapchat in 2015, and I got sponsored by a bunch of brands. I got paid $5,000 to go the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro to make Snapchat stories. For a whole year I was making a living off Snapchat. I made $30,000, which is a lot when you’re a budget backpacker.

My first 300 videos, I didn’t make a penny.

Drew Binsky

Travel blogger

I was also using my travel blog to reduce travel costs by working with hostels and budget airlines. Then I started making videos in 2017. My first 300 videos, I didn’t make a penny. It was pretty slow.

While I was living in Bangkok, I made a video about this guy who makes these really good burgers. You pay whatever you want — there’s no price. That video got like 7 million views. I’ll never forget when I looked at the earnings, and it said $10,000. I was like ‘Holy crap!’ It was five hours of work.

Well, it turned out that was the most I made from any video in the next 18 months. Still, it was a sign that you can make a lot of money through ads on Facebook.

A large part of Binsky’s travel style relies on meeting locals, he said.

Courtesy of Drew Binsky

Then I started posting on YouTube, which now makes between $20,000-40,000 a month. On a really good month, it could be more. Facebook is similar.  

This sounds like a lot of money, and it is a lot of money. But now I have a team of about 23 people, so I’m paying a lot of salaries.

Do you have other sources of income?

That’s only ad revenue. I charge brands that I work with between $15,000 to $30,000 per video. Then there’s my merchandise, which is not really that profitable. It’s more for growing the community. I also sell travel hacking courses for $150 a pop. There’s a lot of different revenue streams.

Do you meticulously record your travel costs?

No, I don’t nickel and dime myself. It kind of ruins the fun. I’m still pretty frugal. I’m not going to spend money on first-class tickets unless I have points. I still eat street food, and I still sleep in modest hotels. Even if I make 10 times the amount that I make now, I don’t need to be flashy.

Is any of your travel comped?

I come out of pocket and pay for almost everything, except with tourism boards — they cover everything. Usually when I work with a hotel, I do a paid sponsorship. If a hotel offers me a really nice room for two nights, I’d rather just pay for it and not have to post about it.

The ups and downs of travel blogging

What’s one memory that you’ll never forget?

It’s probably spending 24 hours with the pygmy tribe in the Central African Republic. They are genetically the shortest human beings in the world. I had to fly into the capital of Bangui, take an eight-hour taxi ride into the middle of nowhere and walk through the forest for two hours.

We found a local guide on the way. They told me not only had they never seen a white person, but they had also never seen a non-pygmy. They had never left their tribe to go out into the city.

Binsky said he started recording his travels after receiving a video camera as a gift several years ago.

Courtesy of Drew Binsky

How about a memory you’d love to forget?

Food poisoning. Probably the worst I’ve had is in Yemen. I’ve had for poisoning about 30 times. I got really sick in Iran and India too. But I’m also eating stuff that I know is risky. At the end of the day, you just lose 10 pounds and move on.

One of Binsky’s worst bouts of food poisoning happened in Yemen, he said.

Courtesy of Drew Binsky

What’s next?

We’re making a really cool docuseries about visiting every country. I’ve got a book coming and an NFT project, which I’m really excited about. I’m building meetups in different cities around the world. But I don’t want to lose the core of going out there and meeting people and inspiring people to travel.

Editor’s note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

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World

Arraignment date set for Venezuela envoy Saab accused of money laundering

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MIAMI, Oct 18 (Reuters) – A U.S. judge on Monday set a Nov. 1 arraignment date for Alex Saab, a businessman accused of laundering money on behalf of Venezuela’s government, in a case that pits the United States against the socialist government of President Nicolas Maduro.

U.S. prosecutors in 2019 charged Saab in connection with a bribery scheme linked to Venezuela’s state-controlled exchange rate. They have accused Saab and an ally of siphoning around $350 million out of Venezuela and into overseas accounts via the United States.

Washington has also imposed sanctions on Saab over accusations he orchestrated a scheme that enabled him and Maduro to profit from a state-run food distribution program.

Saab’s lawyers have called the U.S. charges “politically motivated.”

Saab, a 49-year old Colombian national, was arrested in June 2020 when his plane stopped to refuel in Cape Verde. The country’s courts approved his extradition following a lengthy legal battle.

