Should Venezuelan refugees be allowed to live in T&T?

[pugboy]

it already have a mini favela in arima side i hear
padna had some working for him endeavour side
they leave job because the husband get job on that side and whole family move to live up there

[hydroep]

What Trinis, Venezuelans share in common
VEDAVID MANICK

I HAVE NEVER seen TT in a state of uncertainty as it is in these days. The issue of Venezuelan refugees seeking the protection of our shores has genuinely tested us. Many embraced them openly, but others have been quite vocal about protecting our rights as citizens. Permit me to attempt to make sense of the whole situation.

To me, Venezuelans and Trinidadians share a universal evil: poor governance. Venezuelans face a failed attempt at socialism that now plays out globally, beyond any intervention our small island nation can provide. Unless some critical international response takes place, it seems unlikely that a solution is forthcoming.

Venezuelans are not only fleeing to our shores, but they are seeking refuge in any domain they can. The Venezuelan plight is testimony to the fact that politics does not satiate hunger or quench thirst. It is food, water, financial, and social security that matters most.

They come to our shores seeking those exactly. But for a small island country once blessed with the wealth of oil and gas, the sad state of affairs is that the struggle for food, water and stability is the daily struggle of many citizens. Now Trinidadians will compete in the markets for food, jobs and will have to fight for that rare bed slot in an overcrowded hospital space.

It is natural to feel hurt when non-citizens are coming to our shores and seemingly given opportunities that we struggle for but are entitled to. And no one, be it government or the mainstream media, has the right to belittle these legitimate feelings of citizens. They are human and justified.

It is justified to feel hurt, but from where I stand, it needs to aim at the real source. Xenophobia is a word thrown about a lot recently, the second time in recent history. Before now those infamous “Calcutta ship” statements would have blotched our memories.

Ironically, many who use this word now were silent then, while others who felt hurt from those statements practise the same now. Venezuelans are not the problem; our democratically elected government is.

It is hard not to be political about this, but the Government is the real villain in this issue. It failed us miserably from day one.

Months ago, everyone knew things were not right in Venezuela. We saw her citizens seeking refuge here and elsewhere. We saw the political crisis escalating. Instead of our government taking steps to ensure that we do not become a “refugee camp,” it kept silent.

It first denied there was a crisis. It made deals with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. It claimed neutrality while sending our Foreign Minister to felicitate him. It alienated us from the rest of the world by taking a “neutral” stance on the issue but not behaving like such. It failed to secure our borders when we needed to. It has articulated to this day no thought-out policy on how we are going to deal with a refugee issue.

Today we have zero clarity as to where our Government stands on anything related to Venezuela. Allow me to ask the questions that seemingly have no answers.

What is our current national policy on Venezuela? Are we still accepting Maduro as the legitimate leader of the Venezuelan people? By taking Venezuelans into our shores, have we gone in open defiance of Maduro?

Is our official government position that there is now a crisis in Venezuela? If we have now accepted that there is a crisis, what steps are we taking at an international level to seek help and remedy the situation? Have we “closed our borders?” What needs to be done to secure our borders?

What is being done to cater for the increased needs of Venezuelans who are now within our country? Will there be enough food, jobs, education opportunities? Will Venezuelans be working under the same terms as Trinidadians? What is in place to ensure that both Venezuelans and Trinidadians have equal opportunities in the job market?

What is being done to ensure that unscrupulous employers are not taking advantage of our Venezuelan brothers and sisters, eg by paying them below minimum wage? Are Venezuelans going to pay taxes? If not, why are they being allowed to live in Trinidad, use the facilities like every other citizen and not pay taxes?

The list goes on.

The Prime Minister is on record stating that TT will not become a refugee camp. Too late sir. You and your government, in open contempt of your duty, allowed it to happen. Today we have no more clarity on what your position is and what you have meaningfully done compared to two years ago. I do not expect you to change things in Venezuela like major global powers may be able to. But as a citizen I expected you to act in the interest of TT when the time was right.

Beyond the poverty of governance, there is one other way that Venezuelans are similar to us Trinidadians. They are human beings – slaves to hunger, thirst, fear, and struggling like everyone else. So while I agree that TT cannot handle a refugee crisis, we must never be devoid of the humanity of human suffering, which goes beyond race and nationality.

It is hard to divorce politics from this issue. I fail to see how people can continue to favour our leaders when there was a dereliction of duty on their part. The most that we can hope for now is that when the time comes for our responsibility, we do not fail ourselves.

https://newsday.co.tt/2019/06/22/us-no-better-than-us/

[vaiostation]

Villagers—Land grabbing, drug, human trafficking in Carapichaima
Rhon­dor Dowlat-Ros­tant

There is said to be an “in­va­sion” of Colom­bians and Venezue­lans at Brick­field in Cara­pichaima which are caus­ing grave con­cerns by vil­lagers who are claim­ing that il­le­gal ac­tiv­i­ties are on a ram­pant in­crease in­clud­ing State land grab­bing, drug traf­fick­ing, guns and am­mu­ni­tion traf­fick­ing and hu­man traf­fick­ing.

The vil­lagers are now call­ing on Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er Gary Grif­fith and oth­er rel­e­vant au­thor­i­ties to in­ter­vene and “clean up the area” in an at­tempt to re­store peace, law and or­der.

They claim that their nu­mer­ous re­ports to a near­by po­lice sta­tion have fall­en on “deaf ears and blind eyes” main­ly be­cause they be­lieve that there is an al­leged re­la­tion­ship be­tween a se­nior po­lice of­fi­cer at the sta­tion and a fe­male Colom­bian woman.

It is al­leged that the woman is the moth­er of a young Colom­bian man who is de­scribed as the “mas­ter­mind” be­hind many of the il­le­gal ac­tiv­i­ties in the area.

It is al­leged that the Colom­bian young man is in­volved in back­fill­ing swamp lands at Tem­ple Road and block­ing off lots of land with steel posts and wire fenc­ing and sell­ing it be­tween $10,000 to $15,000.

