For five months, Victor Fernandez has been saving up to buy a return ticket home to his native Venezuela, where the ravaged economy is showing signs of recovery. During the South American country's eight-year recession, including four years of hyperinflation, many shops were empty, while endless queues formed outside those that were not. But since 2018, when Venezuela relaxed its strict exchange rate controls that had been in place for two decades, economic pressures have eased -- even if the improvements are a far cry from the oil-boom years of the 1970s and 2000s. IMAGES AND SOUNDBITES