Saab appeared during an initial hearing in an orange jumpsuit and blue face mask via videoconference before U.S. Magistrate Judge John J. O’Sullivan in Miami on Monday.

Saab’s lawyer, Henry Bell, asked for the arraignment to be scheduled in two weeks, citing the need to brief his client as well as a pending appeal that says Saab was wrongfully arrested as he had diplomatic immunity.

Over the weekend in Caracas, Saab’s wife Camilla told a small government-led protest that her husband would fight the charges against him.

“My husband Alex Saab will never break down, never,” she said through tears, in a video posted online.

Following Saab’s extradition, Venezuela on Saturday said it would suspend talks with the opposition, citing its “deepest protest” against the treatment of Saab. In a televised speech on Monday, Maduro said he was “outraged” by Saab’s extradition and that he would evaluate what to do with the talks “later.”

Venezuela also revoked the house arrest of six former executives of refiner Citgo, a U.S. subsidiary of state oil company PDVSA, two sources and a family member told Reuters. The former executives were brought to one of the headquarters of the intelligence police, two sources said.

The U.S. government has repeatedly demanded the release of the group, which is made up of five naturalized U.S. citizens and one permanent resident.

Tensions have increased between Washington and Caracas, long ideological foes, after former President Donald Trump in 2019 created a broad sanctions program meant to force Maduro from power amid an economic free-fall.

Venezuela’s government has accused the United States of kidnapping Saab, whom they describe as a diplomatic envoy who was en route to Iran to negotiate supplies of fuel and food that have been interrupted by U.S. sanctions. The opposition says Saab was one of the chief beneficiaries of the country’s state controls and are hoping he will cooperate with U.S. authorities.

“Many doubted that this day would come, because those who have looted Venezuela portray themselves as untouchable,” tweeted Carlos Vecchio, the envoy to the United States of Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido. “But the day always comes.”

A 2016 Reuters investigation found that Saab was also the head of a tiny Colombian trucking company that unexpectedly beat global industry leaders to land a multi-billion dollar project in Venezuela’s Orinoco Belt, the world’s largest crude reserve. The deal was ultimately shelved after outcry from foreign oil companies.

Reporting by Brian Ellsworth in Miami and Alexandra Ulmer in San Francisco. Additional reporting by Vivian Sequera in Caracas.
Editing by Noeleen Walder, Alistair Bell, Rosalba O’Brien and Lincoln Feast.

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World

‘CITGO 6’ oil execs held in Venezuela were picked up by country’s forces hours after Alex Saab’s extradition to US

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Saab, a Colombian businessman close to Maduro, was extradited to the US from Cape Verde earlier Saturday. Saab was detained in the African nation in June 2020 following an Interpol red notice due to his indictment in the US.

He faces charges of money laundering in Florida related to his activity as a government contractor in Venezuela. He also faces money laundering and fraud charges in his native Colombia.

His extradition, which followed a lengthy court battle in Cape Verde, was confirmed to CNN by Saab’s legal defense team on Saturday.

The extradition means Saab is now one of Maduro’s closest confidants to be available for interrogation by US officials. If he was to cooperate, he could significantly advance the Department of Justice case against Maduro, who is facing charges for narco-terrorism and drug trafficking in New York.

The men detained in Venezuela, known collectively as the “CITGO 6,” consist of former executives of CITGO Petroleum Corporation who were arrested in 2017 in Caracas on embezzlement charges and had been under house arrest since May. They deny the charges.

The family of one of the six, José Pereira, posted a video on Twitter, shot by him shortly before being picked up, saying he and his family were “very worried” about what would happen to him following Saab’s extradition.

Following Saab’s extradition, the Venezuelan government accused the US of “kidnapping” a Venezuelan “diplomat,” according to a statement by the Venezuelan government. Last month, Saab was named as a member of the Venezuelan government negotiating team for talks in Mexico with the country’s opposition. As a result of the extradition, the negotiation process was suspended, according to the Venezuelan government’s chief negotiator, Jorge Rodríguez.

The US ambassador to Venezuela and the Norwegian ambassador in Bogotá, who is brokering talks between the government and the opposition, both declined to comment.

It is unclear where the CITGO 6 detainees were taken on Saturday.

Security forces told them they were being picked up from their residences in Caracas to do medical checks, one of their relatives told CNN on Saturday.