Guardian Me­dia went to the area and cap­tured sev­er­al im­ages of the land de­vel­op­ment. When ap­proached sev­er­al squat­ters de­nied to di­vulge any in­for­ma­tion re­gard­ing how they end­ed up liv­ing in their re­spec­tive spots. Some, who al­leged­ly pur­chased land from the Colom­bian al­so re­fused to di­vulge any in­for­ma­tion, how­ev­er, point­ed out a small wood­en house that is al­leged­ly owned and oc­cu­pied by the young man. No one was at the house at the time of Guardian Me­dia’s vis­it.

One vil­lager, who wished not to be iden­ti­fied for fear of his life, said vil­lagers are threat­ened to “keep their mouths shut.”

“Many times our re­ports to the sta­tion are not be­ing tak­en. If our calls are an­swered we are be­ing told that there is no po­lice car avail­able...most times the sta­tion’s phones ring out...no an­swer,” the vil­lager said.

“We need our vil­lage back! We have guns point­ed to our faces, we are robbed and bul­lied by the Venezue­lans and Colom­bians. We see the trans­port ve­hi­cles com­ing in and go­ing out with drugs and guns in­clud­ing pri­vate cars, po­lice ve­hi­cles and am­bu­lances be­cause who re­al­ly go­ing to stop an am­bu­lance or po­lice car?” the vil­lager added.

There are al­so sev­er­al bars op­er­at­ing in the area that have hired the Colom­bian and Venezue­lan women to work 24/7, some of whom are be­ing de­scribed as “slaves” by the vil­lagers who claim that they strong­ly be­lieve that their pass­port are be­ing tak­en away by the bar own­ers and there­fore they have no oth­er choice but to work in the bars and “fol­low what­ev­er in­struc­tions they are al­leged­ly giv­en.”

At least four pri­vate cars have been ob­served and iden­ti­fied as “trans­porter ve­hi­cles” one of which is seen be­ing dri­ven by the Colom­bian man.

When con­tact­ed yes­ter­day for com­ment Cou­va North Mem­ber of Par­lia­ment Ra­mona Ram­di­al con­firmed State land grab­bing is­sues over the years since the Peo­ple’s Part­ner­ship gov­ern­ment but ad­mit­ted that in the last year there has been an in­crease in squat­ters in the Tem­ple Road, Bay Road and an area re­ferred to as Mon­tano Farms.

Ram­di­al, whilst not be­ing able to di­vulge the iden­ti­ties of the peo­ple in­volved in the il­le­gal land de­vel­op­ment and sale of the lands said that she wouldn’t put it pass the in­volve­ment of the Colom­bians.

“State lands be­ing tak­en and sold over by squat­ters and crim­i­nal el­e­ments is in fact true. I know peo­ple have got­ten shot over land that was sold to them and be­fore they knew it the land was resold to some­one else. The is­sue of squat­ting has been a very volatile is­sue in Brick­field for many years, “ Ram­di­al said.

She, how­ev­er, not­ed that some squat­ters have been giv­en let­ters of com­fort be­cause of the length of time they have been oc­cu­py­ing the lands but added that even they are now the tar­gets of the in­creas­ing im­mi­grant pop­u­la­tion in the area.

“I would want to be­lieve that the Colom­bians may be in­volved be­cause of some sto­ries I have heard that are amaz­ing,” Ram­di­al said.

The mem­ber of par­lia­ment al­so said that the Brick­field area is a very vi­able area to ex­plore for tourist pur­pos­es be­cause years ago peo­ple would go there be­cause of the swamp and for bird watch­ing, “What is al­so brew­ing is that lo­cals squat­ting on a por­tion of state lands called Mon­tano Farms by the fish­ing de­pot which was giv­en for aqua cul­ture where shrimp farm­ing was done but that didn’t work out so the land was left aban­doned...now be­cause of the squat­ters a mas­sive steel struc­ture has been erect­ed block­ing off the coast­line dis­rupt­ing fish­er­men, oys­ter and crab catch­ers from ply­ing their trade. Their ac­cess is blocked off.”

Ram­di­al said she has sub­mit­ted re­ports to the Min­is­ter of Agricul­tre Clarence Ramb­harat and the Plan­ning Min­is­ter Camille Robin­son-Reg­is. She added that pos­i­tive feed­back was giv­en by both min­is­ters to ad­dress the is­sues.

CoP Grif­fith is in re­ceipt of the in­for­ma­tion and will in­ter­vene.


http://www.guardian.co.tt/news/villager ... e2638059bb

[bluefete]

The local Catholic Church was a big player of this in the early days. Remember when the Archbishop called us 'stingy'? Remember that Venezuela is a largely RC country in religion. I have not heard a peep from him since this turned into a flood.

Remember that these institutions get money for taking in refugees.

What Trinis, Venezuelans share in common
VEDAVID MANICK

I HAVE NEVER seen TT in a state of uncertainty as it is in these days. The issue of Venezuelan refugees seeking the protection of our shores has genuinely tested us. Many embraced them openly, but others have been quite vocal about protecting our rights as citizens. Permit me to attempt to make sense of the whole situation.

To me, Venezuelans and Trinidadians share a universal evil: poor governance. Venezuelans face a failed attempt at socialism that now plays out globally, beyond any intervention our small island nation can provide. Unless some critical international response takes place, it seems unlikely that a solution is forthcoming.

Venezuelans are not only fleeing to our shores, but they are seeking refuge in any domain they can. The Venezuelan plight is testimony to the fact that politics does not satiate hunger or quench thirst. It is food, water, financial, and social security that matters most.

They come to our shores seeking those exactly. But for a small island country once blessed with the wealth of oil and gas, the sad state of affairs is that the struggle for food, water and stability is the daily struggle of many citizens. Now Trinidadians will compete in the markets for food, jobs and will have to fight for that rare bed slot in an overcrowded hospital space.

