Caracas Is Suddenly Attracting a Migration Wave of Its Own

(Bloomberg) -- “Caracas is paradise.” The executive said it over breakfast in his private bank’s boardroom in the Venezuelan capital.

It sounded absurd, out of touch, unfeeling, even to him, given the headlines about economic ruin, humanitarian crises and extensive power blackouts. But when Caracas is compared to other cities and towns, he might be right.

He wheeled off internal reports he had received in recent days from across the country, about National Guardsmen charging people $5 in cash to cut in line for gasoline in Zulia, dwindling food supplies in Tachira state and power failures keeping branches of his bank closed in Lara. In the office building where he works, the air conditioning was humming and the floors fully lit. The escalators even worked.

Caracas is being given a privileged existence by the government, shielded from most of the pain being distributed as President Nicolas Maduro fends off opposition leader Juan Guaido and the more than 50 countries intent on ousting him to end two decades of socialist rule that atrophied into a catastrophic six-year depression.

As wave after wave of people head to the border to escape the misery -- 4 million have left Venezuela in the last few years -- another, albeit much smaller, migration pattern is cropping up. Conscious of the capital’s benefits, people and businesses are picking up and moving there. It’s mostly anecdotal at this point, but seems real. In some cases, chefs are closing their restaurants in cities like Barquisimeto, Merida and Maracaibo and re-opening them in Caracas.

Now that the government has essentially dollarized the economy and freed up private imports (at a cost after negotiating with the military running the ports), food supplies are more plentiful in Caracas, at least for those lucky enough to have access to greenbacks in a country with poverty rates approaching 90%.

While blackouts in March and April afflicted everyone across the nation of some 28 million people, steady service has mostly been restored to Caracas, leaving the rest of the country subject to daily outages and chaotic power rationing.

Even gasoline, in short supply after U.S. sanctions, can be found more easily in the capital. The longest line I saw during the week I visited was about six cars. According to reports from the hinterlands, motorists wait in line for 12 hours, even 24 hours, with no guarantee of success upon reaching the pump.

All it will take to sink Caracas back into total chaos, of course, will be another major power failure, and that knowledge remains front and center for all residents, rich or poor. They all have stories about how they survived the last one, which went on for between five and 10 days, depending on the neighborhood.

There’s a burgeoning business to take care of utility services privately, at least for the wealthy. All it takes is forking over a few hundred for a diesel generator, convincing fellow residents in buildings to drill for a water well or finding someone who’ll sell you satellite internet.

For those select few who arrive in Caracas loaded with money, real estate can be had at a discount. A house in a leafy part in the southeast might go for $230,000, down from an initial asking price of $400,000; an apartment in a well-guarded and “safe” part of the capital may be available for $60,000. If you close a deal with the owner, though, you could still have to pay fees (translation: bribes) to register the property, elevating the final price.

Crime has fallen, according to friends, acquaintances and business people I met with. They all knocked on wood -- literally -- when relating this novelty. (No one knows exactly why; theories include the soaring price of bullets and guns and the possibility that many crooks may have already emigrated.) Most Caraquenos are far more wary nowadays of Maduro’s repressive security forces than common criminals.

Paradise? Of course not. But if you’re staying in Venezuela out of pure nationalistic loyalty or can’t afford to start over again abroad, there’s no better place. It might be for a while. As Maduro clings to power, he knows that if he loses Caracas, he’ll lose everything.

To contact the reporter on this story: Daniel Cancel in Sao Paulo at dcancel@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: David Papadopoulos at papadopoulos@bloomberg.net, Anne Reifenberg

©2019 Bloomberg L.P.