Frustrated by Politics: Aid Workers in Colombia Brace for the Worst
Escalations are increasing as Cucuta prepares for a tense and potentially very dramatic weekend in the international spotlight. And workers from International as well as local Colombian aid organizations are not happy about it.
Published originally in Caracas Chronicles
Cucuta, Colombia- The flow of migrants from Venezuela into Colombia has increased dramatically since January. The United Nations is expected to detail in its next report that the number of Venezuelans who have fled has surpassed 4 million. In December I saw dozens of Venezuelans walking on the road from Cucuta, a Colombian town on the border with Venezuela, to nearby Pamplona. Now one sees sees hundreds.
Aid workers are expressing frustration at the increasing tensions here on the border as well as with the two competing “megaconcerts” set to take place this weekend ahead of a US and Venezuelan opposition deadline to allow the entry of humanitarian aid that currently waits at the border.
The Red Cross and the UN have both publicly criticized the opposition and US imposed deadline to deliver aid, with the Red Cross stating that humanitarian aid to starving Venezuelans must not be “politicized”.
And as the government of Maduro, the Trump Administration and the internationally backed opposition leader Juan Guiado veer towards ever-increasingly bellicose rhetoric, some of the international aid workers and activists I spoke with in Cucuta are worried that such confrontational tactics will be counter-productive as they try to find ways of getting the aid into Venezuela without provoking or embarrassing Maduro.
Padre Juan Carlos Rodriguez, of CONSORNOC (Corporation for a New Society in Northeast Region of Colombia) told me “The political problem is turning a social crisis into an international show. What really is a social problem- a problem of hunger, of sickness and of medical emergency is being adversely affected by political jockeying.” He tells me that as the government of Colombia ratchets up its rhetoric, the tensions in the region are being exacerbated against Venezuelans in general. “We are seeing an increase in Xenophobia. We are starting to hear some Colombians discuss this issue as if it were a Venezuelan invasion. It’s not. It is a starving people…Venezuela and Colombia have always had a great fraternity. But now we’re seeing divisions within Colombia...We are starting to see some Colombians who were previously supportive of helping the Venezuelans treat this as a partisan issue.
And he feels the political gamesmanship at the border is furthermore denying his organization resources. The once responsive humanitarian aid organization US AID, which was in the process of setting up coordination with CONSORC in December, is now too occupied by the border situation to continue logistical coordination with his aid-group.
Other aid workers I talked with felt similarly. “We have enough problems already. We’re staying out of it.” one aid worker currently working in Cucuta told me. He declined to allow his name to be used, citing a lack of authority to speak for his organization. “And now there’s going to be two concerts the night before the confrontation. To say that this is counter-productive to our efforts is..well that would be an understatement. We don’t need the circus.”
A representative from Samaritans Purse, an American Christian Organization that has been working on the ground here since November providing aid, told me the organization has contingency plans for an evacuation of the area if tensions escalate into violence during planned protests Saturday. He made very clear that he was providing his own opinion and not speaking for his organization when he spoke to me.
“I’ve been here (on the road to Pamplona from Cucuta) since November. Now we have to deal with a pissing contest between Maduro and Trump? It’s making everything more difficult. And where was all this aid last year? Why is it suddenly so important? Look around here.” he told me, pointing at hundreds of Venezuelans who were currently taking a rest or eating in their shelter. “Here are the people who need the aid.”
“But even if things go bad this weekend. I will be right here. I won’t wear the uniform. I will take a bus if I have to, hide my identity. Whatever it takes. But I will be here. Because I couldn’t live with myself if I left.”
The PR Department at Samaritans purse declined to answer my questions but provided the following statement. “Tens of thousands of Venezuelans cross the border to Colombia every day. They are leaving behind everything they know — often with just the clothes on their backs. Samaritan’s Purse is on the front-lines, providing food, medical care, shelter, hygiene items and other critical supplies. We have teams working in Cucuta, right after migrants cross the border, as well as along the Caminante route. We are also providing medical relief along the Northern Border and in Maicao.”
Father Rodriguez agreed that the aid could be put to use very effectively in Colombia as well. “Why didn’t they help us before? Why is all this food and medicine waiting at the border? Why isn’t it being used for the Venezuelans already here?”
He also tells me that as tensions escalate between the factions within Venezuela it creates logistical problems for his organization. “There is a rumor now that military officials have infiltrated the ranks of the immigrants. That they want to record data for the Venezuelan government, and that they are assembling a list of the Venezuelans who have fled in order to punish them and their families. Is it true? I have no idea. But because one cannot disprove a rumor, it’s creating problems for us.”
“Now many of the Venezuelans want to hide their identities. Part of our job is trying to make sure that they have the proper documents to apply for the right to work, to enroll their children in schools and to receive medical treatment. But some of them are now afraid to even tell us their real names.”
A Red Cross worker in Pamplona declined to provide her name or speak her opinion in an official quote. “I’m here to provide basic medical care, warm clothes for the dangerous mountain passes ahead and to inform the people of Venezuela however I can. The rest has nothing to do with me.”
The Red Cross in Cucuta directed me to their Public Relations department, which did not immediately respond with an official statement on the situation currently unfolding at the border.
Representatives at the shelter at run by Samaritans Purse and CONSORC both informed me that the flow of migrants has greatly increased since the political events of January 23rd. And things are expected to worsen before they improve regardless of what happens with the political situation in Venezuela.
The population of Pamplona is roughly 58,000 people. Father Rodrigues estimates that on average 400 Venezuelans pass through each day. Representatives from Samaritans Purse stated that they have had numbers as high as 1200 on particularly busy days. When Red Cross workers in Pamplona were asked to estimate an average, one nurse simply told me. “More every day.”
Presidents Trump, Maduro and Ivan Duque of Colombia have all made inflammatory statements leading up to the potential standoff Saturday February 23rd. It would seem that despite the Red Cross and UN advice, the humanitarian aid for Venezuela has not only been politicized, it has been weaponized symbolically. And Saturday looks like it could develop into a situation in which aid may be forced into both countries across a very tense border.
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