Is the Venezuela refugee crisis a Maduro ruse?

Jun 22, 2018 Letters

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DEAR EDITOR,
A strange and troubling situation is developing in which people fleeing from Venezuela are coming here and claiming to be citizens of Guyana.
The media recently reported that 70 such persons are occupying tents in a mineral-rich area of Guyana, claiming to belong to one family and that the land is their ancestral property. Up to the time of this letter, another 182 are reportedly camping out at the border, eagerly waiting to come across and stake their claim to our land.
Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Carl Greenidge was quite right when he said that these people must verify their citizenship. People have a right to re-migrate to the country of their birth, but if they left many years ago and do not have valid Guyanese identification documents, they must prove their citizenship. That is how it is done all over the world. What makes Guyana different?
Wouldn’t it be peculiar if none of the 70 people already in Guyana claiming land, and none of the 182 waiting to come over and claim, can prove their citizenship? Not even one? How strange. Something does not smell right here. I am interested in the findings of the team sent to investigate and report on this matter led by Minister Ms. Valerie Garrido-Lowe.
It seems very strange to me that these people are claiming ownership of mineral-rich lands as their ancestral property. Don’t they know that when they packed up and migrated to Venezuela decades ago, they willingly and wastefully abandoned the lands of their ancestors? Don’t they understand that the State has a right to seize all non-productive lands in the public’s interest and use them productively or give others the legal right to do so?
I have an even deeper concern. These people claiming to be Guyanese might be, in fact, just plain ‘hard-back’ Venezuelan foot soldiers of the Maduro Government sent here to steal our lands surreptitiously. Perhaps they expect Guyanese fools to present it to them gift-wrapped on a platter without doing due diligence, so Venezuela could later claim that their citizens are living here, unchallenged, right on the disputed land.
Has anyone considered that these so-called refugees might be El Sindicato operatives working in cahoots with Maduro to promote Venezuela’s interests? On that note, what is the extent of the influence of El Sindicato here anyway? Is it true that this gang already controls significant areas in Region One? Does this Venezuelan cartel already have a vice-like grip on local miners and residents of remote communities in the Barima-Waini area?
Large groups of fake refugees, or even real ones, can easily create little Spanish-speaking villages in our country. Each one would be a ‘little Venezuela’, so to speak, and that would constitute a monumentally dangerous national security risk. How in God’s name could we even think of allowing Venezuelan refugee camps or ‘little Venezuela’ communities to take root in the very same territory that Venezuela wants to steal from us?
Imagine hundreds more so-called refugees, thousands more, tens of thousands more swarming into our land and setting up squatter communities. Imagine if they start to put up Venezuelan flags! Imagine if they block Guyanese from entering those communities. Can Guyana really afford to have communities of Venezuelans here, considering our dispute with their home country? Common sense tells me no.
From what I can see, the problem with Venezuela is not going anywhere in a hurry. We will always have problems with that neighbour. As our President Brigadier (ret’d) David Granger so clearly stated, Venezuela will always be a monkey on our back. Let us not forget that it is a tricky monkey. Let us make sure that we are not being taken for fools by Venezuelan invaders masquerading as refugees.
So, I agree with Minister Greenidge. Meticulous checks must be made to verify these people’s claim to be Guyanese. They must prove citizenship beyond reasonable doubt or they must be deported immediately. If they are allowed to remain, they should be made to swear allegiance to Guyana only and sign to the effect that they are not Venezuelans and have no further ties with that country. They cannot be allowed to occupy our land without approval and permission. Already, 70 of them, including pregnant women and children, are occupying land without permission and it seems that they are insisting on living there.
What if these people are not really Guyanese? What if they are coming with bullying tactics or playing mind games to exploit our sympathy, sentiments and emotions? What if their true mission is to con us and carry out a covert occupation of Guyana’s territory for their true motherland Venezuela? Then our Government must do what any responsible government would do. Expel the imposters forcefully and promptly and let them reapply for re-migrant status or as refugees through the legal channels. Let’s not forget that they abandoned Guyana decades or generations ago, looking for greener pastures.
Venezuelans are very familiar with ‘bully-ism tactics’. They have been exposed to decades of dictatorial, tyrannical and tricky governments. Generations of Venezuelans have grown up in the bosom of trickiness and they know how to apply brute-force and/or deception. We have to think of our self-preservation. We have no choice; we have to ‘watch them with four eyes’, especially when they present themselves as Guyanese. Remember, they were ruled by a military government for years. Long term exposure to such rule changes the mindset of a people, making them more aggressive.
I firmly believe that Guyana should try to accommodate Venezuelans who genuinely seek refugee status. But I also advocate careful management of this, bearing in mind that we have an unresolved territorial dispute with an aggressive, desperate nation that can easily flood our system. Venezuela’s population in 2016 was 31.57 million; ours is not even one million. Many of them might even share their Government’s point of view in relation to that country’s claim on Guyana.
Perhaps all Maduro has to do to get Essequibo is bulldoze pathways through the jungle and point his people in our direction. Whether they enter legally or fraudulently, we must always bear in mind that Maduro could be setting up military nests and cells in various parts of Guyana. He can then activate them at any point in time to destabilise our democracy and country. Careful management is therefore needed.
Help them, yes. But let’s put systems in place so that we can control the flow. If we don’t deal effectively with this Venezuelan refugee situation right now, we can live to regret it by losing our cultural demographics and our country.
Sincerely,
Roshan Khan Snr.

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