In the video posted by his family after the detention, Pereira said, “We are here recording this video because at this time we and our families are very worried.”

He added that the Venezuelan government had already retaliated against the CITGO 6 in 2019 when it revoked their house arrest.

“If we’re taken into custody again, it would be under the worst conditions possible given that the SEBIN is now managed by the Ministry of Prisons. I want to record this testimony because I’m very worried,” he said in the video.

Veronica Vadell, daughter of CITGO 6 member Tomeu Vadell, told CNN her father texted the family to warn them he was being picked up.

“The fact that Saab is in the US before our father is an absolute disgrace,” she said.

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World

Maduro ally extradited to US on money laundering charges

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MIAMI (AP) — A top fugitive close to Venezuela’s socialist government has been put on a flight from Cape Verde to the United States to face money laundering charges, a senior U.S. official confirmed Saturday.

Alex Saab was on a chartered Justice Department flight from the West African country, a small island chain, where he was arrested 16 months ago while making a stop on the way to Iran for what Nicolás Maduro’s government later described as a diplomatic humanitarian mission.

The official spoke on condition he not be named. A public relations firm representing Saab said in an email that the Colombian businessman was taken from his home without his lawyers being notified.

Saab’s arrival in the U.S. is bound to complicate relations between Washington and Caracas, possibly disrupting fledgling talks between Maduro’s government and its U.S.-backed opposition taking place in Mexico.

Maduro has blasted the U.S. for the “kidnapping” and “torture” of Saab, a businessman from Colombia who prosecutors say amassed a fortune wheeling and dealing on behalf of the socialist government, which faces heavy U.S. sanctions.

American authorities have been targeting Saab for years, believing he holds numerous secrets about how Maduro, the president’s family and his top aides siphoned off millions of dollars in government contracts for food and housing amid widespread hunger in oil-rich Venezuela.

However his defenders, including Maduro’s government as well as allies Russia and Cuba, consider his arrest illegal and maintain that Saab was a diplomatic envoy of the Venezuelan government and as such possesses immunity from prosecution while on official business.

In a statement Saturday, Venezuela’s government again denounced the “kidnapping” of Saab by the U.S. government “in complicity with authorities in Cape Verde.”

“The government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela repudiates this grave violation of human rights against a Venezuelan citizen, invested as a diplomat and representative of our country before the world,” the statement said.

The argument failed to persuade Cape Verde’s Constitutional Court, which last month authorized his extradition after a year of wrangling by Saab’s legal team, which includes former Spanish judge Baltasar Garzón and BakerHostetler, one of the U.S.′ biggest firms.

Federal prosecutors in Miami indicted Saab in 2019 on money-laundering charges connected to an alleged bribery scheme that pocketed more than $350 million from a low-income housing project for the Venezuelan government.

Separately, Saab had been sanctioned by the previous Trump administration for allegedly utilizing a network of shell companies spanning the globe — in the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Hong Kong, Panama, Colombia and Mexico — to hide huge profits from no-bid, overvalued food contracts obtained through bribes and kickbacks.

Some of Saab’s contracts were obtained by paying bribes to the adult children of Venezuelan first lady Cilia Flores, the Trump administration alleged. Commonly known in Venezuela as “Los Chamos,” slang for “the kids,” the three men are also under investigation by prosecutors in Miami for allegedly forming part of a scheme to siphon $1.2 billion from Venezuela’s state-owned oil company, two people familiar with the U.S. investigation told The Associated Press.

But while in private U.S. officials have long described Saab as a front man for Maduro, he is not identified as such in court filings.

The previous Trump administration had made Saab’s extradition a top priority, at one point even sending a Navy warship to the African archipelago to keep an eye on the captive.

On Saturday. Colombian President Iván Duque lauded the extradition of Saab in a tweet, calling it a “triumph in the fight against drug trafficking, money laundering and corruption led by the dictatorship of Nicolás Maduro.”

Maduro’s government has vehemently objected to Saab’s prosecution as a veiled attempt at regime change by the U.S. government.

“Alex Saab is an innocent Venezuelan diplomat, a victim of kidnapping and human rights violations who has served our country face with an immoral imperial blockade,” Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodiríguez tweeted.

