Bolivia, destination and passage to find better days for Venezuelan relocation

Pisa, La Paz and Santa Cruz (Bolivia), April 8 (EFE) .- Strict control of Venezuelan entry into countries such as Chile or Peru has led Bolivia to see Bolivia as a destination, not just a destination. Transit to seek better days after passing through his nation on foot, mule, or bus.

This is the case of Luz Perez, who decided to leave Venezuela with her Haitian husband to go to Chile when she saw that what they had earned in their four jobs was no longer enough to save them.

Perez told Ephesus that a few days before the trip he had learned of the strict controls on the Pisiga-Colchan border exactly with the Venezuelans and Haitians, so they had to change their plans.

“We decided to stay here in Bolivia, hoping that at some point the door to Chile would open,” he said.

So they arrived in East Santa Cruz, where they settled four years ago, regulated their immigration status, and no longer think about Chile.

Lilibet Soto left her native Ojeda for a job opportunity with her husband and three children, which she presented to her, and they reluctantly arrived in Santa Cruz, one of the cities with the highest Venezuelan population in the country where they started working. New Life and Soto opened a business of typical Venezuelan dishes.

“The Bolivian people have personally taught me to fight against it, to move forward, to sell everything, to work on everything to earn our daily bread,” Soto told Efe.

When Venezuelan Jesuit Hernandez arrived in Bolivia with his family, he could not find a job, but decided to paint “mouth breakers” or speed bumps in exchange for the “love” of the people who gave him the coins. Explained Ephesus.

Gradually he and his family achieved some “stability” in this trade in La Paz, which helped them survive for more than a year.

According to the Regional Interagency Coordination Platform for Refugees and Migrants from Venezuela, Bolivia hosts an estimated 18,940 Venezuelans, including migrants and refugees.

New destination

Bolivia’s interim ombudsman, Nadia Cruz, explained to Ephesus that after the Covid-19 pandemic, the country began considering a destination for Venezuelans because of some of the regulations they support, such as what helps them regulate them. Documents and their children, etc., which exempts them from fines due to their irregular status.

Cruz argued that Bolivia “does not have the same migration crisis” as other Latin American countries, but significant progress has been made in a way that makes Venezuelans feel welcome.

However, the country has shown “stigmatization” and xenophobia towards Venezuelans, and they are also vulnerable to other situations, such as “human mobility” due to irregular border crossings, he said.

He also noted that networks of “trafficking and smuggling” of people operating across the Bolivian border have been identified, forcing Venezuelan groups to cross into Chile through unauthorized locations.

Who leaves

One of the most commonly used crossings in Bolivia to reach northern Chile is Pisiga, a border town more than 460 kilometers from La Paz, with a semi-desert landscape and a climate such as cold at night and scorching sun during the day.

Hector Arango, 32, went to Pisiga with a group of friends and a boy no more than 10 years old, along with all the Venezuelans who left Maracaibo two months ago.

Hector told Ephesus that he had previously traveled on foot and in some places by mule through Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru, where one of the girls traveling with them gave birth to a girl.

“Imagine you have to live, just because if you stay in Venezuela, it’s worse, you die and there is no medicine, no food, no job, no money,” he said.

The goal of this group is Chile because it knows that they will not have an easy time, because to cross this country by land only its citizens and foreigners have access to legal residence.

Activity in Pisiga is intense during the day and many Venezuelans are seen on its streets, women and children resting on the sidewalks and some men gather in groups near the highway to talk to locals who promise to take them to Chile in exchange for money.

All the avoiding journalists, and those who dare to speak out, count “without writing off” the noise heard there, like the “coyotes” that take Venezuelans across the border at night, avoiding a controlling official and a deep trench dug by Chile. Border between two countries.

People were trying to cross illegally, despite the risks and reports that more than twenty people were killed in this attempt last year due to bad weather.

Gina Baldivieso and Yolanda Salazar