So most of us know that Venezuela is in a crisis state. In fact, the people rarely have enough to eat and their lights cut off at any moment. Also, they live under constant fear, from their own leadership. But there’s another devastating blow. Technology and Venezuela’s crisis: the tech pool leaves.
So this is perhaps the biggest resource that this troubled nation is losing: Their IT service and IT support pool. In fact, in recent years, over three million people left Venezuela. Nearly half of those got permits from other countries to immigrate to their land. One tech leader in Caracas, Venezuela’s capital and largest city, already sees this. In fact, he really sees the departure senior level tech talent.
For example, someone smaller might stay for the experience. But as soon as they get to the next level, they take their talent to Chile, or another South American nation. Venezuela ranks in the global bottom 10% for keeping their tech talent around and recruiting international talent.? Their Internet connection is very poor. In fact, it’s less than half that of other South American countries. While they’re collapsing, their neighbors are thriving. Argentina’s software companies are rising. And now, 10% of their employees come from Venezuela. Columbia’s tech ecosystem is flourishing. They can thank Venezuela refugees for that.
Imagine working so hard for $18 a month. That’s now a Venezuela employee’s average salary. But I have to wonder. Did Chavez do this by design? Is Muduro still doing this by design? There is something they call ‘brain drain’. In most oppressive systems, the rulers will take the smartest and most educated people out of the system. One way they do this is by driving them to other nations. For example, Chavez made bad changes for their oil companies. This caused many scientist and others to move to the US. It’s a shame because 20 or 30 years ago, Venezuela was the wealthiest nation in South America. It had so much potential. But look at it now. This includes technology and Venezuela’s crisis. How does the affect the rest of the tech world?