It is natural to feel hurt when non-citizens are coming to our shores and seemingly given opportunities that we struggle for but are entitled to. And no one, be it government or the mainstream media, has the right to belittle these legitimate feelings of citizens. They are human and justified.

It is justified to feel hurt, but from where I stand, it needs to aim at the real source. Xenophobia is a word thrown about a lot recently, the second time in recent history. Before now those infamous “Calcutta ship” statements would have blotched our memories.

Ironically, many who use this word now were silent then, while others who felt hurt from those statements practise the same now. Venezuelans are not the problem; our democratically elected government is.

It is hard not to be political about this, but the Government is the real villain in this issue. It failed us miserably from day one.

Months ago, everyone knew things were not right in Venezuela. We saw her citizens seeking refuge here and elsewhere. We saw the political crisis escalating. Instead of our government taking steps to ensure that we do not become a “refugee camp,” it kept silent.

It first denied there was a crisis. It made deals with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. It claimed neutrality while sending our Foreign Minister to felicitate him. It alienated us from the rest of the world by taking a “neutral” stance on the issue but not behaving like such. It failed to secure our borders when we needed to. It has articulated to this day no thought-out policy on how we are going to deal with a refugee issue.

Today we have zero clarity as to where our Government stands on anything related to Venezuela. Allow me to ask the questions that seemingly have no answers.

What is our current national policy on Venezuela? Are we still accepting Maduro as the legitimate leader of the Venezuelan people? By taking Venezuelans into our shores, have we gone in open defiance of Maduro?

Is our official government position that there is now a crisis in Venezuela? If we have now accepted that there is a crisis, what steps are we taking at an international level to seek help and remedy the situation? Have we “closed our borders?” What needs to be done to secure our borders?

What is being done to cater for the increased needs of Venezuelans who are now within our country? Will there be enough food, jobs, education opportunities? Will Venezuelans be working under the same terms as Trinidadians? What is in place to ensure that both Venezuelans and Trinidadians have equal opportunities in the job market?

What is being done to ensure that unscrupulous employers are not taking advantage of our Venezuelan brothers and sisters, eg by paying them below minimum wage? Are Venezuelans going to pay taxes? If not, why are they being allowed to live in Trinidad, use the facilities like every other citizen and not pay taxes?

The list goes on.

The Prime Minister is on record stating that TT will not become a refugee camp. Too late sir. You and your government, in open contempt of your duty, allowed it to happen. Today we have no more clarity on what your position is and what you have meaningfully done compared to two years ago. I do not expect you to change things in Venezuela like major global powers may be able to. But as a citizen I expected you to act in the interest of TT when the time was right.

Beyond the poverty of governance, there is one other way that Venezuelans are similar to us Trinidadians. They are human beings – slaves to hunger, thirst, fear, and struggling like everyone else. So while I agree that TT cannot handle a refugee crisis, we must never be devoid of the humanity of human suffering, which goes beyond race and nationality.

It is hard to divorce politics from this issue. I fail to see how people can continue to favour our leaders when there was a dereliction of duty on their part. The most that we can hope for now is that when the time comes for our responsibility, we do not fail ourselves.

https://newsday.co.tt/2019/06/22/us-no-better-than-us/

[matr1x]

And the venes have begun to land grab.

[hydroep]

Govt: We registered V/zuelan babies, children
Camille Moreno

Babies and children were also registered during the recent amnesty drive for Venezuelans in Trinidad and Tobago, the Ministry of National Security said in a release on Saturday.

"All Venezuelans who presented themselves at one of the three registration centers, including men, women, children and even babies, over the period of May 31 to June 14, 2019 were registered," the ministry said in a statement in response to an Express editorial, Wrestling with migrant matters.

The ministry also denied the editorial's report that the United States, through USAID administrator Mark Green had offered Government US$1.6 million toward the cost of the Venezuelan registration exercise after a meeting with National Security Minister Stuart Young.

"No such offer was made to Minister Young and the Government has not accepted any financial assistance from USAID, the US government or any other international body in dealing with the Venezuelan migrants in Trinidad and Tobago. This has been previously indicated by the Government," the ministry said.

The ministry accused the Express of "mischief" and of attempting to mislead the population.

https://newsday.co.tt/2019/06/22/govt-we-registered-v-zuelan-babies-children/

[MaxPower]

And the venes have begun to land grab.

I really dont see an issue here.

[bluefete]

Good read but a bit long. I have highlighted the Trinidad parts.

They fled Venezuela's crisis by boat — then vanished
Yahoo News Photo Staff Thu, Jun 20 1:50 PM AST

The niece of Maroly Bastardo, who, along with her children, her husband's sister, uncle and father, disappeared in the Caribbean Sea after boarding a smuggler's boat during an attempt to cross from Venezuela to Trinidad and Tobago, at her relatives' home in El Tigre, Venezuela, on June 3. (Photo: Ivan Alvarado/Reuters)

GUIRIA, Venezuela — A taxi dropped Maroly Bastardo and her two small children by a cemetery not far from the shore in northeast Venezuela. She still had time to change her mind.

Eight months pregnant, Bastardo faced forbidding choices in a nation whose economy has collapsed: Give birth in Venezuela, where newborns are dying at alarming rates in shortage-plagued maternity wards. Or board a crowded smuggler's boat bound for Trinidad, the largest of two islands that make up the Caribbean nation of Trinidad and Tobago. Her husband, Kennier Berra, had landed there in February, found work and beckoned her to join him.

Bastardo's mother, Carolina, begged her to stay.

Neither Bastardo nor her children could swim. Barely three weeks earlier, 27 people had gone missing after a migrant boat went down in the narrow stretch of water separating Venezuela from Trinidad. The 20-kilometer strait, known for its treacherous currents, is nicknamed the Dragon's Mouths.

