The influx of Venezuelans in Guyana: Refugees to some, ‘silent invaders’ to others

Nov 05, 2018 News

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The Immigration Department has records of almost 2,800 Venezuelans who have entered Guyana for refuge, as a result of the political and economic crisis in their home country. Guyana has been organizing to identify the needs and vulnerabilities of this population. The International Organisation on Migration (IOM) has found that, at this time, their needs include documentation, food, employment or income-generating activities, and healthcare. Since the arrival of the first group of Venezuelan refugees, Guyana has been providing relief.
However, this situation is unusual because it is compounded by another issue, a border dispute between the two countries, which has hindered relations for over a century. Many Guyanese share the opinion that there is enmity between the Guyanese people and the Venezuelan people due to the ongoing border dispute between the two countries, and that the influx of Venezuelans constitutes a ‘silent invasion.’
Kaieteur News sat down with the local chapter of the regional youth organisation, ASPIRE Youth Network to find out the views of Guyana’s youth on the exodus of Venezuelans to Guyana. ASPIRE’s Country Director Dennis Glasgow told Kaieteur News: “First of all, the government of Venezuela has an issue with Guyana, not Venezuelans. It’s an issue for [Guyanese] because we’re the ones that fear something will be taken away from us. They’re the ones suffering. They’re coming here looking for a better life, trying to get food for their children, trying to provide.”

Juliana Lopes, Social Programming Director, believes that the media plays a very problematic role in programming the public to operate in a xenophobic manner. A common concern that is peddled, she said, “is that these people are coming here to steal people’s jobs.” Lopes said that people fleeing crisis are hardly in a position to procure the means to threaten Guyanese freedoms or to take coveted jobs. However, ASPIRE member, Kerron Moore, said that one of the things he observed is that many storeowners on Regent Street in Georgetown are giving Venezuelans hiring preference over Guyanese, so that they could be translators for Cuban shoppers. This, he thinks, is one of the ways in which Venezuelans have the advantage over Guyanese.
Moore said, “The Venezuelan government can take [this influx] as an opportunity to send their intelligence officers to gather information that they can use to later invade Guyana. So the Venezuelan people can come across out of desperation for a better life, but there may be some persons who are up to no good.”
ASPIRE member, Stefan Williams said “I’ve interacted with Venezuelans and persons that lived in Venezuela for some time. The people, as a whole, have no problem with us and couldn’t care less about the border issue. If we are going to be good neighbours, we should allow a suffering people refuge in our country. Not saying that we should let any and everybody come through. As long as they come here legally, I have no issue with them being here.”

Williams said, “Within Port Kaituma, Bartica and Goshen, Venezuelans operate in the numbers. They work in bars, restaurants and mining camps, and co-exist peacefully. Guyanese are speaking Spanish along with them. It’s just that, now, we’re seeing them a lot in Georgetown, and everybody’s vexed.”
However, Williams has a different attitude toward Venezuelans who are crossing the border illegally, “Send them back,” he urges. “We need to feel safe in our own country. We don’t know who is who.”
Director, Dennis Glasgow, argued that the Venezuelan people need the sympathy of Guyanese. He stated, “These people are being deprived of their basic human rights to food, education and security, their basic human right to move, to assemble. Their rights have been eroded, and they are moving to seek that fulfillment.
“We must understand the concept of human rights for all, on the premise that all lives are equal.”
Many young Guyanese are unaware of a situation similar to this one, where the roles were once reversed. To have a firm understanding of this seemingly forgotten event in our history, Kaieteur News interviewed a group of Guyanese living in Venezuela. The Representative Organisation of Guyanese in Venezuela (RCGV) is a non-governmental organisation advocating for the interests of Guyanese people in Venezuela. The organisation comprises of the first generation born to a group of mainly East Indian Guyanese, who travelled to Venezuela decades ago. The community of Guyanese in Venezuela lives in Ciudad Guayana, a city in the country’s Northeast Region, numbering in the thousands.
RCGV Administrator Satish Ramkissoon told Kaieteur News that the Guyanese diaspora have been living there since 1969, when they left Guyana, as they considered the presidency of the late Forbes Burnham to be a dictatorship. According to Ramkissoon, the exodus from Guyana was mainly due to the economic situation of the country, and they travelled so that they could earn to send support to their relatives living in Guyana.
So mirrors the situation decades ago with the current influx of Venezuelans to Guyana, where thousands viewed the situation in one country as catastrophic and decided to travel to the other, though illegally. The Guyanese living in Venezuela have managed to develop a thriving community that is constantly advocating for a stronger sense of community with its local Guyanese counterparts.
The difference between these two situations, however, is that Venezuela is much larger than Guyana, both, by population and by economic might. While Venezuela may have been more equipped to handle an intake of thousands of Guyanese, Guyana has been struggling to provide for the thousands of Venezuelans fleeing the crisis in their home country.
It is the RCGV’s position that Venezuelans, though travelling illegally to Guyana in search of greener pastures, do so in the absence of avenues of travel that would provide more ease, such as regular flights. Ramkissoon said that traveling by sea and irregular roads puts Venezuelans at risk of dangers both human and natural. When asked what Guyana should do about the ongoing crisis, Ramkissoon said, “I appeal to the government of Guyana, President David Granger and to Minister Carl Greenidge, to contribute all assistance that is humanly necessary for the Venezuelan nationals who are in Guyana”.
(Kemol King)

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