MARACAIBO RESIDENTS FLEEING TO T&T

A NEW wave of residents of Maracaibo, Venezuela is fleeing to Trinidad and Tobago.

So far, about 500,000 of the city’s 1.6 million residents have left their city and country to escape oppression from the Nicolas Maduro regime after the July 28 presidential election.

Many headed to Colombia, Chile, or the United States.

But others have come to T&T, where they have relatives and friends and a historic cultural and sentimental association.

Maracaibo “no longer exists,” New York Times newspaper said in a new report on the city’s desolation.

Maracaibo is an old bustling oil and gas city in north-western Venezuela, some 706 miles from Port of Spain.

For years there was a regular flow of travellers, and Copa Airlines and Aeroflot operated direct flights between both destinations.

Several years ago, there was an exchange of energy workers between T&T and Maracaibo, which was Venezuela’s second city.

T&T energy workers spent months at a time in Maracaibo.

“They made money and returned to Trinidad, no doubt leaving behind some Trini-Venezuelan children that many of them have never met,” historian Dr. Jesse Noel wrote in the book “Trinidad, Provincia de Venezuela.”

Residents of that and other Venezuelan cities regularly took the four-hour boat ride to Cedros to shop or visit relatives and friends or enjoy sports and culture.

They picked up T&T radio stations in their homes.  

Some talked with Trini accents or played their versions of the game of cricket.

In T&T, they were referred to as being “from the Main” or as “Payols.”

Now, the New York Times is reporting that “the city is rife with abandoned houses, some of which look like bombs were dropped on them because homeowners tore windows and roofs to sell for scrap before they took off…”

The city “has been hollowed out,” the newspaper said.

Maracaibo “has been battered by a collapsed economy, routine blackouts and persistent gasoline and water shortages.”

The city is now bracing for more departures, in light of the political and economic instability.

Professionals, including doctors and engineers, are among those leaving.

A recent survey found that 70 per cent of families had an immediate family member out of the country.

Mainly older people are now living in Maracaibo, with some suffering from loneliness and other emotional problems.

Retirees get the equivalent of US $3 a month in benefits.

Refugees in T&T and other countries regularly send back money, food, and other essentials to their respective families.

They bring in various cheap contraband items, which they either use or retail.

Trinidad’s southern borders remain widely open to illegal migration from Maracaibo and other Venezuelan communities.

Local residents tell of regular boatloads of refugees landing at various landing strips and assimilating into local life.

There has recently been an increase in the number of Venezuelan migrants committing crimes in T&T.

Some refugees beg for alms at popular town centres.

They work in the informal sector, are sometimes sexually exploited, and cram into congested rented apartments.

Many are from Maracaibo, the city that no longer exists.