Foreign Minister Arreaza: UNHCR lends itself to the US and EU strategy on Venezuelan migration to scramble for resources - MPPRE

Foreign Minister Arreaza: UNHCR lends itself to the US and EU strategy on Venezuelan migration to scramble for resources

The People’s Power Minister for Foreign Relations, Jorge Arreaza, denounced this Sunday that the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), lends itself to the distracting strategy of the United States and the European Union by using Venezuelan migration for another dispute over resources, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. The pronouncement arose due to a tweet published in the account of the UN agency @Acnuramericas where it is stated that the “exodus of Venezuelan refugees and migrants is one of the current largest displacement crises in the world”, this ignoring that before the advance of COVID-19 in other countries of the region and the lack of attention by their governments in health matters, it is now Venezuelans who decide to return to their country. “The real need for funds should go to the repatriation and reintegration of Venezuelans, who today return by thousands”, he highlighted on his Twitter account @jaarreaza. At the beginning of May, the Venezuelan Foreign Minister reported that special operations of the Plan Vuelta a la Patria would be organized by presidential instructions, to facilitate the return of thousands of compatriots who were in a vulnerable situation due to the pandemic, or who had been stranded because of contingency measures. “I have arranged 24 planes for them to go to Ecuador, Peru, Chile, and wherever it is necessary to go to look for Venezuelans”, President Nicolás Maduro reported on that occasion. In recent days, the Vice-president of Communication Culture and Tourism, Jorge Rodríguez, reported that more than 48,000 compatriots had returned in the last two months. On various occasions, the Bolivarian Government has denounced the tendency of countries to politicize Venezuelan migration for economic purposes, distorting the figures to magnify the problem and obtain more resources.