However, the Biden administration has downplayed the importance of Saab’s problems, saying he can defend himself in U.S. courts and that his case shouldn’t affect ongoing negotiations sponsored by Norway aimed at overcoming Venezuela’s long running economic crisis and political tug of war.

The government last month appointed Saab to its negotiating team and fellow envoys arrived to Mexico carrying signs reading “Free Alex Saab.”

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Follow Goodman on Twitter: @APJoshGoodman

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World

U.S. Arrests Alex Saab, Deal Maker for Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela

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BOGOTÁ, Colombia — A top ally of Venezuela’s authoritarian government has been extradited to the United States, one of his lawyers said Saturday, where he will face money laundering charges in Florida.

The extradition of Alex Saab, a Colombian businessman and financial fixer for President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela, represents a victory for the U.S. government, whose efforts to remove Mr. Maduro have faltered in recent years. Mr. Saab was detained more than a year ago by law enforcement officials in the West African island nation of Cape Verde.

His lawyer, Femi Falana, said he was removed from the country on Saturday without the knowledge of his legal team.

If Mr. Saab were to cooperate with U.S. officials, he could help untangle Mr. Maduro’s economic web, aiding authorities in bringing charges against other allies of the Venezuelan government.

But the extradition is also likely to complicate negotiations between Mr. Maduro and the country’s U.S.-supported opposition, which began in Mexico in September, and which the opposition hopes will push Mr. Maduro to allow free and fair elections.

The extradition makes Mr. Saab one of the highest-ranking supporters of Mr. Maduro to be taken into U.S. custody.

Mr. Maduro’s government has maintained that Mr. Saab’s detention is illegal, saying he is a diplomatic envoy and cannot be prosecuted, and his supporters have undertaken an elaborate global public relations campaign to rally support for his cause. At one point, #FreeAlexSaab became a rallying cry among Nigerian social media influencers.

But Cape Verde’s Constitutional Court rejected the diplomatic immunity argument last month and authorized his extradition to the United States to face charges.

In 2019, U.S. prosecutors indicted Mr. Saab for his alleged role in a bribery scheme that siphoned an estimated $350 million from a Venezuelan government housing project.

Washington has also accused Mr. Saab of “profiting from starvation” through his involvement in a scheme in which he and others allegedly made off with large sums of government funds meant to feed Venezuela’s hungry.

According to investigators, Mr. Saab and a business partner bribed top Venezuelan officials to obtain contracts to import food meant for citizens enrolled in a food subsidy program known by its Spanish acronym, CLAP. But Mr. Saab brought in “only a fraction of the food” he was supposed to import, while he “reaped substantial profits,” according to the U.S. Treasury Department.

U.S. officials have said that this was part of a larger plot in which Mr. Maduro’s allies bought less or lower-quality food than specified in contracts and doled out the extra money to loyalists. The CLAP program, they say, has been a critical tool for social control, with food and money used to reward political support and punish criticism.

Mr. Saab is one of several Maduro-linked officials and businessmen indicted by the U.S. government in recent years, including Mr. Maduro himself.

Mr. Saab’s detention was closely watched in Venezuela, where for some he has become synonymous with the worst abuses of the Maduro government.

“Alex Saab must be one of the most detested men” in Venezuela, the journalist Blanca Vera Azaf wrote on Twitter last year. “He built his fortune on the hunger of our people.”

Anatoly Kurmanaev and Ruth Maclean contributed reporting.



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World

Venezuela introduces new currency with 6 fewer zeros

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CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — A new currency with six fewer zeros debuted Friday in Venezuela, whose currency has been made nearly worthless by years of the world’s worst inflation.

But the new bills were nowhere to be found in the capital, where consumers’ fears that prices will continue to spiral upward proved to be right.

“Today, I went to the supermarket and everything was marked in dollars,” Lourdes Pórtelo, an office worker, said in a shopping center in the east side of Caracas. “In the end, I couldn’t buy anything, I didn’t have enough money.”

Before the adjustment, the highest denomination was a 1 million bolivar bill that was worth a little less than a quarter as of Thursday. The new currency tops out at 100 bolivars, a little less than $25 — until inflation starts to eat away at that as well.

The million-to-1 change for the bolivar is intended to ease both cash transactions and bookkeeping calculations in bolivars that now require juggling almost endless strings of zeros.

