Crisis in Latin America Impacts the Atlanta Community
Joaquín Villegas stares at the four walls of his dorm and wonders if he’ll still be there in the coming year. He thinks of the friends he’s made throughout two years in college, unsure if he’ll see them again. He does not want to think about his career while his home country burns and his family struggles to sustain itself. He does miss Ecuador and was excited to go back for the winter break, but it seems like it won’t be just a break anymore. Joaquín might be forced to stay there and forfeit his studies at Kennesaw State University.
“The president [Lenín Moreno] cut the salaries by 20% for all public workers, and they have to give one month’s salary to the government. My parents work in a high school in Quito so this hit them hard. It’s difficult for them to have me studying in the U.S. even with a scholarship. I also have two sisters still in Ecuador, so just think about what the new laws will do to my family,” said Villegas.
The laws might have been legislated thousands of miles away from Villegas and other young Ecuadorians like him, but they still have a direct impact on their livelihood and the people around them. Yet the crisis isn’t limited to Ecuador, and other hispanics in Atlanta find themselves struggling with their futures.

Latin America is a continent plagued by political unrest, falling into chaos whenever the people rise up against unjust governments that fight back with violence. Corruption becomes a pattern in public constitutions, funds and taxes are stolen by the wealthy while the less fortunate endure crippling states of poverty.
For foreigners who merely overlook the continent for tourism, the problems Latinos face daily, seem irrelevant as they do not affect them directly and don’t affect those they care about, but that isn’t the case in 2019. It isn’t the case in Georgia, and it isn’t the case in Atlanta.
Mariana Lucía Calderón walks out of her job at Urban Outfitters and makes her way towards the closest Marta station, studying the calm pedestrians beside her and the laughing children as they run towards centennial park. Despite the traffic and hectic drivers yelling at each other, there is peace.
Then she imagines her childhood friends collapsing on their knees as their eyes burn by the tear gas launched by the police forces of Chile. Twenty deaths have been reported ever since the protests started, one child among them, and she fears that the people she cares about might become part of the casualties in the coming weeks.
“It doesn’t feel right for me to turn the TV on and watch something meaningless, pretending like everything is fine, while my people back home defend their rights out on the streets and fight for a better Chile,” says Calderón.

Calderón decides that in the coming morning, she’ll ask her boss for at least a week off from work, and if he doesn’t allow it, she is willing to announce her resignation. Because right now, Mariana feels the urge to be in Chile with her family and give them support throughout the crisis. She needs to know they’re safe.
“I have several friends here in Georgia and also South Carolina who are planning similar trips. We’re not acting out of impulse. We’re acting out of desperation as our country suffers.”
And what exactly is going on in Chile?
According to a report from the BBC, the protests started early in October when the government increased the price of the subway and students responded by breaching into the stations without paying, and setting buses and platforms on fire. Violent confrontations with the police followed, and President Sebastián Piñera decreed a state of emergency and sent the military to enforce a curfew.
Several deaths were reported in the riots and multiple videos surfaced on social media showing the military abusing protesters and shooting at passive individuals.
Even though the president backed down with the increase of the subway, the protests continued as people felt enraged by previous abuses from the government and wanted their voices to be heard. The curfews were prolonged, the violent confrontations are still taking place, and the future of Chile remains uncertain.
“Some of my peers question my decisions of traveling to Chile with everything that’s happening, but they have never felt the fear of having their family shot down by their country’s own military. That is something Americans cannot begin to understand,” says Calderón.
In the past two years, the United States has experienced a massive wave of immigration from Venezuelans escaping the brutal dictatorship of Nicolás Maduro, who drove the country into hyperinflation, famine, and daily violence on the streets.
8,000 Venezuelans have been reported to move into Georgia since 2016 according to the AJC, and the number is expected to keep on growing.
“You walk into a grocery store here [Atlanta] and they have absolutely everything you could ask for. Back home you have to wait in line for five hours just to get bread, the shelves are empty, and the stuff you do find will cost you almost your entire month’s salary,” says Venezuelan immigrant Carla Restrepo.

The Atlanta community has sympathized with those unable to leave the country, and one prime example is the coach of the Braves, Eddie Perez, who actively sends boxes of soap and medicine to the people in his hometown in Venezuela.
Other notable helpers belong to an organization called Venezolanos en Georgia, who also send boxes of medicine to the country as those resources are nonexistent or only available to the elite. They receive donations from diverse groups across the state but they are still aiming to spread awareness on the issue, says one of their members, Linda Lopez.
“In DeKalb county I’ve had friends experience reproach from locals, claiming they’re being invaded by Venezuelans who want to take their jobs. They never consider that these immigrants are only trying to find refuge from a place where they are prosecuted by standing against the government. These ignorant Americans wouldn’t last a day in Venezuela. They have no right to judge my people without knowing their stories and what they’ve suffered,” added Restrepo.
