“It is more profitable to be an illegal immigrant than a Colombian”, Claudia López on the situation of Venezuelans in Bogotá

The mayor of Bogotá, Claudia López, spoke for the first time about the controversy that a comment of her about the Venezuelan population and its involvement in crimes of theft sparked. “It is unfair that they accuse me of xenophobia,” he told El Tiempo in a live broadcast.

Despite many hoping that she would recant, the mayor remained in her position and said that her mayor is too generous to be charged with xenophobia “for saying something that is true.”

“There are a few Venezuelans in criminality and therefore we should apply the law that includes deporting them. Saying that neither generalizes nor stigmatizes. Recognize a problem “, argument. She also said that it is not about nationality because, for her, it is a “criminal minority” of Venezuelans and Colombians.

He also released strong figures regarding the participation of this population in crimes. According to López, Venezuelans make up 4 percent of the population of Bogotá and their participation in robberies in the city is 25 percent, “5 times their participation in the population, why?” the president questioned.

He continued saying that it has nothing to do with the fact that they are Venezuelans, “it is because they are illegal immigrants who are not even identified, so for purposes of recidivism and impunity it is more profitable to be an unidentifiable illegal immigrant than a Colombian because if you cannot identify yourself, you will not I could prosecute or deport. That is understood by the Colombian mafias. Between recruiting a poor Colombian man from Ciudad Bolivar or a Venezuelan, the latter is cheaper and more profitable in impunity ”. For this reason, he said that it was more profitable to be an illegal immigrant than a Venezuelan.

For the mayor, her words were careful and did not generalize. And he said that the accusations made against him for xenophobia make no sense. However, as reported a week ago, the Xenophobia Barometer platform confirmed that hate messages towards the Venezuelan population shot up by 918 percent in Bogotá after his speech, which shows the negative impact that his phrase caused.

A few days ago the Inter-American Court of Human Rights spoke out against López’s statements. “The IACHR expresses concern about the public statements of the mayor of Bogotá on October 29 in which it linked the Venezuelan migrant population with criminality in that city,” it also wrote that “public officials must refrain from making stigmatizing statements that can exacerbate xenophobia towards Venezuelans ”.