Maduro says there are 2.5 million Venezuelan migrants, but the real number is three times higher

President Nicolás Maduro stated on July 1 that a total of 2,500,000 Venezuelans migrated between 2013 and 2023 and assured that 1,200,000 citizens have returned to the country between 2020 and 2023. TalCual verifies this information and shows official data from various international organizations.

“I have solid data (…) between 2013 and 2023, 2,500,000 Venezuelans left Venezuela as economic migrants. From 2020 to 2023, closing 2023, part of 2024, 1,200,000 have returned, half of those who left,” Maduro said in his program No. 52. With Maduro +.

However, the figures are far from those offered by international organizations. The Interagency Coordination Platform for Migrants from Venezuela (R4V) counts 7,774,494 Venezuelans outside their nation and clarifies that the data represents the sum of refugees, migrants and asylum seekers. The organization emphasizes that “it is an estimate,” according to the processing methodology of each receiving country and warns that “the total number is likely to be higher.”

The data that Colombia has —including a decrease of 32,000 Venezuelans in its territory— is greater than that offered by the Venezuelan authorities. In February of this year, the director of Migración Colombia, Fernando García, said that as of December of last year, 2,846,796 Venezuelan citizens lived in Colombia.

According to the latest R4V update from June this year, there were 6,590,671 refugees and migrants from Venezuela in Latin America and the Caribbean alone.

Colombia is the country in the region with the largest number of Venezuelans, with more than 2.5 million, followed by Peru with 1,542,004, in third place is the United States with 545,200, followed by Brazil with 510,499 and then Ecuador with 474,945.

Although the Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that 1,200,000 Venezuelans have returned to the country through the Return to the Homeland Planfrom 25 different countries, this figure is difficult to verify because there is no official data available to the public; however, it can be said that it is a fairly high amount.

In October 2023, Vice Minister for Latin America Rander Peña indicated that more than 900,000 Venezuelan migrants have returned to their country “by different means and methods” in “recent months,” but he did not provide further details either.

On July 16, 261 Venezuelans returned to the country from Mexico with the Return to the Homeland plan, reported Foreign Minister Yván Gil.

He also said that “to a large extent” the government of Nicolás Maduro has supported these migrants with the Return to the Homeland plan, which was launched in 2018 to facilitate the return of migrants.

Caracas / TalCual