But the 19-year old hairdresser was determined. On May 16, she and the kids packed into an aging fishing vessel along with 31 other people, including three relatives of her husband. They snapped cellphone photos from the shore near the port town of Guiria, where thousands of Venezuelans have departed in recent years, and messaged loved ones goodbye.

The craft, the Ana Maria, never arrived. No migrants or wreckage have been found.

A girl holds on to a boat while playing near where Maroly Bastardo disappeared in the Caribbean Sea, in Guiria, Venezuela, on May 24. (Photo: Ivan Alvarado/Reuters)

A man believed to be the boat's pilot, a 25-year-old Venezuelan named Alberto Abreu, was plucked from the sea on May 17 by a fisherman and taken to nearby Grenada. Abreu told his rescuer the Ana Maria had sunk the night before. He fled before police could complete their investigation, Grenadian authorities said, and hasn't been spotted since.

Bastardo's anguished mother, Carolina, clings to hope that perhaps a lesser tragedy has befallen her daughter and grandchildren. She prays smugglers are holding them hostage to extract more money and that any day now she will get the ransom call.

"My heart tells me they are alive," Carolina said. "But it's a torture."

The disappearance of Bastardo, five relatives and her unborn child underscores the ever-more perilous lengths Venezuelans are taking to escape a nation in freefall.

Years of economic mismanagement by the socialist government have crippled the oil-rich nation with hyperinflation, shortages and misery. An estimated 4 million people — about 12 percent of the populace — have fled the South American country in just the past five years.

The vast majority have traveled overland to neighboring Colombia and Brazil. But in images reminiscent of desperate Cubans fleeing their homeland in decades past, Venezuelans increasingly are taking to the sea in rickety boats.

A customer outside a local market in El Tigre, Venezuela, on June 2. (Photo: Ivan Alvarado/Reuters)

Prime destinations are the nearby islands of Aruba, Curacao, Grenada, and Trinidad and Tobago off Venezuela's Caribbean coast. Formerly welcoming of Venezuelans, who once brought tourist dollars, all have clamped down hard on these mostly impoverished migrants. Their governments have tightened visa requirements, increased deportations and beefed up coast-guard patrols to intercept smugglers' vessels.

Trinidad and Tobago, with a population of more than 1.3 million people and among the highest incomes in the region, has been a particular magnet.

Since 2016, almost 25,000 Venezuelans have arrived in Trinidad, according to government figures, many without documentation. The United Nations last year estimated 40,000 Venezuelans were living in Trinidad, straining the government's ability to assist them.

Traffickers have been known to abandon their human cargo in rough waters and force female and child passengers into prostitution. A shortage of spare parts in Venezuela means boats often take to sea in disrepair. Most migrants leave Guiria in open, low-slung wooden vessels with patched hulls and jury-rigged outboard motors. Smugglers often stuff these boats well beyond their 10-person capacity, locals familiar with the trade told Reuters.

But for Maroly Bastardo, the grinding hardships of life in Venezuela loomed as the greater danger. She was feeling exhausted and increasingly anxious about her health and that of the baby in the event of a difficult labor.

"Things are too rough here girl," Bastardo texted an aunt in the days leading up to her departure from Venezuela. "I can't give myself the luxury of staying here all beat down."

Reuters reconstructed Bastardo's ill-fated journey in interviews with her family members, friends and the relatives of others missing from the Ana Maria, along with authorities and people involved in the human smuggling trade.

Carolina Gil shows a picture of her daughter Maroly Bastardo, at her home in El Tigre, Venezuela, on June 4. (Photo: Ivan Alvarado/Reuters)

A FAMILY'S DESCENT

Bastardo grew up in El Tigre, an interior boomtown in Venezuela's famed Orinoco Oil Belt, the source of much of the nation's oil wealth.

Carolina, Bastardo's mother, worked in the kitchen of a fancy hotel that catered to visiting oil executives. Bastardo attended private school and talked of becoming a doctor. She and her little sister, Aranza, sang songs in the bedroom they shared.

The good times faded with mismanagement of state-run oil company PDVSA by late President Hugo Chavez and his successor Nicolas Maduro. With government loyalists at the helm of the company, oil revenue funded social programs while basic maintenance and investment tumbled. Skilled petroleum professionals fled for opportunities abroad. Despite possessing some of the world's largest oil reserves, Venezuela has seen oil production slump by about 75% since the turn of the century, when it was producing 3 million barrels a day.

The fallout hit El Tigre hard. The swanky hotel closed its doors and Carolina lost her job. Bastardo quit school at age 16 to earn a few dollars a week cutting hair. She and Berra, a construction worker, had two children, Dylan and Victoria.

With another baby on the way - a little boy they planned to name Isaac Jesus - Berra left in February for Trinidad. He found a job frying chicken and laid plans for his family to follow. Bastardo would require a Cesarean section, her third. The prospect of giving birth in the local hospital terrified her, her mother said.

Venezuela's national health care system, once considered a model for Latin America, is now plagued by shortages of imported drugs, equipment and even basics like rubber gloves. Thousands of doctors and nurses, their salaries ravaged by inflation, no longer show up for work.

A sign reading "Restricted Access" at the house of Maroly Bastardo, in El Tigre, Venezuela, on June 3. (Photo: Ivan Alvarado/Reuters)

At the Luis Felipe Guevara Rojas Hospital in El Tigre, signs at the maternity ward inform women in need of Cesareans to bring their own antibiotics, needles, surgical sutures and IV drip. Even electricity isn't a given. Doctors there said the power fails almost daily, forcing them to rely on backup generators.

Infant mortality rose sharply, to 21.1 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2016 from 15 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2008, reversing nearly two decades of progress, according to a study published in January in The Lancet medical journal. Mothers, too, are dying at higher rates during childbirth, the study said. Some 11,466 babies died before their first birthday in 2016, up 30% from the year before, according to the most recent figures from Venezuela's Health Ministry.

"Any woman who gives birth in a Venezuelan hospital is running a risk," said Yindri Marcano, director of the El Tigre hospital.

