If you skim through any British newspaper these days, you’ll be sure to find plenty about the latest Brexit news or yet another crazy statement from Donald Trump, but what of people who are suffering on a daily basis in Venezuela? The crisis in this country was headline news for a while, but now it has disappeared from the mainstream news agenda. To discover what’s going on in Venezuela today, you will have to go to social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
It began with fuel and food shortages in 2010; since then the situation has become unbearable. You can see the level of desperation in these Tweets.
Poverty and human rights violations by government-backed paramilitaries have prompted around 4.5 million Venezuelans to leave the country. The United Nations defines it as one of the most serious displacement crises in the world.
But one of the world’s worst crises has been hardly reported in Western media for months. Thankfully Facebook, Twitter and Instagram provide the space for people to post updates and raise awareness. The hashtags #prayforvenezuela and #fightforvenezuela have been trending on Twitter for over two years now, showing that people all over the world still care about the people who are suffering.
