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A12 WORLD NEWS
Thursday 3 OcTOber 2019
Venezuelan border town swells with internal migrants

By LUZ DARY DEPABLOS and the interior of Venezuela.
MANUEL RUEDA “These are hard-working
Associated Press young men,” said Gomez,
SAN ANTONIO, Venezu- who is from the Venezuela’s
ela (AP) — Midday is ap- governing socialist party.
proaching and the bus ter- “With this type of work, they
minal in this border town is are finding some relief from
in a frenzy. the economic blockade
Merchants heading for the that has been imposed on
center of Venezuela hop Venezuela.”
on buses and load them At the bus terminal, Ron-
with sacks of rice, boxes don blames Venezuela’s
of medicine, cartons of government and its eco-
toothpaste and even car nomic policies for the
tires that they bought in country’s problems, saying
neighboring Colombia. On that something “needs to
the arrivals side, exhaust- change” so children don’t
ed travelers descend from have to face such hard-
buses and make their way ships.
toward the border, where He lives with his two small
they will shop for food or get children and his pregnant
their passports stamped to wife in a room that the fam-
leave Venezuela for good. ily rents for $3 a day. Power
Amid the screams of street outages are frequent, like
vendors and the pedestrian A man carries a load on his back as he works as a “lomo taxista,” or taxi of the lower back, out- elsewhere in Venezuela’s
mayhem, dozens of young side a bus terminal in San Antonio, Venezuela, Thursday, Sept. 19, 2019. border areas. Running wa-
men with metal carts hustle Associated Press ter is available only once a
back and forth between week.
the bus terminal and the Antonio last year. “Food has become very informal economy of black “It’s uncomfortable, be-
border, carrying suitcases Rondon said he makes unaffordable there,” he market goods and street cause we also have to
and merchandise. They are around $8 a day haul- said. “And it’s also hard to vending provide them with share the bathroom with
known as “lomo taxistas” ing large sacks of goods get a job.” some work opportunities. other families,” said Francis
_ taxis of the lower back _ around the San Antonio Food shortages and hy- San Antonio’s mayor, Wil- Sosa, Rondon’s 20-year-
because they spend much bus terminal, which is about perinflation in Venezuela liam Gomez, says that old wife. “But here we can
of the day hauling around four blocks from the border. are pushing thousands of over the past two years, eat well. We had our own
heavy loads on their backs. It can be backbreaking people to leave the coun- the town’s population home in Aragua but it was
“I didn’t expect to stay work in extreme tempera- try each day in search of a has grown from 66,000 to tough to find food there.”
here, but I had to because I tures that often climb to 40 better life. 113,000 due to the wave of Rondon works every day
didn’t have more money to degrees Celsius (104 Fahr- But many who have little internal migration. He says from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. to
continue my journey,” said enheit), but the 26-year-old money to migrate, or pre- the lomo taxistas are one of earn enough to pay the
Richard Rondon, a lomo says itis better than staying fer to stay closer to home, several informal occupa- rent, afford some food and
taxista from central Ven- in his home state of Ara- are settling in border towns tions that have popped up have some money left over
ezuela, who arrived in San gua. like San Antonio, where the as more people arrive from for his childrens' needs.q

Argentina Holocaust museum takes custody over Nazi artifacts

pol agents found the more pieces of illegal origin. among investigators and
than 70 Nazi objects hid- Agents with Interpol began members of Argentina’s
den behind a bookcase in following the collector and Jewish community is that
a collector’s home north with a judicial order raided the items were brought in
of Buenos Aires in 2017 as the house on June 8, 2017. by Nazis after World War II,
part of an investigation into A large bookshelf caught when the South American
artworks of illicit origins. The their attention and behind country became a refuge
Nazi items include busts of it agents found a hidden for some of the most infa-
Adolf Hitler, an instrument passageway to a room mous war criminals.
to measure people’s heads filled with Nazi imagery. The objects will remain in
to supposedly determine Argentine and German custody at the Museum of
their racial purity and stat- experts say most of the ob- the Holocaust while the in-
ues of the Nazi eagle with jects are original. They also vestigation continues.
a swastika under its talons. include toys that authori- The museum’s president,
Owning Nazi objects in Ar- ties have said would have Marcelo Mindlin, said
gentina can be illegal if it is been used to indoctrinate Wednesday that the items
Nazi artifacts discovered by police in 2017 are displayed dur- determined that the items children, a Nazi hourglass encouraged “hate, death
ing a press conference in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Wednesday,
Oct. 2, 2019. incite racial or religious and a box of swastika-em- and destruction.” He said
Associated Press hate in public, although blazoned harmonicas. The they will become part of
they can be allowed in pri- collection also includes a an exhibit “in the service
By DEBORA REY took custody of the largest vate. It has not been deter- photo negative of Hitler of transmitting democratic
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina collection of Nazi artifacts mined if the collector vio- holding a magnifying glass values, education and the
(AP) — The Museum of the discovered in the country’s lated the anti-discrimina- similar to those found in the fight for memory so trage-
Holocaust in Argentina’s history. tion law, although he has boxes. dies like the Holocaust are
capital on Wednesday Federal police and Inter- been charged with owning The main hypothesis not repeated.”q