On Sunday the 18th July, the Venezuelan ferry Paraguaná I docked in the port of Guanta, 330km from Caracas. Aboard were 700 repatriated citizens returning from Trinidad and Tobago. In Venezuela, it was celebrated as the largest voluntary repatriation in the history of the Bolivarian Republic and the first maritime repatriation in the Plan Vuelta a la Patria (Return to the Fatherland).
The Vuelta a la Patria plan was initiated by President Nicolás Maduro in August 2020. Its aim is to bring home citizens who are suffering abroad during the pandemic. These are Venezuelans who left the country in search of a better life and instead found only hardship, xenophobia, and exploitation. It is free and a patriotic call to return to rebuild the fatherland.
By naming the repatriation scheme Vuelta a la Patria, Maduro appeals to his compatriots’ national pride as it is also the name of a famous poem by Venezuelan poet Juan Antonio Pérez Bonalde. In it the poet describes his return home to attend his mother’s funeral after an extended period abroad. It begins with a sailor on the vessel shouting “¡Tierra!” (Land!), before the lush description of the outline of the mountains, the shore, and all the colours as the ship draws nearer to his beautiful patria. The pace quickens as the poet anticipates his return.
¡Volad, volad, veloces,
ondas, aves y voces!
Id a la tierra en donde el alma tengo,
y decidle que vengo
a reposar, cansado caminante
Fly, fly, swift,
waves, birds and voices!
Go to the land where my soul resides,
and tell it I'm coming
to rest, weary traveler (I am)
After many years living away and trips to and from Trinidad, I understand the poet’s longing and anticipation. However, knowing the economic and political situation in Venezuela, and having 2 cousins go missing over there, I was curious to find out more about why these Venezuelans returned home, and about those that decided to stay. I therefore arranged a call with Luis (name changed to protect identity) this week, a Venezuelan who remained in Trinidad.
Luis has dual citizenship as his father was Trinidadian and his mother is Venezuelan. He grew up in Carúpano, Venezuela but from the time he left school he has always lived between the two countries. A hustler by nature, and without wife or child, he lives wherever there is work. Below is a bit of our conversation and a map to show the places he refers to:
Me: Luis how long have you been in Trinidad now?
Luis: Since February last year.
Me: Ok, so you came in before the borders closed.
Luis: Yes, but I still came in through the back door. Things so bad in Venezuela that even if you have papers you can only come in through the back door.
Me: Can you describe this back door trip?
Luis: Well, I left from Güiria by boat, so if we was coming in to POS that trip would only take about 2hrs, but because we had to come in South side it take us about 5 to 6 hours.
Me: And did you come in during the day or at night?
Luis: At night, better at night when using the backdoor.
Me: Were you scared on the boat?
Luis: I wasn’t scared for myself because I can swim, but not everybody has those skills, you know. It was a pirogue we was on, those boats can usually hold about 25 people but when I counted there were 47 people aboard and some babies. One was only 15months old and the life jacket was too big for her. I was fraid for her.
Me: Was the sea rough?
Luis: No, the sea is unpredictable but that time of year it is ok to travel. Worse time is now, the sea is usually angry at this time of year. Especially if you travelling from Tucupita side because then you have to go up the Orinoco and when the Orinico meets the sea in the Boca de la Serpiente (Serpent’s Mouth/ Columbus Channel) it very very rough. Big waves, you know. But the mothers on the boat, dem was praying whole time and God decide to listen to the Venezuelans’ prayers for once that night.
Me: And how much do these trips usually cost?
Luis: About 300USD
Me: With things so bad in Venezuela, where do they get the money from for the trip?
Luis: They usually have family here who pay the boatman in advance. They work, get the money and send for the family. Then the boat picks them up in Venezuela and brings them here. Or they might see an advertisement for work with the trip paid for and they can come here and work to pay it back. But my advice is not to take those jobs because then you trap.
Me: I see, and how are things in Trinidad for Venezuelans?
Luis: Woman to woman tings rel terrible. I see Trini woman before don’t even want to ride in the same taxi with Venezuelan woman. I see it with my own eyes. Terrible, but some Venezuelan women take ppl man so that is why they vex you know. De horning ting is really a terrible ting. But dat is woman business. Man to man tings good. Venezuelan men work hard and work in anything. I work in anything. Anything you tell me to do I doing. Cutting grass, driving pickup, painting. Anything. Make sure and write that.
Me: Ok, no problem. And what about the 700 Venezuelans that left?
Luis: Yes, free trip back home. I was studying to take it myself to see my mother.
Me: Oh, so you think they coming back?
Luis: No probably they go to Peru or Ecuador. Rowley needs to re-open the country, tings hard for the Venezuelans here, dat is why they leaving. All the sectors we work in closed, we can’t pay rent, rent expensive here, we can’t send home food, the ferry dat used to deliver food not coming anymore. To send money home is TTD9 to 1USD.
Me: But I see people returning to Venezuela from Peru and Ecuador too on the same Vuelta a la Patria plan. They don’t like the Venezuelans in Peru at all at all.
Luis: Nowhere right now like de Venezuelans. But what you want people do. In Venezuela all we have is hunger. It is criminals running the country. All you could do is try your luck. I see people come here and find work, I see people come here and struggle. One place might be lucky for one but unlucky for the other, but you have to try, you have to survive, you have to feed your children. Dat is why I stay away from woman now, I have no child, I free.
Me: So you planning to stay in Trinidad?
Luis: Well today it raining really heavy. In Venezuela it raining really heavy too, same sky you know. So, we going to cook some food now and try to organise a job for tomorrow. A man tell me he have some work for me back in Carúpano so maybe I go back because the place where I staying now here in Trinidad I have to leave soon because the landlord in court. But I don’t really want to go back right now, I don’t like to travel by sea this time of year, so maybe I wait till the sea calm back down and fight up here in the meantime.
As our conversation ended, I realised that although Luis did not go back to Venezuela, he also embodied the poem Vuelta a la Patria. At the end of the poem, after his mother’s funeral the poet laments that with his mother now dead, he has no home to go to. He asks himself ¿a dónde voy? (where do I go?) to which he responds:
¡A dónde? ¡A la corriente de la vida,
a luchar con las ondas brazo a brazo
hasta caer en su mortal regazo
con el alma en paz y con la frente erguida!
Where? To the stream of life!
To battle with the waves face to face
Till I fall into his deadly lap
With my soul at peace and my head upright!