Page 22 - ATA

A16 LOCAL
Saturday 7 april 2018

Letter to the Editor

Excellence
Stef Blok
Minister of Foreign Affairs

Aruba, 3 April 2018

Excellence,
We are reaching out to you on behalf of SOY VENEZUELA, a Citizen Alliance composed of political and social coalition, currently fighting the
present Dictatorial regime in Venezuela to recover democracy.
Names such as Maria Corina Machado (political activist), Antonio Ledezma (ex Metropolitan Mayor and now political refugee), Tamara Suju
(Human Rights defender), Patricia Betancourt (Coordinator of the NGO “VenEuropa”) and Diego Arria (ex President of the UN Security Council)
to name a few, are involved in this NGO.
As you are probably aware of, there are more than 4 Million Venezuelans living in exile They will continue fleeing at an unprecedented rate in
order to find safe haven in neighboring countries such as, Colombia and Brazil, but also the Caribbean islands.
According to David Beasley, executive Director of the World Food Program of the United Nations System (PMA), there are 35,000 Venezuelans
fleeing daily to Colombia because of lack of food, medicine and personal security among other issues. Also, Venezuelans face problems such
as shortage of electricity and water, a collapse on the currency leading to one of the highest hyperinflation in the world and continuous viola-
tions of human rights. Furthermore, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights highlighted that mass migrations puts the security
of neighboring countries on alert.
In the case of Aruba and Curacao, we are aware that a large number of Venezuelans have been deported; nonetheless, the refugees will
keep coming, willing to risk their lives by taking the high seas in small rafts seeking a better future.
The underlying problem is that the regime in Venezuela denies the existence of this crisis, and at the same time is rejecting humanitarian aid
offered by several countries and multilateral organizations. This matter was evidenced clearly in the letter from the Secretary of The Vatican,
Cardinal Prieto Paroli.

On these grounds, we formally request that all necessary measures be adopted for the coercive Humanitarian intervention of Venezuela, from
all democratic countries and international organizations in order to overcome the extremely precarious situation prevailing in our country.