You're listening to Rough Translation from NPR.

I'm Gregory Warner.

For Mariana Suniga, a reporter in Caracas, Venezuela,

the images that arose in her Twitter feed back in March

were disturbingly similar.

Always some non-descript stretch of highway.

In the background, maybe mountains, maybe fields.

And on the road were streams of young men, sometimes women, walking.

Well, I think the one that struck me the most

was a young lady and the border of the road,

breastfeeding her child.

She was using her luggage as a chair.

And she looks exhausted.

And you could see a little bit blurry

in the background of the picture.

Other people walking as well.

They were walking from Peru and Colombia, an Ecuador,

back home to Venezuela, as jobs dried up

because of the coronavirus.

And it was really weird to me to see these walkers,

those caminantes, as we know them, doing these reverse journey.

For the last five years, Mariana's

...