February 04, 2020

Juan Guaidó pleas for help for Venezuela’s crisis in Davos

topic:	Good Governance
located:	Venezuela, Brazil, Switzerland
editor:	Ellen Nemitz

One year after becoming the self-declaring president of Venezuela, Juan Guaidó represented the country during the World Economic Forum in Davos as he asked for help in a place where "leaders think about a better future", a privilege that he says, Venezuelans do not have nowadays. “I am here today to ensure that none of you leaves Venezuela on the outside”, Guaidó pled. The leader of the National Assembly also mentioned Nicolás Maduro as a dictator and highlighted the necessity of restoring democracy and the right to vote after decades.

Political crisis in Venezuela, mostly represented by Guaidó-Maduro clash, is just one facet of the problem. The Latin American country began to collapse when the petrol-based economy showed its weaknesses, leading to an unsustainable point of hyperinflation (500 thousand per cent, according to International Monetary Fund) and extremely low salaries – the minimum wage is equivalent to 18 dollars, not enough to cater for basic needs. Besides food and medical shortage, the violence in the streets is life threatening.

The Venezuelan humanitarian crisis is comparable to Syria’s. There are almost 5 million Venezuelan migrants, refugees and asylum-seekers reported by host governments – Colombia, Peru, Chile, Argentina, Ecuador and Brazil are the main destinations. With the situation not getting better, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) estimates that up to 6.5 million people will leave Venezuela by the end of 2020.

According to Miguel Pachioni, representative of UNHCR in Brazil who talked to FairPlanet, the agency is working to raise 1.35 billion dollars to help 4 million people in 17 countries to provide health, education, shelter and other basic needs, besides social and economic inclusion. “Each day the profile of those coming is more vulnerable, and for 2020 we expect even more intense flow”, Pachioni says, mentioning that, at first, mostly men used to migrate, and now children, pregnant women and elderly people are coming as well.

Crossing the board to Brazil is the chosen path for 500 Venezuelans every day: around 264 thousand people from that nation are living in the biggest country of South America. The Brazilian government is openly receiving all migrants due to a program known as “Operação Acolhida” (Welcome Operation). The same may not happen in countries like Colombia and Peru, according to Miguel Pachioni, which are imposing legal barriers, for example asking for passports.

The Law of Migration, from 2017, gives everyone the same born citizens' rights (such as access to public health and social assistance) and, in 2019, Brazil recognized Venezuela’s status of "severe and generalized human rights' violation” based on The Cartagena Principles, facilitating refugee status to thousands of people.

Such good news are side effects of a political game: Brazil is one of 50 countries to recognize Guaidó as a legitimate president, and opening arms to migrants is a way of intensifying Maduro’s opposition. Also, it is a political campaign for Jair Bolsonaro, Brazils’s president: the official account of the government on Twitter used photos of him with Venezuelan children to build a humanitarian leader’s image. “Many of these young people here today have fled Venezuela's famine and misery, alone or with their families. And today they live another reality”, tweeted Bolsonaro.

Political strategies aside, what Venezuela needs is, indeed help to become once again a safe place for its 30 million citizens. “People should stop seeing Venezuela as an insoluble problem”, affirmed Guaidó to journalists, as reported by The New York Times.

Image: GettyImages