Trinidad would almost certainly have better medical care, Bastardo and Berra reckoned. An extra incentive: a child born there would be a citizen and could make it easier for them to obtain legal residency someday. Family members would accompany Bastardo to watch out for her and the little ones, 3-year-old Dylan and Victoria, 2.

On April 2, Bastardo, the children, and her sister-in-law Katerin traveled 500 kilometers by taxi to the port of Guiria. Located on Venezuela's remote and lawless Paria Peninsula, the city is known as a hub of migrant tracking and drug running.

El Tigre city, the hometown of Maroly Bastardo, on June 2. (Photo: Ivan Alvarado/Reuters)

There they joined Berra's father, Luis, and his Uncle Antonio, who would also make the trip. The six settled into a rundown hotel above a Chinese restaurant to make final preparations. They hung out with a friend of Luis's, Raymond Acosta, a 37-year-old local mechanic.

Luis took charge of securing their places in a smuggler's boat. A construction worker, he and his wife had already emigrated to Trinidad and had helped other relatives make the journey in recent years.

Acosta said Luis had negotiated a price of $1,000 for all six members of the party: $400 payable up front, with the balance due in Trinidad, U.S. dollars only.

But as the departure approached, the smuggler jacked up the price. They would need an extra $500 cash up front. Rather than back out, Luis had his wife in Trinidad drain their savings, and he arranged for a contact there to transport the cash to Guiria.

Another setback followed on April 23: A migrant boat heading for Trinidad with 37 passengers overturned in the Dragon's Mouths. Rescuers found nine survivors and a corpse; the rest remain missing, according to Venezuela's Civil Protection and Disaster Management Authority.

Smugglers hunkered down for a few weeks, according to people involved in the boat trade in Guiria. The family's crossing was delayed.

News of the accident unnerved Bastardo's mother in El Tigre. The night before the scheduled departure, Carolina begged her daughter to reconsider.

Bastardo replied via text: "Mothers have to do what they can to help their children....Don't worry. Better times are coming."

The maternity department of Felipe Guevara Rojas Hospital in El Tigre, Venezuela, on June 3. (Photo: Ivan Alvarado/Reuters)

PHOTOS, TEXTS, THEN SILENCE

On Thursday, May 16, Acosta took the six voyagers to a taxi stand, where they said their goodbyes around 3 p.m. They were headed to the small fishing village of La Salina, 4 kilometers from Guiria, to meet their boat, and were relieved to be finally getting underway, Acosta said.

He said he felt uneasy that none of the family took a life jacket in case the smugglers didn't have enough to go around. He also fretted about the possibility of an overloaded boat.

"People are now more desperate," Acosta said. "I always told Luis that they shouldn't go if there were too many passengers on board."

Before they boarded, Bastardo snapped a cellphone photo of Katerin, Dylan and Victoria with their backs to the camera, staring out to sea. She sent it to her family.

The plan was to arrive at the Trinidadian port of Chaguaramas under cover of darkness. The 70-kilometer journey from Guiria typically takes about four hours, putting them in port around 8:30 p.m. at the latest. Luis wanted his son there early.

"At 6.30 in Chaguaramas, be waiting," he texted Berra at 4:37 p.m. as their voyage got underway.

Those who know the route say pilots headed for Chaguaramas carrying migrants typically navigate along the coastline until reaching the eastern tip of the Paria Peninsula around nightfall. At that point, the lights of Trinidad’s towns are visible as they prepare to enter the final 20-kilometer stretch, the Dragon's Mouths.

(For a graphic on the sea route, see: https://tmsnrt.rs/2X9VqVn)

Evening turned to night. The Ana Maria didn't show. Berra said he paced anxiously until police arrived at midnight on the Chaguaramas dock and told him to leave. He said he returned early Friday morning and waited all day and deep into the second night. Still nothing. He repeated the vigil on Saturday.

"After the first sinking, Maroly was afraid, but she still wanted to be here with us," Berra said in a phone interview from Trinidad.

Maroly Bastardo's home, in El Tigre, Venezuela, on June 3. (Photo: Ivan Alvarado/Reuters)

Back in El Tigre, Bastardo's family was growing uneasy. She and the others were not returning text messages.

On Friday, they heard instead from someone identifying himself only as Ramon. Locals in Guiria said Ramon had helped arrange for their relatives to cross by boat to Trinidad without documents, including on the Ana Maria. The vessel had engine trouble, Ramon wrote, but would soon be on its way.

"We are going to change the motors and continue," Ramon said in text messages viewed by Reuters.

In a telephone interview, Ramon said he works for an operation that takes people to Trinidad legally, with a limit of 10 passengers per vessel. He said he was simply passing along information given to him by an unidentified smuggler to ease the family’s fears. He declined to give his surname and denied he was involved in any illicit activity.

By Saturday, May 18, reports of the Ana Maria's disappearance had surfaced in the news and social media.

A local resident points at an area nicknamed the Dragon's Mouths, where Maroly Bastardo disappeared in the Caribbean Sea, in Guiria, Venezuela, on May 23. (Photo: Ivan Alvarado/Reuters)

In an early morning Facebook post, Robert Richards, an American fisherman, said he had found a "young man" on Friday afternoon, floating 50 kilometers offshore of Trinidad, "fighting for his life." Photos accompanying the post showed a figure in a life jacket bobbing near a piece of floating debris. Richards said the man had "been in the water for 19 hours...on a boat that sunk the night before with 20 other people on board, so far no other survivors."

Richards, whose Facebook page says he resides in the U.S. Virgin Islands, has not responded to calls and text messages seeking comment.

Abreu was identified as the man in the photos by relatives of people on the Ana Maria who saw the Facebook post. Venezuela's Civil Protection agency confirmed he had been rescued.

In a May 24 statement, police in Grenada said a man "in need of urgent medical attention" was rescued May 17 by a vessel in waters between Trinidad and Grenada and brought to Grenada for treatment. They said the man, a Venezuelan national, left the hospital without "authorisation." His whereabouts remain unknown.

