Venezuelan migrants long for home as Maduro nears start of new term

FILE PHOTO: Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro looks on during a meeting of leaders of the member states of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America and the Treaty of Commerce and Promotion (ALBA-TCP), in Caracas, Venezuela December 14, 2024. REUTERS/Leonardo Fernandez Viloria/File Photo

MEXICO CITY/RIOHACHA, Colombia (Reuters) - Venezuelan migrant Mariangela Lozano longs for her homeland, but ahead of Friday's planned inauguration for President Nicolas Maduro's third term, she has begrudgingly opted to remain in Mexico and brave her meager living conditions.

"If Maduro weren't in government ... I'd be the first to return to Venezuela", Lozano said in December, a fortnight before Maduro's inauguration, following a contested election last July which saw both Maduro and opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez claim victory.