Page 18 - ATA

A16 LOCAL
Friday 6 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 Ven-
ezuela to recover democracy.
Names such as Maria Corina Machado (political activist), Antonio Ledezma (ex Metro-
politan Mayor and now political refugee), Tamara Suju (Human Rights defender), Patri-
cia 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 ex-
ile 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
violations of human rights. Furthermore, the United Nations High Commissioner for Hu-
man 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 pre-
vailing in our country.