Venezuelan authorities barely searched for the Ana Maria. The Civil Protection authority, in charge of maritime rescue, had no boats to send. Its half-dozen-or-so vessels are all in disrepair or missing parts, said Luisa Marin, an agency official in Guiria. The Venezuelan military sent out a boat from Guiria on Saturday, May 18, two days after the Ana Maria vanished, but the craft malfunctioned after 20 minutes and had to return to harbor, Marin and other locals said.

Trinidad's coast guard conducted its own search in Trinidadian waters, but spotted no signs of the Ana Maria or its passengers, National Security Minister Stuart Young said publicly on May 21.

A homeless man kneels across from graffiti that reads "Maduro President," in El Tigre, Venezuela, on June 2. (Photo: Ivan Alvarado/Reuters)

HOPING AGAINST HOPE

With no wreckage or bodies found, some relatives of the missing say they believe the migrants were kidnapped by criminal gangs. But Trinidadian authorities have not presented any evidence that this happened. The National Security Ministry declined to comment.

Bastardo's mother, Carolina, 38, says she no longer sleeps. She scours the news and social media for any shred of information. Every time she reads that Trinidadian authorities have apprehended yet another group of undocumented Venezuelan migrants, she wonders if her Maroly might be among them.

"It just causes me more agony: Is it her? Is it not her?" Carolina said from her porch in El Tigre, staring into the distance.

Bastardo's nine-year-old sibling, Aranza, says she believes her big sister is still alive. The child's birthday is coming up June 30. She tells her mom the only present she wants is to have Bastardo and the others back. (Reuters)

Relatives of the people who disappeared in the Caribbean Sea after boarding a smuggler's boat during an attempt to cross from Venezuela to Trinidad and Tobago, gather outside the coast guard building in Guiria, Venezuela, on May 23. (Photo: Ivan Alvarado/Reuters)

A maternity room at Felipe Guevara Rojas Hospital in El Tigre, Venezuela, on June 3. (Photo: Ivan Alvarado/Reuters)

A view of the room of Maroly Bastardo, at her home in El Tigre, Venezuela, on June 3. (Photo: Ivan Alvarado/Reuters)

[88sins]

And the venes have begun to land grab.

I really dont see an issue here.

No surprise in this statement.
No sense in it either

[l33t2]

[MaxPower]

And the venes have begun to land grab.

I really dont see an issue here.

No surprise in this statement.
No sense in it either

Whats the sense in you paying for sex as you proudly mentioned previously?

[matr1x]

The issue is sqatting. The issue is they being violent when confronted. When you have a piece of land and come and see vene squatting what do you do?



What about venes buying land with no source of funds?

[MaxPower]

The issue is sqatting. The issue is they being violent when confronted. When you have a piece of land and come and see Trini squatting what do you do?



What about Trinis buying land with no source of funds?

Edited for your comments.

[zoom rader]

The issue is sqatting. The issue is they being violent when confronted. When you have a piece of land and come and see vene squatting what do you do?



What about venes buying land with no source of funds?

That is why you have no trespassing laws. You get a court order to have them removed by law. Do it the legal way, use the state/police to move them out. Don't get into confrontation.
It the same as getting tenants out with a court order and use of police.

[matr1x]

it's TRUE that Trini do squatting and there is a source of funds issue


However, vene coming over and pretending they need help and acting like criminals, makes me doubt their sincerity.

Also, let's not butter the bread with BS. The only ways of sourcing funds so fast coming from the mainland is drugs and weapons. In other words, their intent is destructive.

Hopefully the local communities come together and drive them out. You know how to deal with mosquitoes

[matr1x]

The issue is sqatting. The issue is they being violent when confronted. When you have a piece of land and come and see vene squatting what do you do?



What about venes buying land with no source of funds?

That is why you have no trespassing laws. You get a court order to have them removed by law. Do it the legal way, use the state/police to move them out. Don't get into confrontation.
It the same as getting tenants out with a court order and use of police.

Been witness to that. Squatting is harder than cockroach.

[88sins]

And the venes have begun to land grab.

I really dont see an issue here.

No surprise in this statement.
No sense in it either

Whats the sense in you paying for sex as you proudly mentioned previously?

keeping a harem of and paying for poonanny are 2 VERY different things. But you're a simpleton so I'm not surprised you can't see the difference.


And in case you to dumb to figure it out on your own, squatting, whether on state or private lands, is illegal in Trinidad and Tobago, regardless of whether you are a citizen, a resident, an illegal alien or a refugee. So if they are squatting on state lands, all they are doing is making it very easy to locate them and deport them.
But as I mentioned, you're a simpleton, and your ilk was never renowned for your foresight or ability to retain or process information.

[RedVEVO]

it's TRUE that Trini do squatting and there is a source of funds issue


However, vene coming over and pretending they need help and acting like criminals, makes me doubt their sincerity.

Also, let's not butter the bread with BS. The only ways of sourcing funds so fast coming from the mainland is drugs and weapons. In other words, their intent is destructive.

Hopefully the local communities come together and drive them out. You know how to deal with mosquitoes

Trini have plenty land wasting ..

WE have whole mountain of land wasting ..

So a few Vene decide to take a piece and progress ..

And you green with envy ?

[zoom rader]

it's TRUE that Trini do squatting and there is a source of funds issue


However, vene coming over and pretending they need help and acting like criminals, makes me doubt their sincerity.

Also, let's not butter the bread with BS. The only ways of sourcing funds so fast coming from the mainland is drugs and weapons. In other words, their intent is destructive.

Hopefully the local communities come together and drive them out. You know how to deal with mosquitoes

Trini have plenty land wasting ..

WE have whole mountain of land wasting ..

So a few Vene decide to take a piece and progress ..

And you green with envy ?

Stop defending bullchit, you sounding like a total clown defending law breaker.

