Colombia Wants Only 'Wealthy and Educated' Venezuelan Migrants

The Vice President of Colombia, Marta Lucía Ramírez, has complained about the “less wealthy and unskilled” Venezuelans who stay in Colombia as migrants. That group of vulnerable Venezuelans is at the center of the smear campaign and hybrid war against Venezuela, led by the US with its regional allied governments.

The Colombian vice president made the classist comment against migrants who are in a vulnerable economic situation or who do not have a considerably “high” academic level, during the regular session of the Permanent Council of the Organization of States Americans (OAS) this week.

“Colombia has not benefited from the much more prepared migration, by much better educated and perhaps much more affluent migrants, like other countries have benefited,” said Ramírez. In this way she suggested that these migrants do not contribute to the economy of Colombia, forgetting that the same thing happened and continues to happen with Colombians deciding to emigrate to Venezuela. It is estimated that more than six million Colombians live as migrants and refugees in Venezuela, fleeing the continuous low level civil war in Colombia.

Ramírez, without regard to all this about migrants from her own country, complained that the “top level” of Venezuelan migrants, with better academic and financial conditions, is in the United States, Canada and Spain. “We have really been affected by the less wealthy, less qualified sectors of the Venezuelan migration,” she remarked.

Protection with interest
Thus, Marta Lucía Ramírez, who is also the foreign affairs minister of Colombia, exposed the classist position of the government of Iván Duque during a briefing on the so-called Temporary Statute of Protection for Venezuelans (ETPV). In her presentation, she insisted on the damage that her country has suffered due to the arrival of migrants.

“Until now, the international aid that Colombia has actually received for the [alleged] support for migrants, does not even reach 20% of the amount pledged by the donors,” she stated.

Ramírez also did not let the opportunity pass without attacking the legitimate administration of President Nicolás Maduro, accusing him of being responsible for “the tragedy of those migrants who flee dictatorships.”

According to the Colombian government discourse, Colombia has received 1,800,000 migrants from Venezuela. Using these migrants, Colombian President Duque sustains the propaganda about the Temporary Protection Statute. However, many of the migrants use Colombia as a transit while traveling further to the south of the continent.

The Colombian Migration Directorate recently confirmed that to date the country has only granted around 611,000 Temporary Protection Permits. This includes documents that authorize the migrants’ permanence in Colombian territory under the condition of “special migratory legality.” Many Venezuelan migrants have opted in recent months to return to Venezuela, escaping terrible socio-economic conditions, violence and xenophobia in Colombia, which makes one wonder where those international donations end up.

Featured image: Vice President of Colombia, Marta Lucía Ramírez (left), with Colombian President Iván Duque (right). File photo.

(RedRadioVE) by José Manuel Blanco Díaz, with Orinoco Tribune content

Translation: Orinoco Tribune

OT/JRE/SC