CARACAS: New university student Jorge Salcedo says his entire existence- his family, his career, his “everything”- is in Venezuela.
But after Sunday’s disputed presidential election, the 23-year-old says his future perhaps be abroad.
The ballot “was our final chance”, Salcedo said the following morning, tears streaming down his face.
” It seems to me as though I have no more a job here in Venezuela.”
The electoral commission in Venezuela declared Nicolas Maduro the success of a second six-year word, causing widespread protests and fraud allegations.
Now, more than seven million people have left Venezuela since 2014, according to the United Nations, due to a significant economic and political crises triggered by falling oil prices, fraud and state mismanagement.
If Maduro is elected for a second term, Salcedo then envisages joining their ranks.
” I do n’t know if this regime is going to continue in Venezuela, but I am sure that if it continues, millions of young people are going to leave the country just like me”, he said.
Independent pollsters questioned Maduro’s triumph as unfunny, and opposition leaders and international watchers urged the electoral authority to release voting records.
Salcedo thinks there was political fraud. He stayed at his polling place later on Sunday to” not let the presidential election be stolen,” but he soon got involved in verbal altercations between Maduro’s adherents and the opposition.
The younger gentleman drools over having to move to another country with his family.
” I carry Venezuela in my capillaries”, he said.
” Leaving Venezuela is like having your system removed from you. Venezuelans experience” the feeling of being killed in living.”