“The most important and fundamental reason is that the payment systems are already collapsed because the number of digits make the payment systems and doing the math practically unmanageable,” said Jose Guerra, an economics professor at the Central University of Venezuela. “These debit card payment processing systems or an accounting system for companies… are not intended for hyperinflation, but for a normal economy.”

Under the old system, a two-liter bottle of soda pop could cost more than 8 million bolivars — and many of those bills were scarce, so a customer might have to pay with a thick wad of paper.

Banks allowed customers to withdraw a maximum of 20 million bolivars in cash per day, or sometimes less if the branch was running short.

So, consumers have come to rely on U.S. dollars and digital payment methods, such as Zelle and PayPal, to make purchases. Nowadays, most transactions are made electronically, and Guerra said, more than 60% are made in U.S. dollars.

When Venezuela’s Central Bank announced the currency change last month, officials said payment systems will be modernized to expand digital use of the bolivar.

They also underscored that the elimination of six zeros doesn’t otherwise affect the value of the currency. The bolivar “will not be worth more or less; it is only to facilitate its use on a simpler monetary scale,” according to a Central Bank statement.

But currency exchange differences confirmed people’s fears that prices would go up when the currency change occured.

The price of the dollar on the black market rose Friday by more than 500,000 bolivars and stood at 5,200,000 in the previous denomination and 5.2 bolivars per dollar in the new currency. The official exchange rate increased slightly to 4,181,781.84 bolivars, but most businesses use the black market dollar as a reference for setting prices.

This is the third time Venezuela’s socialist leaders have lopped zeros off the currency. The bolivar lost three zeros in 2008 under the late President Hugo Chávez, while his successor, current President Nicolás Maduro, eliminated five zeros in 2018.

After more than four years of hyperinflation, many Venezuelans think the new bills will be short-lived as well. The central bank does not publish inflation statistics anymore, but the International Monetary Fund estimates that Venezuela’s rate at the end of 2021 will be 5,500%.

“I only had 3 million bolivars in my account, with that you don’t buy a single (piece of bread), said Elena Díaz, a 28-year-old cleaning worker standing outside a supermarket. “When they remove the six zeros, with those 3 bolivars, I won’t be able to buy anything either.“

The use of greenbacks accelerated after Maduro’s government two years ago gave up its long and complicated efforts to restrict transactions in dollars in favor of the local currency — restrictions that only fed inflation.

Dollar bills flow into Venezuela through a network of foreign bank account holders who charge commissions or via people traveling home with cash.

Ahead of the change, some stores already had begun to display three prices for each product, in U.S. dollars as well as new and old bolivars. By Friday morning, some had prices only in dollars.

Banks were to freeze operations for several hours between Thursday and Friday to make adjustments for the change. In Caracas, many branches did not open Friday, but according to the Superintendency of Institutions of the Banking Sector, electronic transactions were active in most banks.

Guerra, who was an adviser to a former opposition presidential candidate, said Venezuelans are now used to currency adjustments — and more may be coming unless government policies change.

“Basically, if there is no economic program to stop hyperinflation, this will happen again…,” Guerra said. “The problem is that hyperinflation was so aggressive in 2018 and 2019 that the reconversion of 2018 (when five zeros were trimmed off) was lost in a year and a half.”

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Garcia Cano reported from Mexico City.

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World

EXCLUSIVE Some 1,900 Colombian guerrillas operating from Venezuela, says Colombia military chief

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BOGOTA, Sept 30 (Reuters) – About 1,900 fighters belonging to Colombian rebel and crime groups are operating from Venezuela, where they plan attacks and participate in drug trafficking, the commander of Colombia’s armed forces said.

The Colombian government has long said Venezuela’s leadership grants safe harbor to Colombian armed groups, allowing trafficking of cocaine in exchange for a cut of the profits.

But it is the first time the military has given a figure for the number it believes are operating from the neighboring country.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has denied that Venezuela has provided safe harbor for drug traffickers. But he has expressed sympathy for rebels’ leftist ideology and openly welcomed some guerrilla leaders.

Around half of the 2,350 known combatants from the National Liberation Army (ELN) rebel group are in Venezuela, along with about a third of the 2,400 fighters who belong to dissident groups of former FARC guerrillas who reject a 2016 peace deal, General Luis Fernando Navarro told Reuters late on Wednesday.

