A young man with an elderly Venezuelan woman in his arms crosses the river that separates the US from Mexico

INTERNATIONAL

The migratory crisis does not understand ages or nationalities. In the image of Aylan, the Syrian child whose body washed away on a Turkish beach in 2015, or that of baby Valeria, a Salvadoran woman, who drowned in 2019 along with her father when her family tried to cross into the United States, joins now a moving image in which a young man crosses the Rio Grande, which separates the US from Mexico, carrying an elderly Venezuelan woman in his arms.

Thousands of Venezuelans cross the waters of this river every day trying to find a better future. The old woman who, according to various media, is called Irma and who managed to reach the other side of the river safely, is the most recent face of the Venezuelan exodus. The crisis in the country governed by Nicolás Maduro has expelled more than 5.6 million migrants, a number that does not stop growing and could exceed the Syrian exodus.

The image was published on Thursday by Reuters correspondent Idrees Ali. “A Venezuelan migrant seeking asylum carries an elderly woman as they cross the Rio Grande to the United States from Mexico,” the journalist explained..

The author of the photograph, Go Nakamura, also from the Reuters agency, took several images of this elderly woman, who is seen accompanied by a United States border agent. In one of the photographs, the woman, wearing a mask and a pink sweater, visibly exhausted, shakes hands with a man while practically falling on one of the agents.

Little else is known about her; according to local media, her name would be Irma and she would be 80 years old. In addition, in a video uploaded to social networks by the journalist Jorge Ventura, the woman affirms that she is originally from Maracaibo.

Two border agents help an elderly Venezuelan woman after crossing the border. REUTERS

If it seemed that the 'grandmothers' might not have the strength to leave their land in search of better opportunities, Irma proves otherwise. The flight from Venezuela is massive, hundreds and hundreds cross the border daily to reach Ecuador, Colombia, Chile. The bravest dare to try to reach the United States.

The series of images taken in Rio Grande, Texas, that same day leaves other emotional scenes that are almost part of everyday life in this place on the map. Women helping their young children cross, men crying, exhausted, families dropping on the grass to catch their breath and continue on their way.