Crisis pours into Colombia across a border bridge
CUCUTA, Colombia - For evidence that the Venezuelan migrant crisis is overwhelming this Colombian border city, look no further than its largest hospital.
The emergency room designed to serve 75 patients is likely to be crammed with 125 or more. Typically, two-thirds are impoverished Venezuelans with broken bones, infections, trauma injuries - and no insurance and little cash.
"I'm here for medicine I take every three months or I die," said Cesar Andrade, a 51-year-old retired army sergeant from Caracas. He had come to Cucuta's Erasmo Meoz University Hospital for anti-malaria medication he can't get in Venezuela. "I'm starting a new life in Colombia. The crisis back home has forced me to do it."
The huge increase in Venezuelan migrants fleeing their country's economic crisis, failing health care system and repressive government is affecting the Cucuta metropolitan area more than any other in Colombia. It's where 80 percent of all exiting Venezuelans headed for Colombia enter as foreigners.
Despite turning away Venezuelans with cancer or chronic diseases, the hospital treated 1,200 migrant emergency patients last month, up from the handful of
