Oscar Hernandez (C), director of the Migration Training Center, welcomes one participant of the forum “I stay or should I go” in Caracas June 28, 2014. One of the main activities of the center is organising talks about migration options and tips to help people with plans to migrate out of Venezuela. As political strife drags on and an economic crisis brings soaring prices and shortages of even basic goods, Venezuela’s middle classes are increasingly seeing a future abroad. Tomas Paez, a Central University of Venezuela sociologist publishing a study about the diaspora, said up to 1.6 million people, or about 6 percent of the population, are living abroad. Almost 90 percent of them have left since 1999 and the exodus has been fastest in the last six years, toward the end of the Chavez era and into Maduro’s term, he said. Picture taken on June 28. To match Feature VENEZUELA-MIGRATION/ REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins (VENEZUELA – Tags: POLITICS SOCIETY IMMIGRATION)