MEXICO CITY (HPD) — In an attempt to relieve pressure on the northern border in the face of the large number of migrants expelled from the United States, Mexican authorities have begun transferring nearly a hundred Venezuelans to Mexico City.
Mexican immigration authorities boarded a first group of Venezuelans, who were expelled from the United States on Thursday, on two buses and transferred them from the border city of Matamoros, Tamaulipas state, to the headquarters of the Mexican Commission for Refugee Aid ( COMAR), in the center of the Mexican capital.
Without food and no protection against the cold, and totally disoriented, about a hundred Venezuelans were left on Saturday in front of the doors of COMAR, which does not work during the weekend.
“They offered us all the help. A better shelter because in Matamoros they did not have facilities and logistics, but they deceived us, and now we are here on the street with only what we have on,” Tearrán Acevedo, a 32-year-old Venezuelan, told The Associated Press, complaining of the cold. and hunger that he suffered after his arrival in Mexico City.
Surrounded by his fellow travelers, some of whom were desperately eating bread given to them by Venezuelans living in Mexico, Acevedo acknowledged that after leaving his family and home in the Venezuelan state of Anzoátegui two months ago and selling his motorcycle, which was his only Now his fate is uncertain.
“I came to fulfill an American dream, and it has turned into a nightmare for me,” said the Venezuelan, recounting that he was left without money because all his savings, about 4,500 dollars, were left to various migrant traffickers and officials. on his way from Colombia, passing through Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras and Guatemala, to the northern border of Mexico, and lost his only identification document when he handed it over to the US authorities when he was arrested at the end of September for entering illegally for the state of Texas.
“We want a logical answer … we are not animals, dogs,” Acevedo said, complaining about the decision made by the US authorities to expel hundreds of migrants to Mexico after the Joe Biden government announced in midweek that it would accept up to 24,000 Venezuelans who pre-register for a program, have a sponsor in the country, and arrive by air.
US authorities also agreed to return those who cross the border illegally from Mexico, a figure that exceeded 33,000 people in September alone.
Despite the new restrictions from Washington, Acevedo assured that he has no plans to return to Venezuela and that he will continue to insist on going to the United States. “We want our voice to be heard because all of our rights were flouted,” he added.
Dressed in a cotton T-shirt and sports pants, given to him by the US authorities during the six days he was detained at five checkpoints, where he claimed he slept on the floor, Enmanuel Colombo, a 34-year-old Venezuelan migrant, stated that “a I cannot return to Venezuela because in reality I was left at zero, without any job or way to exercise my profession as an industrial mechanic.”
Colombo pointed out that while he completes the immigration procedures to return to the United States, he will look for a job in Mexico to send money to his wife and three children he left in the Venezuelan town of Turmero, Aragua state. “I need to give stability to my family because I sold my house to come to the United States, and I left them on the street,” he specified.
Shortly before nightfall, Mexican authorities appeared at COMAR to transfer the group of Venezuelans to different shelters in Mexico City while they await the start of their immigration procedures.
Since this week, hundreds of Venezuelans began to arrive immediately through five points on the border —Tijuana, Nogales, Ciudad Juárez, Piedras Negras and Matamoros—, as confirmed by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the United Nations migration agency. .
The Venezuelan has suddenly become the second largest nationality to arrive at the border with the United States, behind the Mexican. This poses a tough challenge for Biden, who has no relationship with Caracas, making deportations nearly impossible. For this reason, the government generally chose to release them so that they could continue their immigration process in US territory.
Since 2014, a massive exodus of Venezuelans began fleeing from the worst political, economic and social crisis that the country has faced in more than a century.
According to UN figures, until last month more than 7.1 million people (around 20% of the total population) had migrated from Venezuela in recent years.
Although Venezuela emerged last year from a long period of more than four years of hyperinflation, it continues to suffer from one of the highest inflation rates in the world. In recent months, the bolivar has faced devaluations of more than 30% against the dollar, which is the most used currency in the country, which has sunk the minimum wage of Venezuelans around 16 dollars, deepening the precarious living conditions. of the majority poor sectors and reactivating massive migration.