Like an awful novel, the one about Venezuela is one horrific chapter after another.

The latest is the one about kids and schools.  We remind you that the Chávez-Maduro regime, like the Castro dictatorship, has always boasted about free education.

Unfortunately, free education matters little when kids have to worry about eating and surviving. 

This is from Reuters:

Thousands of Venezuelan children in Cucuta are not going to school, spending their days alone, following their parents, selling items on the streets or begging.

Every day more arrive.  About 40,000 Venezuelans were legally entering Colombia each month at the end of 2017, according to Colombian authorities, with thousands more thought to enter illegally.

All along the Venezuelan border, towns are struggling to cope.  Last week, leaders of Brazil's state of Roraima asked the Supreme Court for permission to close its border temporarily to halt the mass arrival.

While many Venezuelans with the means to migrate legally fled years ago, those leaving today are often seeking jobs to send money to families back home.  Few seek political asylum.

Aid groups and authorities warn poverty plus lack of schooling or daily supervision will push children into the ranks of Colombia's organized crime groups.

"If you don't educate a child, you can't correct that.  You totally change the trajectory of their life," said Yadira Galeano, Norwegian Refugee Council manager for Colombia's border areas.

"Many kids end up being easy subjects for criminal or armed groups."

This story confirms the humanitarian crisis underway in Venezuela, a country with huge oil reserves that was once rather prosperous and stable.

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