The group stayed in the Las Mer­cedes re­gion of Cara­cas, which is de­scribed there as Venezuela’s Man­hat­tan. Busi­ness seems to be boom­ing in Las Mer­cedes with new malls, stores and car deal­er­ships.

“Cara­cas looks clean and sta­ble. Much work is be­ing done to give Cara­cas a facelift, in­clud­ing the un­der­ground sub­way, which is well or­gan­ised and cheap. Salaries are still low as the econ­o­my is small­er than it was 10 years ago. The next step would be con­tin­u­ing to grow the econ­o­my so Venezue­lans can stay at home with­out need­ing to go to Trinidad or Brazil or Colom­bia or Mi­a­mi,” said John-Lall.

Venezuela’s eco­nom­ic re­cov­ery will not on­ly ben­e­fit its cit­i­zens but T&T and the rest of the Caribbean and Latin Amer­i­ca.