Invasion by Venezuelans Fleeing Crisis at Home Creates Chaos in the State of Roraima

11/22/2016 - 12h17

At 28 years of age, Enrique Rafeal Díaz has a very different life that he had planned for.

A medical student in Venezuela, in recent months he moved from the classroom to a traffic intersection in Boa Vista (Roraima), where he spends 15 hours per day selling fruit, handicrafts and washing car windows.

venezuela

According to the State Government, there are already 30 thousand Venezuelans who have crossed the Brazilian border due to the crisis in the supply of basic goods and are flooding cities like Pacaraima and Boa Vista, points of entry for foreigners from the neighboring country.

Roraima has approximately 500 thousand inhabitants and is dealing with the situation as a humanitarian crisis.

The State has seen an increase in hospital admissions, violence, malaria cases and prostitution.

Venezuelans sleep in the streets, the bus station and in lots and houses they have invaded in a situation that is getting worse by the day.

During the Passarão holiday, 160 Venezuelans, mostly indigenous members of Waran ethnicity, were the daily targets of aggression by Brazilians.

Xenophobia has become something palpable in the streets coming from both Brazilians and Venezuelans.

"They shouldn't be here. I've been unemployed for six months and some of them are managing to get jobs. They should go back to their country", said stone mason Ramon da Silva, from Pacaraima, referring to 80 indigenous foreigners that are living on the lot next to the city's bus terminal.

Venezuelan cook Josepina Alfara says that she never wanted to leave her country, but she is obligated to depend on the understanding of Brazilians.

"My country is so rich, it has diamonds and petroleum, it sends electricity to Roraima [but] is living in a terrible crisis with this President [Nicolás Maduro]. We are all God's creatures."

A decision by the Venezuelan Judiciary prohibiting Parliament from passing judgement regarding responsibility on Maduro for the country's crisis has further frustrated the hopes of foreigners crossing the border.

Although there is control and inspection at the border between the countries, entrance into Brazil is facilitated by sparseness and the division between territories is demarked only by painted white lines, which doesn't prevent anyone from crossing into Pacaraima.

Translated by LLOYD HARDER

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