I don't care if them is venes , they came here then obey Trini law or get the fvck out.

[MaxPower]

keeping a harem of and paying for poonanny are 2 VERY different things. But you're a simpleton so I'm not surprised you can't see the difference.


And in case you to dumb to figure it out on your own, squatting, whether on state or private lands, is illegal in Trinidad and Tobago, regardless of whether you are a citizen, a resident, an illegal alien or a refugee. So if they are squatting on state lands, all they are doing is making it very easy to locate them and deport them.
But as I mentioned, you're a simpleton, and your ilk was never renowned for your foresight or ability to retain or process information.

These women have no choice but to sell their bodies due to their financial situation. You really think when you come with your piss stained $100 bills they really want tolerate your unhygienic self? By you knowing their situation, and throwing your self on them is a form of Rape. And thats exactly what you are, a reeking rapist preying on these poor women. Harem my ass.

And furthermore, like you have a problem with comprehension. Did anyone say squatting was legal? Did anyone say it is right for a Vene to squat and not a Trini?

Trinis are doing it, and so are the Venezuelans. We have already established the fact it is illegal. Again 88reek the illiterate....whats the issue?

Read and respond.

[rspann]

Ruckshun now start....FB_IMG_1561182371594.jpeg

Indos..................... assemble!

Problems dey Ras. Indos doh unite.

[88sins]

Maxipad supposed to be red with period blood & clots, but like you green with jealousy. or is tthat just yuh yeast infection raging rampant

say what you will, but so far the # is 15 eh. 2 getting put out d rotation tomorrow whether they want to go or not, performances not up to standard.

Want some of my leftovers?

[VII]

it's TRUE that Trini do squatting and there is a source of funds issue


However, vene coming over and pretending they need help and acting like criminals, makes me doubt their sincerity.

Also, let's not butter the bread with BS. The only ways of sourcing funds so fast coming from the mainland is drugs and weapons. In other words, their intent is destructive.

Hopefully the local communities come together and drive them out. You know how to deal with mosquitoes

Trini have plenty land wasting ..

WE have whole mountain of land wasting ..

So a few Vene decide to take a piece and progress ..

And you green with envy ?

Stop defending bullchit, you sounding like a total clown defending law breaker.

I don't care if them is venes , they came here then obey Trini law or get the fvck out.

Zoom like some ah dem men get de 2 days crapaud in de pokie lokie trick...gadam...

A couple days ago someone spoiled my day with vid with some Venes and dey witch doctor and a frog..sent it to a Spanish guy and he told me si but dey no-goo..

[zoom rader]

it's TRUE that Trini do squatting and there is a source of funds issue


However, vene coming over and pretending they need help and acting like criminals, makes me doubt their sincerity.

Also, let's not butter the bread with BS. The only ways of sourcing funds so fast coming from the mainland is drugs and weapons. In other words, their intent is destructive.

Hopefully the local communities come together and drive them out. You know how to deal with mosquitoes

Trini have plenty land wasting ..

WE have whole mountain of land wasting ..

So a few Vene decide to take a piece and progress ..

And you green with envy ?

Stop defending bullchit, you sounding like a total clown defending law breaker.

I don't care if them is venes , they came here then obey Trini law or get the fvck out.

Zoom like some ah dem men get de 2 days crapaud in de pokie lokie trick...gadam...

A couple days ago someone spoiled my day with vid with some Venes and dey witch doctor and a frog..sent it to a Spanish guy and he told me si but dey no-goo..

I explained all this before, that venes are deep rooted in obeah. But as usual some clowns on here don't research and have never lived in vene to understand their culture.

They will burn black candle on your arse and then go church on Sunday.

[MaxPower]

say what you will, but so far the # is 15 eh. 2 getting put out d rotation tomorrow whether they want to go or not, performances not up to standard.

Want some of my leftovers?

You seriously not disgusted by yourself with those comments?

Venezuelans are not sex workers, they are raped workers. Those who have something to gain (financial or sexual) from the prostitution of women will try to argue that prostitution is sex and not rape because it involves consenting adults.

When a man consents to briefly buying a woman’s body, he wants sex. But when a woman consents to sex only when she’s paid, she’s signalling a desire NOT for sex but for money.

You with your rapist self damn well know prostituted sex is unwanted. That is why you pay money to force it to happen anyway. Then exploit these financially vulnerable women in order to get away with rape.

The only distinction between what happens in prostitution, and any other form of non-consensual sex/rape is that the women in prostitution have made a choice to endure the rape in exchange for money.
Such a shame these women have no choice but to purposely put themselves in harm’s way as a means of economic survival.

[linton]

A lot of The women in prostitution aren't there because of economic survival. They do it because they are too

lazy / proud to do ordinary work . Many facing the same hardships find regular jobs where the work is harder

and the pay might be smaller. There might be the ones who are victims of trafficking / forced but the others

you can tell by their attitude and their conversation. They just see it as an easy way out.

[hydroep]

South bars get boost with migrant women
Seeta Persad

Venezuelan women in south Trinidad are mostly finding employment in bars and pubs, president of the Penal/Debe Chamber of Commerce (PDCC) Rampersad Sieuraj said yesterday.

“Many of the Venezuelans women have gravitated to the bars and pubs looking for employment and there is an increase in this sort of business in the Penal/Debe areas,” he told Sunday Newsday. The women are seen working behind the counter, but many are also "entertaining customers", he said according to reports he has received. He did not elaborate.

While there have been no reports of criminal activates, Sieuraj said businesses are mindful that with the good comes the bad and chamber members are vigilant when it comes to security.

South Trinidad has experienced a tremendous influx of Venezuelans who came through the south west peninsula. The migrants who came to TT by boats landed at Icacos, Los Eros, Point Fortin, Cedros, Erin, and Quinam. In an effort to manage the inflow, Government continued a two-week registration exercise for the migrants from May 31-June 14 which allows them to work in TT for one year.

