GEORGETOWN, Guyana – The Guyana government says it is monitoring the situation at the border with Venezuela as it expects a large number of migrants to come from the neighboring South American country in the coming days.
Home Affairs Minister, Robeson Benn.“We will have another flood of migrants in desperate circumstance coming from Venezuela. There has been an influx from Venezuela of Guyanese persons who still live in Venezuela and, if they are forced to leave in fairly rapid circumstances, leave everything behind and come over here, they will perhaps be in more difficult situation than those who came before,” Home Affairs Minister, Robeson Benn has said.
Currently, there are more than 30,000 Venezuela migrants living in Guyana and the authorities here expect that figure to increase as more Venezuelans seek refugee status in the face of a worsening social and economic crisis.
The United Nations (UN) Refugee Agency has said Venezuela is facing one of the largest displacement crisis in the world and that rampant violence, inflation, gang warfare, soaring crime rates, and shortages of food, medicine and essential services are forcing millions to flee.
Benn told reporters that the Guyana government has been closely monitoring the situation at the border, and is putting systems in place to respond to “any potential issue” or threat.
But he said that the Irfaan Ali government is also providing support to the migrants.
“We are all aware of the challenges on the west in Venezuela, and both the Guyana Police Force and the Community Policing Groups Units are involved in the security screening and information gathering, in relation to those challenges, monitoring the situation in relation to the question of what may or may not be as a result of the fallout of the crises in Venezuela,” Benn said.
The Government has been offering support for the migrants fleeing Venezuela as the country remains in crisis. The situation in the Spanish speaking country could deteriorate even further now that President Nicolas Maduro has been sworn in for another term in office.
The United States has offered a US$25 million ransom for Maduro’s arrest, but at least four Caribbean Community (CARICO) countries have denounced the move by Washington.
Representatives from Dominica, Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, Grenada, Jamaica, and St Lucia, who attended a three-day World Anti-Fascist Festival in Caracas, signed a declaration opposing the move by the US government.
“We also totally condemn the absurd and fascist decision by outgoing one-term US President Joseph Biden, to impose a US$25 Million bounty on the head of President Maduro on the same day he was inaugurated for a third consecutive term until 2031,” according to the declaration signed by the delegates attended the conference.
The declaration said the delegates “demand the United Nations (UN) and the Organization of American States (OAS) likewise condemn this fascist proposal of the outgoing US President, which is also illegal under the charters of both the UN and the OAS.”
The grouping also said that it condemns the United States for recognizing an alternative President of Venezuela other than Maduro whom it said was duly elected by the people of Venezuela.
“We totally condemn the decision by the outgoing Biden Administration, just days before demitting office, to recognize a ‘President of Venezuela’ other than he who was elected and inaugurated on January 10, 2025, in the presence of over 2,000 delegates from 120 nation,” the declaration notes.
General election in the Spanish-speaking South American country took place on July 28, 2024, to choose a president for a six-year term beginning on 10 January 2025. Maduro was declared winner by the country’s electoral commission but there have been domestic outrage and international condemnation that the polls were allegedly stolen by him.
Despite this, Maduro was sworn into office last Friday.