DEBBIE ELLIOTT, HOST:
Venezuelans are voting today in one of the most consequential presidential contests in decades. Opponents of current leader Nicolas Maduro have mounted a major challenge to the autocrats' rule. One of the major issues in the campaign is migration. Nearly a quarter of the population has left the country during a political and economic crisis. And as NPR's Carrie Kahn reports, that's touched many voters in a personal way.
CARRIE KAHN, BYLINE: Maria Lagos just got off the night shift. The 62-year-old with tattoos covering both arms is an emergency room nurse in a large public hospital in Caracas. She's fed up with the abysmal conditions there.
MARIA LAGOS: (Speaking Spanish).
KAHN: Patients have to buy everything, she says. She's tired of telling people, we don't have this. We don't have that. She unravels a small sign she made at this downtown rally for opponents of President Nicolas Maduro.
LAGOS: (Speaking Spanish).
KAHN: We want peace, liberty, education - all critical, she says, to stem the exodus of Venezuelans leaving the country. She's suffering through it. Two of her daughters live abroad, one in Argentina, the other in the U.S., and her youngest is readying to leave, also for the U.S.
LAGOS: (Speaking Spanish).
KAHN: "It's painful. It hurts that they aren't with me, but I'm glad they aren't here suffering in this situation," she says. Under Maduro's authoritarian 12-year rule, Venezuela's economy collapsed. Gas and electricity shortages are widespread and he's jailed hundreds of opponents. But no issue has galvanized opposition to Maduro like the migration crisis. Nearly 8 million Venezuelans have left in the last decade. Leading opponent Maria Corina Machado brings up the huge exodus at her rallies and in her campaign jingles.
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MARIA CORINA MACHADO: (Speaking Spanish).
KAHN: "Our children will come back home, and our families will be united in liberty," she says. It's hard to find a Venezuelan without a relative abroad, says Geoff Ramsey of the Atlantic Council in Washington, D.C.
GEOFF RAMSEY: We're talking about the deepest humanitarian emergency in the Western Hemisphere, the largest case of mass displacement that's not due to war.
KAHN: Most have ended up in neighboring Latin American countries. But in the past four years, U.S. border officials say they've seen high numbers too - more than 800,000 encounters with Venezuelans. Guillermo Aveledo, a political scientist at the Metropolitan University in Caracas believes Maduro will hold on to power by stealing the election, and he says, that means the economy will continue to stumble and grow weakly.
GUILLERMO AVELEDO: It won't be enough growth to keep the Venezuelans in Venezuela. And this will lead to social and political issues around the continent.
KAHN: Even affecting the U.S. presidential campaign he says, where migration has become a major issue. For his part, Maduro blames the collapse of the economy and massive migration on harsh U.S. sanctions. For years, he vilified those who left the country. But as he faces his biggest electoral challenge to date, he's had to change that tune.
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PRESIDENT NICOLAS MADURO: (Speaking Spanish).
KAHN: We love Venezuela's migrants. Come here. We are waiting for you, he said recently on one of his many publicly broadcast TV shows. Recent poll show a staggering number plan to leave of Maduro wins, as much as 10% more of the population. Miguel Rodriguez, a video editor, says he's going win or lose.
MIGUEL RODRIGUEZ: I don't really expect, like, to have big changes in the next three, four, five years, so that's why I'm thinking to leave.
KAHN: He's selling his car and other possessions to buy a ticket to Spain where his brother already lives. He says at 31, he feels like time is running out for him.
RODRIGUEZ: You know, it gets to a point where you have to decide, well, am I going to keep fighting for my country and to get the freedom we want or am I going to have the life I want?
KAHN: He says he's choosing his life.
Carrie Kahn, NPR News, Caracas. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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