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An elderly Venezuelan woman crossing the Rio Grande in the arms of another migrant, an image of two endless crises

2021-05-30T07:14:14.070Z


The scene of the woman, who has been identified as Irma, reveals two dramas: the migration at the border and the decline of Venezuela, which has expelled 5.5 million people in recent years


It is an image that is repeated every day on the Rio Grande: hundreds of migrants and refugees navigate it or cross it on foot, at its lowest points, hoping to be welcomed into the United States and find a better future. But there are scenes, like the one that an elderly Venezuelan woman starred in on Wednesday, that are especially striking for their harshness. The almost inert body of the woman, wearing a fuchsia pink shirt, gray plush pants, a mask and an alliance in her left hand, is carried by another migrant to cross the waters that divide Mexico and the United States until they reach Del Río, Texas , as shown by the images of photographer Go Nakamura, from Reuters.

A video uploaded to social networks by Jorge Ventura, of the right-wing

newspaper Daily Caller

, shows the thin elderly woman with mobility problems, being assisted by an immigration agent who says she is originally from Maracaibo, in the State of Zulia, a Former oil paradise that now suffers from constant power outages and the miseries of a seemingly endless political and economic crisis that has plunged Venezuela into poverty and insecurity. Little else is known about the woman, whom Venezuelans have identified on social networks and WhatsApp groups in which they pour their frustrations as 80-year-old Irma. A Border Patrol spokesman told this newspaper that for privacy reasons it could not "identify or give information on subjects in its custody."

The arrival of the old woman took place along with dozens of other Venezuelans, according to the videos and photos of journalists present at that point on the Texas border: young men helping women, mothers carrying babies or holding hands children with dolls and others who kneel, hug and cry after touching US soil, which some call "blessed land."

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Migrants are also seen with suitcases on their heads, such as those that have been carrying for years the thousands of Venezuelans who have left through land trails to Colombia, the walkers who have crossed the Andes to Ecuador, Chile or Peru, or the who have headed to Brazil through the Amazon rainforest. It is an incessant trickle of 5.5 million people, the majority "with no prospect of return in the short or medium term," according to the latest figures from the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR). That body has described the Venezuelan as the "largest exodus in the recent history of Latin America", migrants who "arrive in dire need" and who often have to face "labor and sexual exploitation, human trafficking, violence and discrimination ”.

A Border Patrol agent assists the elderly Venezuelan in Del Rio, Texas, on May 26.GO NAKAMURA / Reuters

In the United States, the Government of Joe Biden announced in early March a temporary protected status (TPS) to Venezuelans who were undocumented in the United States on that date due to the “humanitarian crisis” that their country is experiencing. under the Nicolás Maduro regime, a measure that would allow them to reside legally and work.

According to the White House, the program will benefit about 320,000 citizens who were already on US soil when the measure was approved, but excludes those who arrived after that date.

Bad luck for the group in which Irma arrived, who at the border encountered another drama that does not seem to have an end either: that of a migration crisis for which tens of thousands of migrants risk their lives every year. In April alone, the Border Patrol had more than 178,000 encounters with undocumented people, the most in 15 years. Most of them were immediately returned to Mexico by the application of Title 42, a measure implemented by the Donald Trump Administration and that has maintained that of Biden that implies the closure of the land border to non-essential activities and new cases of asylum.

Although Biden has opened the door to some exceptions, such as unaccompanied minors, some families with very young children or those he considers most vulnerable, the rule that is sending hundreds of thousands of migrants back to dangerous cities in the north of the neighboring country. , where many times they are exposed to organized crime and uncertainty.

A few weeks ago, images of a 93-year-old Honduran woman fleeing violence went viral and crossed the Rio Grande on a raft where she also carried her wheelchair.

The woman, who was traveling with her daughters, told reporters at the time that she wanted to be reunited with her granddaughter in New Jersey, but she was expelled to Reynosa (Tamaulipas), where she died a few days later.

Venezuelan families cross the Rio Grande on May 26.GO NAKAMURA / Reuters

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Source: elparis

All news articles on 2021-05-30

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