“Totally reprehensible” – VP on inhumane treatment of Venezuelans

…says no xenophobia must occur in Guyana

Vice President Dr Bharrat Jagdeo has lashed out against the inhumane treatment of Venezuelan migrants who have fled their country to seek betterment in Guyana, warning that such actions can affect the safety of those Guyanese who are still living in Venezuela.
His remarks came in light of a video circulating on social media in which two migrants, accused of being thieves, were bullied into stripping and walking the road. The Guyana Police Force has since arrested a 37-year-old man of Peters Hall, East Bank Demerara, over the matter.
According to VP Jagdeo, such treatment of the Venezuelan migrants will not be tolerated. He noted that the suspect in this matter will face “serious consequences” for his actions.
“Over the past week, we have seen some reprehensible incidents, targeting Venezuelans; totally reprehensible…We are not going to be part of any movement to promote xenophobia in our country against people,” the Vice President contended during a press conference on Thursday.
Police on Wednesday evening said that their attention was called to the incident following a video circulating on social media.
According to Police, following a public appeal urging anyone with information about the incident or the individuals responsible to come forward, the man turned himself in about 13:30h at the Providence Police Station, accompanied by his lawyer.
Police said he was arrested and escorted to the Golden Grove Police Station, where he was video-interviewed in the presence of his lawyer.
“He admitted during the interview that he indeed had a cutlass in his hands, instructed the victims to say that they were thieves and ordered them to take off all their clothing and walk naked down the street. The suspect claimed that he never assaulted the victims, nor was he aware of who made the video,” Police said.
According to Police, the man was confronted with the victims, and they maintained he made the video with a red phone. The suspect was searched and according to Police a red phone was found on his person.
Police said that it was checked, but no video recording of the incident was found.
The phone was nonetheless lodged and is expected to be sent to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) headquarters to check for deleted videos. The man remains in custody as the investigation continues.
Only Tuesday, Guyana Times reported that the incident captured on video and widely circulated on social media had sparked outrage among the Guyanese community.
In fact, VP Jagdeo urged Guyanese to show empathy to the Venezuelan migrants here in the country as he reminded that scores of citizens had fled similar conditions in Guyana years ago to seek a better life in Venezuela as well as other countries in the regional and around the world.
“We have always insisted that people treat our people with dignity and respect and that [Guyanese] be compliant with the laws of the country in which they go to live… We fought for our people, wherever they are, to be treated decently,” he posited.
According to the Vice President, there are still many Guyanese migrants still living in Venezuela and behaviour such as this could spark a retaliation against them, not only in the Spanish-speaking nation but other countries around the world too.
“We still have Guyanese who migrated and live in Venezuela. Just imagine if somebody, whatever the accusation is, in this case they said it’s stealing, stripped your mother or daughter or sister and say walk down the road because of who they are – migrants. Just imagine how we’d react here in Guyana to this. We’d be up in arms outraged by this happening in another country with our people. This here, what they did here, can harm our people elsewhere where [Guyanese] live if there is retaliation. And people have to understand this,” Jagdeo argued.
He went onto note that most of the Venezuelans coming here are persons who have connections, mainly through their parentage, and are coming here with little to nothing because they feel they can have a better life in Guyana.
“The majority of them who are here come from that; they’re cut from that cloth. They’re our people. They have Guyanese blood. So, we have to treat them [better]… We don’t know their hardship,” the VP stressed.
Jagdeo, however, acknowledged that here are some Venezuelans with no connections here coming here. He pointed out that they too are entitled to the protection of the State under global refugee conventions.
“They’re economic migrants and you have to treat people with dignity,” he insisted.
But in the same breath, the Vice President is mindful that there could be elements that are coming here with nefarious intentions especially given the fact that there are heightened tensions between Guyana and Venezuela over the ongoing border controversy.
He argued that mistreatment cannot be meted out to all the Venezuelan migrants over fear of infiltration by a few who could potentially threaten Guyana’s sovereignty.
“It’s not that we’re unmindful that we have a border issue with Venezuela and we have to be careful about settling people here… We’ve always maintained that people must be treated decently… We must safeguard our borders and watch out for any trend where people are not complying with our laws and they will face full blunt of the law… But you can’t threat all of these people in a particular manner and throw them out…” VP Jagdeo stated. (G8)