VENEZUELA: WAYÚU FAMILIES ESCAPE TO AVOID LIVING IN DARKNESS

By: Gabriela Buada

Yamile ipuana, a wayúu woman, tells how she no longer has any family in venezuela after the national blackout.

She wishes with her heart and soul to be reunited with her family, her culture and her customs, even if it is in another country. For now, she can only wait and finish her handicrafts in order to try to sell them and also manage to flee, to anywhere, because “life in Venezuela is no longer life”.

Prolonged power outages are nothing new and many indigenous people, whose communities have been historically ignored, have decided to migrate in search of a better life.

“The Wayuu communities live in absolute misery, without being able to light a light bulb, clean their houses, eat or perform any action to meet their most basic needs in La Guajira, Zulia. After the national blackout, the days are not the same and the situation is unsustainable.”

A family without a fixed course

Yamile’s husband, his two sisters and his three children fled Venezuela for good after the blackout.

“José decided to stay in Maicao, Colombia. Before, he used to work there for a week and then come back. This time, he arrived just when we were in total darkness, he was robbed of all the food he brought with him at the border and two days later he decided that he had to leave and take the whole family with him.”

“Everyone’s gone to work, even my two children will have to do something for a living. Here, they could not finish the school year because the school never reopened, so that’s why I didn’t think it was a bad idea.”

Yamile is 32 years old. She is a Wayúu woman who holds on to her cultural roots and who has always dreamed of having her rights, her culture and her origin respected. She says that she never thought she could stay alone in Venezuela and that now she has to sell everything she has and work as hard as she can so that she can also leave in search of a brighter future.

“I have no idea if I will go to Maicao  or to Valledupar in Colombia, or if I will be reunited with my family when I get there because we can’t communicate. Since the power outages are so prolonged, it is impossible to make a call or send a text message. My youngest child (13) has only called me twice since he left. He told me that while he was in Valledupar working in market stalls with his aunt, my husband stayed in Maicao with the girl (15) and their other aunt, Danira”.

“Without plans and without dreams, this family fractured, just like many others have because, even if they haven’t left Venezuela after the terrible power failures that leave them without electricity for at least three days in a row, they have to travel all over the country to try to survive.”

Maicao is the destination of most

The forced migration of the Wayúu community is not something new. Despite it being the most numerous ethnic group in Venezuela, the few who remain in the country eventually choose to leave due to the human rights crisis that worsened in 2019 and that, after the blackouts, puts them at risk of illness and death because they are denied a dignified life.

“There are disease outbreaks. There are no medicines, there’s nothing to eat. The trees don’t even give fruit anymore, the plants are dry and the bats come out at all hours because it’s very dark. I have to travel many miles every day to sell at least one handicraft. The social programs are not provided to us. We don’t even have the CLAP box to eat anymore,” says Yamile, explaining that her family had to leave in order to survive.

Yamile must make some money before leaving because it is becoming more difficult to migrate to Colombia without a plan. Her family has not been registered, they live in shelters and what they earn working, washing cars, shining shoes or running errands is only enough to survive the day. Sometimes they only have enough to eat.

“They say that at least they can eat and here you can’t even do that. They are right. My daughter was already losing a lot of weight; I think she was malnourished but I couldn’t take her to any hospital. Everything became more difficult for us during the blackout and my husband despaired at the pitiful state we were in those days,” she said, her voice breaking.

Yamile expects to move to Caracas in the next few days to be able to sell her handicrafts and make enough money to go to Colombia in July. She dreams of the moment when she can embrace her children, but she avoids wishful thinking because she may not see them again for a long time.

Indigenous culture vanishes due to rights crisis

Countless pleas have been made to the Venezuelan authorities to allow the opening of a humanitarian space. Indigenous peoples are the most affected by the crisis and their rights are constantly violated. Their culture and history are also being threatened by oblivion and by the absence of effective public policies that care for and respect their significant contribution to the country’s history.

The Colombian government must continue to have an open-door policy for Venezuelan migrants, especially indigenous migrants. It is urgent to integrate them in order to meet their basic needs. Even if it is challenging, greater efforts must be made to protect these people, most of whom arrive with severe malnutrition, infectious diseases and in a state of extreme poverty. It is necessary to preserve indigenous culture in the world and in Venezuela it has not been a priority for many years.