In recent years, besides Syria, Venezuela has been one of the countries living through mass migration. Thousands have left the country towards the neighboring countries, as well as to the United States.
Now, they are returning. The government implanted the “Plan of Return to Homeland”, by which those Venezuelans abroad, who have no own economic transfer, are brought back by planes of the flag carrier CONVIASA.
In interview, the Venezuelan Foreign Minister explains the causes and mechanisms of “induced migration” and the steps of his government to turn the tide.
How to understand forced migration that was carried out as a tool of war, as part of the economic war? How is the government’s perception?
Look, the multidimensional war that was waged on Venezuela first sought to attack its source of income, the oil industry, the sources of financing of international banks. All of that was attacked and destroyed. We lost 99% of our income.
And they sought to do harm to the population, to the people, that is, here they not only sought to damage the economy of a country, but they sought to do the greatest possible damage, punishment. That is, punishing Venezuelans, telling them that by supporting a revolutionary government, they were going to suffer. That was publicly said by the spokesmen and spokeswomen of North American imperialism. The spokespersons who today claim to be candidates for the presidency said it, they said it publicly. That is, they are people who really expressed their hatred, their desire to do harm, to see the population suffer.
And within that, they designed the scheme to promote migration, first by restricting the income of Venezuelans. The Venezuelan men and women, most of them, migrated for an economic reason. But also building a narrative that people migrated because they were fleeing from a dictatorial regime that subjugated them, something that we have proven to be completely false
And then, well, they lifted any support mechanism, of supervision, the mechanisms that imply the protection of the migrant, were lifted, and these people were subjected to humiliation, they were subjected to xenophobia, they were subjected to all the kinds of violations. That is, a policy seeking to harm the Venezuelan people. And today, when thanks to the Bolivarian government the economy begins to recover, we begin to see our oil industry, our agricultural industry, our light industry, our basic industry flourishes again, a whole process begins, well, Venezuelans must
return to your country. Plus, they want to do it. Furthermore, we need them and that is why we are very happy today. But so that the international audience understands clearly: This was a process of attacking Venezuelans, a process of collective punishment, punishing the people who have decided to follow a revolutionary pat
What role did international financial institutions that supported emigration play in this attack?
In international institutions and organs, in some of them, even from the United Nations, we see two very serious situations. One, well, they offered financial support for the plan we were talking about to harm the population, to stimulate outward migration. And on the other side, an element of corruption. These institutions became fundraisers and were later squandered. The money was stolen, we don’t know where it is. Maybe they are being used to finance electoral campaigns in our country. We are talking about billions of dollars. The supposed donors that we saw in the world, the European Union announced, Canada announced.
If we take into account everything they announced, we are talking about more than 4 billion dollars that they announced they had raised to supposedly support Venezuelan migration, and we have not seen a single dollar of that. I mean, where is that money? What did these international agencies do with the money they supposedly raised
There are two things there, either they lied saying that they had raised money that they did not raise, or they stole it. I think that, as always, the truth is in between the two. They didn’t even raise that amount, and what they raised was stolen.
I understand that there was also an agreement with Mexico for this flight here. What role does Venezuelan diplomacy have in the framework of the return to the homeland, within the framework of that plan?
Yes, well, with the government of Mexico we have signed an agreement to help, to protect those migrants who voluntarily want to return. They are received here in Venezuela, well, by the Plan Vuelta a la Patria, The Plan Returning to Homeland. Mexico also supported that plan, not only in their documentation, but also in everything that has to do with logistics. We are designing a plan for the job insertion with the support of Mexico. And we are, of course, this is a product of the political and diplomatic relations that Venezuela has and a government in Mexico that understands the situation, which includes everything we have explained about induced migration and is committed to attacking the structural problems. What is the structural cause of Venezuelan migration? What we see now, which has certainly decreased a lot, is the attack on our economy and our country. And Mexico has understood that, and in that sense it is collaborating. And thanks to that understanding between Mexico and Venezuela is that today we can have an extraordinary plan at hand.
I saw in Chile several times, at least three times, that Venezuelan planes were not allowed to land. This is real? Are there countries that do not collaborate, that get in the way of these return plans?
Yes, well, there are many countries in Latin America, including Chile, that prevent us from landing our CONVIASA aircraft, which is the flag airline that carries out the Vuelta a la Patria plan.
And they do it because they comply with the sanctions imposed by the United States. Unfortunately, we have insisted with the Chilean government on the possibility that our planes can land there, and we can return Venezuelans who voluntarily wish to return. We understand that, well, that the institutions in many of our countries, especially what has to do with logistical and economic support, the mobilization of funds, etc., end up being attached to the United States sanctions plan. Here, really, the cause of all this is the criminal policy of sanctions. Our flag carrier is sanctioned by the United States and many countries adopt the sanctions
And that causes some limitations in some countries. But the truth is that we have many countries that are increasingly joining in working with our airline, joining in working with Venezuela, and here we see the results.