Virginia Hernández, a Venezuelan citizen studying orthodontics in Argentina, recently flew home to Caracas to spend some time with her family to get a break from her chaotic school life. Little did she know, the chaos was just beginning. President Maduro and his administration have long been in a dispute with the airline industry, refusing to release almost $4 billion in airline ticket revenue. For this reason many local and multinational airlines have significantly scaled back, or in some cases even ceased, service to the country. Hernández attempted to fly back to school on Sunday, when they told her to return on Monday. She then ran in to the problem on Monday, Tuesday, and was finally able to catch a flight home after missing three days of class.
The country, plagued by 60 percent inflation, crime, food shortages and dwindling job prospects, suffers from flight capital, an economic term used to describe the situation when capital rapidly leaves a country for some serious macroeconomic event. According to data compiled by Datanalisis, a Caracas polling company, one in 10 citizens is seeking to leave the country permanently. This number has increased two fold since 2002. This desire to leave has caused billions of dollars of investment to flee to other, more stable markets – like Miami real estate. With a large Spanish speaking community, Miami presents a great location for the capital flying out of nations like Venezuela. Unsurprisingly, capital has been reinvested into Miami from regions like Venezuela for over a decade, positively impacting the Miami region. As geopolitical events continue to shake up foreign markets, look for Miami real estate to present itself as a safe haven for foreign flight capital.