Despite the border closure, Venezuelans seek to arrive clandestinely to Colombia to flee the Maduro regime

Although Colombia closed its land and river borders since March as part of the measures to contain the spread of the coronavirus, Venezuelans who had returned to their country at the beginning of the pandemic or earlier, began the long and difficult return journey.

Immigration authorities estimate that some 115,000 Venezuelans have returned to their homes since April because of the pandemic. Despite the closure and controls by the army, police and immigration authorities, the 2,219-kilometer porous border between Colombia and Venezuela does not represent a major obstacle for migrants who decide to return, many of them with their families.

“Now we had to walk, we have 12 days walking, being cold, staying up late, hunger, counting every day and trusting in God,” said José Sáenz, 42, father of five children who left the Anzoátegui state with the intention of arriving to the city of Pereira, where he was working in construction in 2019. The first time he came to Colombia, he had some financial resources and he did it by bus. Sáenz returned to Venezuela in December to spend the Christmas and New Year celebrations with his family, but when he tried to return he was stranded by the pandemic.

The migrant spoke while walking with his 22-year-old son and other Venezuelans along a highway, a day’s walk from the city of Bucaramanga where he hopes to rest before restarting a walking tour of at least two weeks to Pereira.

In recent years, Colombia has become the home of more than 1.7 million Venezuelans who fled the political, economic and social crisis in their country under the government of socialist President Nicolás Maduro.

IRREGULAR RE-ENTRY

“There has been a re-entry operation of Venezuelans to national territory. Although more than 115,000 Venezuelans in times of pandemic have left for Venezuela, what we have now detected is an irregular entry of Venezuelans to Colombia seeking economic routes that allow them to survive, ”the director of Migration Colombia, Juan Francisco Espinosa, told Reuters.

“The estimate of Migración Colombia is that 80% of Venezuelans who left will re-enter the national territory, but they are going to do it with one or two additional people ”, he affirmed.

Most of the emigrants from the oil nation are irregular and many survive in cities such as Bogotá, Medellín, Cali and Barranquilla selling sweets or begging in the streets, while others work in construction, restaurants or delivering food at home. .

But the preventive isolation measures that Colombia decreed to stop the expansion of the coronavirus, with the streets empty and the inhabitants of the cities locked up, thousands of Venezuelans returned to their country.

The commander of the army’s second division, General Marco Evangelista Pinto, said that only on the border of the department of Norte de Santander with Venezuela there are some 53 illegal crossings, which makes immigration control difficult. “Usually they come with children, pregnant women, older adults and they are simply informed that they cannot go through there. And what they do is look for other sites, “said the officer.

The Government of Colombia is expected to extend the closure of the border with Venezuela, which has been in force for more than seven months.

The immigration authority and the Armed Forces estimate that 300 Venezuelans pass through illegal trails to Colombia every day, running risks due to the flooding of the rivers due to the rainy season and the presence of illegal armed groups.

Espinosa, director of Migration Colombia, estimated that after the border with Venezuela opens, some 200,000 people will arrive from that country in a period of three to five months to raise the number of emigrants to two million.

“This is the second time I come to Colombia, the first time I emigrated, I came to Valle del Cauca, Buga, I stayed there for about a year and a half and then I had to return to Venezuela due to family problems and when I decided to return the problem COVID blocked my trip, “said Yesenia Márquez, 39, while walking with her two children on the highway that connects the cities of Pamplona and Bucaramanga.

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