More than 2.5 million refugees flee political violence, economic collapse and autocratic rule
The Vatican has called on the Venezuelan Government to suspend its new Constituent Assembly, saying it “mortgages” the country’s future, and has made a direct appeal to security forces to avoid excessive force in dealing with opposition protests.
In a strongly worded statement, the Vatican’s Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin (pictured), urged President Nicolas Maduro to suspend the new Assembly, which, “rather than fostering reconciliation and peace, encourages a climate of tension and confrontation and mortgages the future”. Elections for seats on the assembly tasked with rewriting the country’s constitution were held on 30 July amid violent protests in which 10 people died. The Archbishop of Caracas, Cardinal Jorge Urosa Savino, told a local paper that the government must take the blame for the deaths, while the Venezuelan bishops’ conference has condemned the elections as “unconstitutional as well as unnecessary, inconvenient and damaging to the Venezuelan people”.
“It will be a biased and skewed instrument that will not resolve but rather aggravate the acute problems of the high cost of living and the lack of food and medicine that the people suffer and will worsen the political crisis we currently suffer,” the bishops said before the vote, on 27 July.
Mr Maduro declared victory following the election and alleged high voter turnout. While the government claimed that eight million citizens voted in favour of establishing the Constituent Assembly, the company that provided voting machines for the election said turnout numbers were tampered with.
Two days after the vote, security forces raided the homes of two key opposition members. Government intelligence officials said both men were arrested for violating the terms of their house arrests, claiming they planned to flee the country after the elections.
Expressing concern over the worsening of the crisis and “the increased number of dead, wounded and detained”, the Vatican said Pope Francis was “closely following the situation”.
The Latin American Episcopal Conference and the Latin American and Caribbean Migration, Trafficking and Refugee Network (Clamor) released a statement calling for countries to be sympathetic to the increasing number of Venezuelan migrants and refugees due to the current political crisis. They cited data from the Asylum Access Foundation that in the last three years the number of Venezuelan refugees has surpassed 2.5 million. According to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, the number of asylum applications in Latin America from Venezuelans has more than doubled.
Fleeing political violence, instability and autocratic rule, Venezuelans have left their country for Colombia, Brazil and, further north, Central America and Mexico. In the declaration, Clamor, which represents organisations in the Catholic Church that work with migrants, displaced people and refugees, expressed, “solidarity with the Venezuelan people” who are experiencing a humanitarian crisis that has “forced thousands of people to leave the country, a diaspora that is unprecedented in the democratic history of the country”. It said that, in many countries, “Venezuelans are becoming victims of trafficking, sexual slavery and exploitation by employers, in many cases because they do not have documentation.”
Clamor commended the efforts of Brazil, Chile, Peru and Colombia but said that other countries are yet to adopt welcoming policies.
By Rose Gamble and Martha Pskowski
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