Ecuador Declares State of Emergency Over Venezuelan Migrants at Border

File photo: People queue to buy tickets to travel to Ecuador at a bus terminal in Caracas, on October 11, 2017 as scores of disappointed Venezuelans who see no end to the crisis choose to leave the country. Venezuela, which holds regional elections on October 15, is a country at the top of the Latin American continent that is in deep economic and political crisis. Federico Parra/AFP/Getty Images

QUITO—Ecuador on Aug. 8 declared a state of emergency in three provinces due to an unusually high volume of Venezuelan migrants crossing over the northern border with Colombia after fleeing the OPEC nation’s economic crisis.

Venezuela’s hyperinflation and chronic product shortages have fueled an exodus of citizens who typically travel by land via Colombia, often continuing south toward Andean nations including Ecuador, Peru and Chile.