Alfredo Romero, the head of a human rights NGO called the Foro Penal Venezolano (FPV), announced that Venezuela celebrated a grim milestone today. According to Romero, there are more political prisoners in regime jails today than in any other New Year’s Day than at any other point in Venezuelan history.
That figure stands at 388.
Colombia’s Outgoing Migration Agency Chief Shares Thoughts on Visas, Hunger
Christian Kruger, the outgoing head of Migracion Colombia, was interviewed during his last day on the job about his experiences over the past five years leading Colombia’s migration and customs agency. During the interview, Kruger spoke about the ongoing Venezuelan migration phenomenon, which kicked into high gear starting in 2017.
Kruger was asked if it was possible that Colombia might one day be home to four million Venezuelans, a figure that has apparently been forecast. Kruger said:
The Maduro dictatorship has taken decisions [to cause] a migration of expulsion, which is how we could come to receive an important number of [Venezuelan migrants] in the country. That could happen: [Colombia] could reach a figure like that, about 4 or 5 million.
Kruger also argued that the Maduro regime would like to have “fewer people” living in Venezuela so that it may “distribute what little resources it has to its own supporters”.
When asked about how Colombia collaborated with other countries in the region on the Venezuelan migrant issue, Kruger spoke about the fact that some countries, like Peru, created visa requirements for Venezuelan migrants in an apparent attempt to curb their entry into the country. On that tactic, Kruger said:
Venezuelans need our help. They’re human beings, and we have to convince other countries to make a concerted effort to create flexible migration measures. A country may require a visa, but when migration is caused by hunger, that requirement won’t stop it.
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