The United States found a way to alleviate the avalanche of Venezuelans on its southern border, but it generated a crisis in Mexico where there are thousands of migrants from Venezuela wandering the streets, sleeping in abandoned houses and in a migratory limbo, according to what Mexican and American activists denounced. .
Ten days after the US government announced a humanitarian parole for 24,000 Venezuelans, similar to the one granted to Ukrainians, and the expulsion of those who crossed the border illegally, a crisis arose in Mexican territory where only in that period there were more than 5,000 expelled.
Miriam Gonzalez, communication coordinator of the Institute for Women in Migration of Mexico, said Monday at a press conference that after the US announcement on October 12, what the governments of both countries created was a humanitarian crisis that left Venezuelans in a vulnerable situation.
It is estimated that in some states such as Baja California, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Sonora and Tamaulipas, in addition to Chiapas and Oaxaca, which are the main points close to entering and leaving Mexican territory, there are at least 22,500 Venezuelan migrants.
“We have seen how with the expulsions of Venezuelans under Title 42, overnight what we had was more than 41,000 people trapped in Mexico, who had already transited through seven countries to reach the United States and meet with their families,” said the activist.
However, he added, they are now in Mexico without information or clarity about the processes they must follow once they are expelled, nor do they know what the Mexican government offers them in terms of immigration regularization or to request asylum.
He assured that there is no plan or strategy to assist them and in the case of women, many of them are transferred to other states where there are no support networks for migrants.
Gonzalez believes that Mexico must “cease or stop receiving the population expelled under Title 42 because all it is doing is helping the United States government to violate its legal framework and hindering the right to asylum that all people have.”
Mexico has recognized that Venezuelans need international protection and from 2017 to date, asylum applications submitted to the Mexican Commission for Refugee Assistance (Comar) have a “recognition rate of more than 95%,” said the activist.
cry for help
The situation has become so untenable in that North American country and in others in Central America that the activists launched a “desperate cry for help” to the governments of the region and international organizations to provide help and protection to Venezuelans.
Maria Antonietta Diaz, founding president of the Miami-based Venezuelan American Alliance (VAA), stressed that Venezuelans in Mexico and in Central American countries are adrift, without resources and require due attention.
“The United States and the countries of the region are requested to take forceful action in coordination with the competent agencies for adequate attention to the magnitude of the humanitarian crisis that is taking place,” he said at the press conference.
Diaz reported that the serious situation will be analyzed in a virtual forum on the Humanitarian Crisis of Venezuelans in Central America to be held next Thursday, organized by the VAA, Support for Venezuelan Migrants and the Institute for Women in Migration, with the participation of Doctors Without Borders.
The organizations want to convey the message that Diaz stated “is nothing more than a desperate cry for help so that this serious crisis is addressed with the resources it requires.”
July Rodriguez, founder and director of the organization Apoyo a Migrantes Venezolanos, in Mexico, warned that many shelters collapsed after the US measure. Hours after the announcement there were thousands of Venezuelans unemployed in all parts of the country.
“Everything collapsed, practically. In less than 24 hours the shelters were full, in 72 hours there was an overcrowding. A shelter in Mexico City with a capacity for 80 people had 500 migrants in that period of time. What is happening in Mexico and in other countries in the region is serious,” explained the Venezuelan activist.
He stressed that there is a large population of Venezuelans ranging from children, women, men and the elderly, living on the streets and who have reported that strangers approach them to allegedly help them and take them to other places.
“A group of people was taken to a place, I don’t know where, and all communication was lost. There are also criminals to rob and extort them, as well as the police, the National Guard. Even the same immigration officials approach them to extort them, persecute them, intimidate them, throughout the country,” Rodriguez denounced.
The activist said, like Diaz, that this is a call for help so that governments implement measures to solve the humanitarian crisis.
This story was originally published on November 28, 2022 4:20 p.m.
Journalist and editor specializing in Latin America, judicial, business and local issues related to the Latin American community. Much of her career was spent in international news agencies. Her investigative work “Emigrating to Death: Murdered Venezuelans in Latin America” received the 2019 FSNE and SPJ Sunshine State awards.
Source: El Nuevo Herald
