There’s a robust – to put it mildly!! – debate going on about all these Venezies flocking to our shores. Now this has been going on for years…at least since Venezuela’s meltdown following the collapse of their oil industry following their nationalisation of the few foreign oil companies like Exxon and Chevron that had remained after 2007 – when Chavez upped his populist adventures. Now whatever else is going on, our concern gotta be the impact of all those Venezies in our less than 800,000 population.
The trickle really became a torrent by the time the PPP was checkmated by APNU and the AFC in 2011 – and by 2019 there was a report of 36,000 of them as refugees here. The UN system had gotten involved with humanitarian outreaches to them as they crossed the Cuyuni into our Region 1. After a while, we’d decided to not let them in beyond Mabarama, but we never instituted the systems to do so effectively. There were three reasons for this – firstly many were Indigenous Peoples for whom it was an age-old tradition of migratory habits to make a living.
The second were Venezuelans – some of whom went around south and entered via Boa Vista to Lethem and then to G/town – and others who landed in boats on the Essequibo Coast and gravitated East to the West Coast, Georgetown and East Bank. Many of us felt sorry for these poor wretches – excepting local women who saw their husbands being lured into dalliances by the more desperate female refugees! Soon, every village between Pomeroon and Rosignol had their Venezuelan posses.
Finally, there were the returning Guyanese – or their children – who’d gone over since the 1970s as our economy and society had imploded under Burnham’s “innovations” – which Chavez ironically copied!! These were a whole different kettle of fish. By law, they were Guyanese citizens with all the privileges that implied. And this brings in the crux of the battle of words that’s going on right now between the Govt and the Opposition.
The latter think they’ve smelt a rat in that the PPP’s been registering Venezuelans of all stripes with GECOM with an eye on elections in 2025!! Hopefully, the Opposition would not only concede but embrace the fact that the refugees of Guyanese origin are perfectly entitled to be registered to vote. This is just a variant of why the courts have rejected their claim of a “bloated voters’ list”!!
On the other hand, if – at best – some of the other categories of Venezies wanna regularise their status then they’ll have to follow the law governing “naturalisation” of citizenship.
If the Opposition have evidence of hanky panky, they should speak up now!! Or hold their peace!!
…danger
During the Cold War, the Americans had a question for anyone trying to enter their country: “Are you now, or ever been a member of a communist party”. The reason, of course, is they didn’t want to allow Fifth Columnists into their country who could be activated some time down the road to subvert the country from within!!
This should be the retort to those who say we should allow any and all Venezuelan “refugees” because they allowed so many Guyanese to enter their country when the shoe was on the other foot. But the two situations aren’t equivalent, are they?? Unlike Venezuela, we’ve never claimed two-thirds of their territory and could later exploit the sentiments of the “refugees” to call upon their “mother country” to rescue them from persecution or whatever!! Isn’t this why, say, Turkey invaded Cyprus and partitioned it into Greek and Turkish enclaves??
All non-Guyanese persons from Venezuela must be categorised as “refugees” with the caveat they’ll have to return when Maduro is gone!!
…investment
Now that the investors from Africa have returned home, shouldn’t we be told how many business initiatives were incubated?? This was a critical intervention on so many levels. Not least being that we gotta shed that image of Africa with a begging bowl!!
