This post is from Swiss Infos put together by Bruno Kaufmann, Michele Novaga. Here is an excerpt:

In the 1970s Venezuela was considered a refuge for persecuted people from other Latin American countries and a haven for freedom of expression. But today, as the Venezuelan journalist Carlos Omobono reports, independent voices are being persecuted and driven out of the country by President Nicolás Maduro’s regime.

An estimated 7.1 million Venezuelans now live abroad, according to the latest United Nations figures prepared by the Inter-Agency Coordination Platform for Refugees and Migrants for Venezuela “R4V”, which comprises over 200 organizations and associations. This makes the South American country a leading nation in terms of the size of its overseas diaspora: roughly one quarter of the population has emigrated.

One of them is journalist Carlos Omobono, who used to work for several Venezuelan newspapers and radio stations and was an anchor for the private television channel Venevisión in the 1990s.

Read the full article here.