The Albany Gazette - Cyclone upturns Venezuelans' dreams of better life in Brazil

But the deadly cyclone that battered the southern Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul last week has now taken her and her husband's jobs and upended their dreams.

Aponte, 34, and her husband, Yeiferson, both worked at a tannery in the small city of Mucum, one of the places hit hardest by the cyclone, which unleashed torrential rain and flooding on the region, leaving nearly 50 people dead and dozens missing.

The storm left much of Mucum, a city of 4,600 people, in ruins. It spared Aponte's home, but devastated the factory where she and her husband worked.

The tannery, which employed around 500 people, was partially destroyed, its machines swept away by the current.

"Our company was lost in the floodwaters. We don't know what to do," Aponte told AFP.

Aponte and her husband, who live with their three-year-old son and two relatives, lost their source of income to the disaster. The money also supported their 12-year-old son and Aponte's mother and ailing father, who live together back in Venezuela.

She says although the work at the tannery was hard, she and her family always felt welcome and safe in Mucum.

"They adopted us as if we were from here," she said.

Left jobless by the storm, Aponte has turned to volunteering in a local church, sorting clothing donations for people forced from their homes or otherwise affected by the cyclone -- more than 150,000 in all.

"First, let's help get through the disaster. Then we'll figure out what to do," she said.

She and her husband have taken in two Venezuelan colleagues who had to flee as the floodwaters invaded their home.

- Better life -

The United Nations says more than seven million migrants have left Venezuela as the oil giant's economy has collapsed under socialist President Nicolas Maduro, in power since 2013.

Around 425,000 Venezuelans live in neighboring Brazil, Latin America's largest economy, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.

Around 100 of them wound up in Mucum, which has welcomed them "marvelously," according to 52-year-old Luis Enrique Duarte, who also worked at the tannery.

Aura Garcia, 57, who fled to Brazil five years ago, said she always liked peaceful, prosperous Mucum -- especially compared to Venezuela, where there is "no food, no medicine, no work, no nothing."

She and her colleagues now face an uncertain future.

But none talk of returning to Venezuela.

"Not in my wildest dreams. As long as that president is there, I'm not going back," said Garcia, referring to Maduro.

"They'll have to bury me right here in Brazil."

(S.G.Stein--BBZ)