“In total in the (Venezuelan) states of Zulia, Tachira, Apure and Amazonas, we calculate there could be between 1,100 and 1,200 criminals from the ELN and some 700 from the FARC dissidents,” Navarro said.

“It’s a factor of instability that the strategic rearguard of these structures is in Venezuelan border states. This obviously makes it difficult to combat them,” said Navarro, accusing the Venezuelan armed forces of not pursuing the groups.

The Venezuelan government did not immediately respond to a request for comment for this story.

Colombia’s internal conflict has stretched for nearly 60 years and led to more than 260,000 deaths.

Though the demobilization of some 13,000 members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) under the 2016 accord lead to a reduction in violence, some areas have seen renewed fighting as dissidents, the ELN and crime gangs descended from right-wing paramilitaries battle for territory.

The violence often crosses the border. In Venezuela’s northwestern Zulia state, a local government and a major employer were paying villagers including children to staff narcotics operations, extortion rackets and illegal gold mines, a Reuters report found earlier this year.

Some 80 Venezuelans fight for FARC dissident groups, Navarro said, and some 180 for the ELN.

Commanders from dissident group Segunda Marquetalia, including former peace negotiator Ivan Marquez, Hernan Dario Velasquez and Henry Castellanos are living in Venezuela, he said, as is ELN leader Gustavo Anibal Giraldo, known by his alias Pablito.

The groups attack targets in Colombia and then melt across the border to evade authorities, Navarro said.

One FARC dissident group has taken responsibility for two incidents in June – a car bombing at a military base in the border city of Cucuta which injured dozens, and the shooting of a helicopter carrying President Ivan Duque.

Reporting by Luis Jaime Acosta
Writing by Julia Symmes Cobb
Editing by Rosalba O’Brien

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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World

Colombia will legalize undocumented Venezuelan migrants

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BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Colombia said Monday it will register hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan migrants and refugees currently in the country without papers, in a bid to provide them with legal residence permits and facilitate their access to health care and legal employment opportunities.

President Ivan Duque said that through a new temporary protection statute, Venezuelan migrants who are in the country illegally will be eligible for 10-year residence permits, while migrants who are currently on temporary residence will be able to extend their stay.

The new measure could benefit up to one million Venezuelan citizens who are currently living in Colombia without proper papers, as well as hundreds of thousands who need to extend temporary visas.

President Duque announced the protection measure in a stately government palace in Bogota while standing with Filippo Grandi, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

“As we take this historic and transcendental step for Latin America we hope other countries will follow our example,” Duque told a room full of ambassadors and diplomats, who were invited to witness the announcement.

Grandi said the new policy would improve the lives of hundreds of thousands of impoverished people and called it an “extraordinary gesture” of humanity, pragmatism and commitment to human rights.

Colombia’s government estimates that 1.8 million Venezuelans are currently living in the country, and that 55% of them don’t have proper residence papers. Most have arrived since 2015 to escape hyperinflation, food shortages and an increasingly authoritarian government.

Duque said that registering these undocumented immigrants and refugees would benefit Colombia’s security agencies and would also make the provision of social services, including coronavirus vaccines, more efficient.

The government said Venezuelans who arrive legally in Colombia within the next two years will also be allowed to apply for temporary protection.

The new policy comes after Donald Trump signed an executive order in the last days of his presidency that halted deportations of tens of thousands of Venezuelans living in the United States.

Colombia’s new temporary protection statute will be implemented as migrants leaving Venezuela find it harder to settle in other South American countries, due to land border closures and growing anti-immigrant sentiment.

In Ecuador, hundreds of Venezuelans are currently stuck along the country’s southern border following Peru’s decision to send tanks and troops to the area to stop illegal border crossings.

Other popular destinations for Venezuelan migrants include Panama and Chile, which have imposed visa requirements that make it harder for Venezuelans to move to those countries.

According to the United Nations, there are 4.7 million Venezuelan migrants and other refugees in other Latin American countries after fleeing the economic collapse and political divide in their homeland. Colombia is home to more than a third of them.

Duque said that while Colombia’s decision will provide some relief, he did not expect it to stop the Venezuelan exodus.

“If we want to stop this crisis countries have to reflect about how to end the dictatorship in Venezuela,” he said. “We have to think about how to set up a transitional government and organize free elections.”

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