EXPECT MORE VENEZUELAN REFUGEES AS MADURO CONTINUES IN OFFICE

EXPECT more Venezuelan migrants in Caricom countries following the highly disputed presidential election.

International journalists in Venezuela are confirming through interviews that there is a new wave of disgruntled nationals planning to flee their troubled land.

Many have their eyes set on the United States, which last year alone deported 260,000 Venezuelans who had fled through Central America and the dangerous Darien Gap.

Some are expected to continue the trail to nearby countries, including Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago.

If Nicolas Maduro is sworn in next January for a third successive six-year term, “many Venezuelans decide they have no choice but to vote with their feet,” CNN reported.

“More are likely to leave,” Washington Post said, concerning the expected flight of Venezuelans seeking to escape Maduro’s economic and political repression.

New York Times and other major news agencies are reporting similar scenarios.

Already, almost eight million Venezuelans have fled Maduro’s authoritarianism, according to a United Nations agency.

“The exodus has strained social safety nets” in the countries where the migrants settled, New York Times said.

T&T is a graphic example.

Tens of thousands of illegal asylum seekers do not have proper housing, jobs, healthcare and education for their children.

Many, in tattered clothes and cardboard signs, beg for alms at street corners.

The official number of migrants and refugees in T&T is 44,800, but anecdotal evidence suggests it is at least double that figure.

A report by an international refugee organisation said that “75 per cent of Venezuelans in Guyana are working in the informal economy and are concentrated in sectors with low pay and challenging working conditions.”

In the region, there is an “impact on the living conditions, security, dignity, and health of refugees and migrants,” according to another report.

Apart from Guyana, all Caricom countries are undergoing economic stress, with T&T racking up huge annual deficit budgets and citizens enduring deteriorating quality of life.

Circumstances are likely to worsen with tyrant Maduro in office.

But Caricom leaders have issued a tepid middle-of-the-road statement, unlike the United States and several other hemispheric nations which fiercely challenged the fairness of the election.

Even with the bland statement, there is no unity in the ranks.

Dr. Ralph Gonzalez, Prime Minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, urged the Caribbean community to recognise Maduro’s re-election.

St. Vincent and the Grenadines has a US $4.5 million loan and other benefits from Venezuela.

Roosevelt Skerrit, Prime Minister of Dominica, has congratulated Maduro and said he is “looking forward to working with him for the next six years…”

Trinidad and Tobago’s Prime Minister Dr. Keith Rowley has not yet spoken but there is speculation about the fate of lucrative natural gas exploration deals between both countries.

United States officials are hinting at punitive sanctions.

Reuters news agency quoted a US official as saying the Venezuelan leader’s move will be assessed.

“We are going to take that into account as we map forward where we head with respect to sanctions toward Venezuela,” the official said.

There is tremendous anxiety amid the post-election state of affairs, with direct implications for nearby Caricom countries.

T&T may feel the economic and social burden of hosting many more suffering migrants.

Guyana has the additional apprehension of Maduro reigniting his territorial claim of the Essequibo region.