Luisa Salazar (C), 39, an industrial relations specialist, smiles next to a co-worker Luis, who is moving to Spain, during their farewell party at the office before her move to Mexico City, in Caracas July 18, 2014. 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 July 18. To match Feature VENEZUELA-MIGRATION/ REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins (VENEZUELA – Tags: POLITICS SOCIETY IMMIGRATION)