Government should adopt additional measures to ensure that the numbers of Venezuelans arriving is controlled, Sieuraj said, adding the chamber believed there should be no further entry to migrants seeking shelter here. Government last week implemented a visa policy for Venezuelans.

In terms of the types of jobs, Venezuelans can do, Sieuraj said there should be a database of their skills and felt this was a shortcoming of the registration exercise.

“There wasn’t a proper plan in place. The Government should have implemented proper screening so that business community would have been able to select those who may have skills.”

He did note that many of the migrants have found work in the agricultural sector filling a void in labour in the area. “Now that the rainy season has started, farmers went looking for the Venezuelans whom they can hire.”

Even so, businessmen have complained the language posed a problem, Sieuraj said, forcing many Venezuelans to be hired for unskilled jobs including construction companies and supermarket.

“A tremendous benefit has been the work ethic in the sense that the workers are doing the full eight-hour day work for half the pay that the Trinidadians are demanding," he said.

Greater San Fernando Chamber of Commerce president Kiran Singh yesterday said members have expressed some interest in employing Venezuelans but not in significant numbers. “Businesses in the bar, restaurant and construction sectors have begun to employ them. However, outside of these sectors, no significant figures have been forthcoming. Venezuelans seeking employment claim to be professionals but that is difficult to prove because of the language barrier and the potential of counterfeit documents,” Singh said.

Pharmacists in San Fernando, he said, are not prepared to employ the Venezuelans because of the language barrier.

https://newsday.co.tt/2019/06/23/south-bars-get-boost-with-migrant-women/

[Blaze d Chalice]

Even if Venez committing as much crime as tuner CSIs say, we all know trinis will fight them for that crown.

[maj. tom]

say what you will, but so far the # is 15 eh. 2 getting put out d rotation tomorrow whether they want to go or not, performances not up to standard.

Want some of my leftovers?

You seriously not disgusted by yourself with those comments?

Venezuelans are not sex workers, they are raped workers. Those who have something to gain (financial or sexual) from the prostitution of women will try to argue that prostitution is sex and not rape because it involves consenting adults.

When a man consents to briefly buying a woman’s body, he wants sex. But when a woman consents to sex only when she’s paid, she’s signalling a desire NOT for sex but for money.

You with your rapist self damn well know prostituted sex is unwanted. That is why you pay money to force it to happen anyway. Then exploit these financially vulnerable women in order to get away with rape.

The only distinction between what happens in prostitution, and any other form of non-consensual sex/rape is that the women in prostitution have made a choice to endure the rape in exchange for money.
Such a shame these women have no choice but to purposely put themselves in harm’s way as a means of economic survival.

WhiteKnight Award 2019 goes to this guy. Unless a woman is forced into prostitution due to human trafficking, they do have a choice in this feminist-centric world of 2019. The same choice that your mother and sister made, compared to the other choice that cam girls made to skin their 2-bit cyat in front the internet for $$. This is why prostitution is the oldest business in the world. And why other women look down on prostitutes because they know it's the only commodity that women can offer to men in exchange for their service of keeping society working. What women going to do? Mine coal and drill oil wells and pick up the garbage?

Prostitution is vital for society to function because men require sex and emotional comfort needs that are different to what women require, but it's looked down upon by society because if every man did it, then the household structure of civilization that religion largely built will collapse. It has also been vital to every war effort in history by all sides in war, from the Roman soldier brothels to the Japanese comfort women that they enslaved. Yet it has been happening since the beginning of time and will continue to exist forever, and governments always ignore it until the press makes a particular scandal.

I know you love to troll about the Venezuelans and everything bad about Trinidad, and it's funny most times to me. But the whiteknighting you spew is so ridiculous sometimes I have to believe that if you write that kind of drivel here, you must live it in real life too.

[MaxPower]

say what you will, but so far the # is 15 eh. 2 getting put out d rotation tomorrow whether they want to go or not, performances not up to standard.

Want some of my leftovers?

You seriously not disgusted by yourself with those comments?

Venezuelans are not sex workers, they are raped workers. Those who have something to gain (financial or sexual) from the prostitution of women will try to argue that prostitution is sex and not rape because it involves consenting adults.

When a man consents to briefly buying a woman’s body, he wants sex. But when a woman consents to sex only when she’s paid, she’s signalling a desire NOT for sex but for money.

You with your rapist self damn well know prostituted sex is unwanted. That is why you pay money to force it to happen anyway. Then exploit these financially vulnerable women in order to get away with rape.

The only distinction between what happens in prostitution, and any other form of non-consensual sex/rape is that the women in prostitution have made a choice to endure the rape in exchange for money.
Such a shame these women have no choice but to purposely put themselves in harm’s way as a means of economic survival.

WhiteKnight Award 2019 goes to this guy. Unless a woman is forced into prostitution due to human trafficking, they do have a choice in this feminist-centric world of 2019. The same choice that your mother and sister made, compared to the other choice that cam girls made to skin their 2-bit cyat in front the internet for $$. This is why prostitution is the oldest business in the world. And why other women look down on prostitutes because they know it's the only commodity that women can offer to men in exchange for their service of keeping society working. What women going to do? Mine coal and drill oil wells and pick up the garbage?

Prostitution is vital for society to function because men require sex and emotional comfort needs that are different to what women require, but it's looked down upon by society because if every man did it, then the household structure of civilization that religion largely built will collapse. It has also been vital to every war effort in history by all sides in war, from the Roman soldier brothels to the Japanese comfort women that they enslaved. Yet it has been happening since the beginning of time and will continue to exist forever, and governments always ignore it until the press makes a particular scandal.

I know you love to troll about the Venezuelans and everything bad about Trinidad, and it's funny most times to me. But the whiteknighting you spew is so ridiculous sometimes I have to believe that if you write that kind of drivel here, you must live it in real life too.

You’re just another jealous Trini cockroach who feels it is your right to rape and disrespect these women.