The welcome mat frays

摘要

A YEAR AGO Janelis Beris left Valencia, her hometown in northern Venezuela, because the monthly pittance she earned as a cleaner was enough to buy only a packet of rice and two of flour. She arrived in Bogota, Colombia's capital, where she made more money picking through rubbish left on the street for recyclable plastic, glass or anything else of value she could find. With that she could pay rent and feed her four children. She promised herself she would not return until Nicolas Maduro, Venezuela's dictator, had left power. On April 12th Ms Beris broke that promise. A strict lockdown in Colombia, imposed to stop the spread of covid-19, has left her worse off than when she lived in Venezuela. Demand for waste disappeared. Her landlord evicted her in late March. After that, she and her children slept under a bridge. When that became unendurable she put her children and belongings in a cart and pushed them to a bus station 20km (12 miles) away. Her plan: to head back to Valencia, where she still owns a house.