Colombians in Venezuela talks about integration and acceptance in the country - MPPRE

Colombians in Venezuela talks about integration and acceptance in the country

This Thursday, the telematic conversation Colombia in Venezuela: Integration, brotherhood and defense of peace was held, which had the participation of members of the Colombian community in the country and the moderation of the president of the Simón Bolívar Institute for the Peace and Solidarity among the Peoples, Carlos Ron.

The researcher María Fernanda Barreto, born in Colombia and living in Venezuela since 1978, expressed feeling immense joy at having coincided in this space to discuss the history shared by both sister countries, given the concern that arises about the diplomatic relations of their governments.

“There is a situation that we do not deserve as brother peoples, situations that promote a disagreement between our countries. Venezuela has been for many years a place where Colombian comrades have lived their lives; on the contrary, Colombian governments have maintained a hostile policy”, she asserted.

The researcher with more than 40 years in the country also assured that the number of born in Colombia living and staying in Venezuela exceeds 4 million inhabitants, even after the policy of economic aggression and the negative opinion matrix created by the big media corporations.

“Why are we still here?

It’s a question worth looking into, Barreto said.

“I came to this country in 1978 during the first presidential term of Carlos Andrés Pérez, at that time there was an importation of labor and brought many professionals from education, my father was one of them. From that moment I have been in Venezuela, here I had my children and I studied. Despite this, 30 years later I was denied the possibility of having Venezuelan nationality, it was with the arrival of the Bolivarian Revolution, with the policies of social inclusion that I was finally granted nationality”, she said.

It was in July 2004, along with other four million foreign-born people, that she was naturalized.

She also recalled that Colombia has become the country in Latin America with the largest number of emigrants as a result of the exclusionary oligarchy and violence.

For his part, Gilberto Torres, a former trade unionist from the Unión Sindical Obrera (USO) of Colombia, defender of human rights and the Colombian oil company, thanked the Venezuelan Government for the refuge granted last December after being threatened with death.

Finally, Lina Arregocés stressed that each Colombian welcomed in Venezuela, from her perspective, has been able to make a life, work, and feel as a family.

“Perhaps some more politicized than others, depending on who we were. I am a daughter of Colombia, what characterizes us at this moment is that there is a failed peace process that is taking away many of those we believed in. The government responds murdering those who are looking for that possibility, peace.”