Some Guyanese aliens given tough time in border towns
by Robert Bazil
VENEZUELAN border states Delta Amacuro and Bolivar, have been ordering illegal Guyanese, who were not born in Essequibo, to return to Guyana and apply for visas from the Georgetown embassy. Consequently, the Guyana Embassy in Venezuela was forced to intervene, and there is now some ease. Guyana's Ambassador to Venezuela, Mr. Bayney Karran told the Chronicle in a recent interview that, generally, "If you are illegal in Venezuela they give you a white paper that allows you to circulate within your community without much difficulty." However, the officials in the two states were not renewing the white paper for Guyanese born in Demerara and Berbice. Ambassador Karran told the Chronicle he met Venezuela's Foreign Minister, Mr. Vincente Rangel who assured him that this was not the policy of the Venezuelan central government. Rangel pointed out that the governments of the two states were not sympathetic to the Hugo Chavez administration and indicated that the local authorities may be pushing this kind of policy for a "contemptuous purpose". As a result of Karran meeting Rangel, the authorities in Bolivar State have ceased the practice, but there is no clear cut assurance from Delta Amacuro to have this behaviour halted. Therefore the Guyana Embassy plans to pursue that matter, Karran assured. Ambassador Karran, who was in Guyana recently, said that the exact number of Guyanese in Venezuela is not known because, in the past, immigrants have not cooperated with attempts to conduct censuses. The Venezuelans are claiming that about 60,000 Guyanese live in the neighbouring country but Karran believes it is much less. "We usually send out teams from the Embassy from time to time to areas where Guyanese are located such as the San Felix area, about an hour's flight from Caracas, to process birth certificates, passports and other documents," he said. The last visit to San Felix was in August and another trip by Embassy officials is scheduled for December. The educated Guyanese usually teach English while the not- so-educated ones are skilled labourers such as auto-body mechanics. Some Guyanese work as ice-cream vendors. The Ambassador said that if it is brought to the attention of the Embassy that a Guyanese has been "wrongfully" detained, the Embassy would seek to make representation on behalf of the person. And, following the last boat tragedy in the Atlantic Ocean, officials from the mission travelled to the area the victims were from, to caution residents about entering overloaded boats and to talk to them about wearing life jackets. There is a direct relationship between the Guyana Embassy in Venezuela and the immigration department there, the Ambassador stated. Meanwhile, he said that cross-border trade between the two countries last year totalled about US$12M. He added that Venezuela has a lot of canned food, hardware materials, plastics, and paper products, while Guyana supplies them with seafood, lumber and other items. Guyana has approached Venezuela to accept a quantity of sugar from this country but that has been put in abeyance because Venezuela has suspended sugar imports for a three-month period.
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