The Myth and Reality of Venezuelan Migration to Trinidad and Tobago in the 21st century

The Myth and Reality of the Venezuelan migration to Trinidad and Tobago

The migrant flow to T&T in the 21^st century started in the post failed April 2002 coup against Chavez, the assault on PDVSA and the rebellion displayed in Altamira thereafter. Hard core anti-Chavistas came with their skills to T&T, found employment and continue to seek to be the face and voice of the Venezuelan migrant community in the 21^st century. But their reality is not the reality of those now entering T&T since 2013 and especially since 2018 as an entirely different demographic is now flooding our shores. The T&T media continues to peddle the rhetoric of this group as “the reality” and in so doing are willingly evading presenting the other realities which and will continue to impact our national security.

Before the coming of the anti-Chavista group, T&T as a result of the drug trade was always visited by organised crime from Venezuela and select individuals established families in T&T and took up residence in T&T. This organised crime group established deep operational linkages in T&T with T&T groups and was well placed to exploit any and all developments in Venezuela that allows them to earn, to generate wealth. They are silent, faceless and wield great power over the entire Venezuelan migrant community of T&T.

In the period 2012 the flow started where Venezuelan women came to Trinidad and were purchased with a bride price of TTD 20,000 to 30,000 and the man paying the bride price must marry her legally under the laws of T&T. With marriage and her legal residence in T&T the process commenced of importing her family, friends etc. At this same time the children of families with a T&T citizen as a parent or grandparent started the process of returning home. They are bilingual and easily found jobs and integrated themselves into the social order of part of their ancestry. The demand to enter T&T was now rising in Venezuela but specifically in the eastern zone of Venezuela namely Sucre, Delta Amacuro and Monagas states and amongst those in the rest of Venezuela who knew of T&T as in Valencia. This zone is critically underdeveloped compared to the oil zone and Caracas and is the eastern drug trafficking zone of Venezuela. Changes in the order of the drug trade in the 21st century deeply impacted this zone as the nature of the supply of product changed and more tonnage was shifted to Brazil for export. This dislocation flowed with the severe neo-liberal austerity Maduro applied in response to the fall in oil prices intensifying the dislocation and suffering in this zone. One response to this economic malaise was migration to T&T.

This rising demand created the provision of the supply of services by organised crime in Venezuela working with those in T&T. Packages of services were formulated with cost attached in US dollars and those with no linkages to , no resources in T&T to utilise bought those packages. Those who cannot afford those packages then found themselves in the hands of the bottom feeders. The fundamental rule is that to travel to T&T you must pay the transporter and the tax levied by the agents of the state. You choose a transporter who refuses to pay the tax then anything is possible. You choose a transporter who is underselling organised crime then anything can happen.

What is obvious is that the client is willingly taking part in a criminal enterprise to enter T&T and they abide by the rules of the game set out by the transporters. The commitment by the client to criminality is hierarchical as the apex is to be transported to T&T evading immigration and customs, picked up on landing in T&T, transported to a safe house and provided with employment. This package starts at USD 3,000 with the most expensive package being entry into T&T via an airline, a no problem exit via immigration, pick up at the airport and transportation to the safe house and employment starting at USD 5,000. The run of the mill route was via the ferries out of Guiria, passage through immigration and customs, pick up and transport etc USD 3,500 minimum. With the closure of the ferry for runs into T&T you now must pay for an illicit entry which is the barest minimum dropped off on T&T soil, no transportation internally, no safe house, no job: USD 500 per head. This is not a charity you must pay one way or the other. You pay cash US dollars or you sell yourself and your children if they are with you into slavery. Those with family in T&T who are paying where are they generating the income to pay this price per head? This is a price that many of us in T&T, citizens of T&T cannot afford! If they are paying from Venezuela understand the reality of this. In Venezuela today the minimum wage is about USD 8 per month which means that to earn USD 500 will take 62.5 months which means that you and your family have resources whether licit or illicit or both. The discourse is that you are suffering, poor and indigent which meant that you sold yourself and your children where applicable into slavery. Why then enter T&T fully outfitted in keeping with the manual of the human smugglers: no Venezuelan passport nor cedula which means that you are stateless and cannot be easily deported. A passport today in Venezuela officially costs SB 160,000 and a renewal SB 80,000 and you can purchase one unofficially for much less then the minimum package in USD to be illicitly inserted in T&T. Whilst a cedula is obtained unofficially for way much less so you are a genuine migrant and you don’t even have a cedula? Try that on the regime change media of T&T not a T&T panyol as myself. Next smuggling play, every Venezuelan interdicted in a brothel was trafficked and is a sex slave because you are taught that you are an illegal migrant working in an illegal industry so when caught cry a lot and give the story of being forced into sexual slavery as it buys you sympathy. The overwhelming reality in T&T and the rest of the Caribbean especially the Dominican Republic is that the demand for transportation for sexual work by Venezuelans outstrips supply. You then have to be a very small minority to have fallen into the hands of those who have to hold women in bondage to be sex workers when the overwhelming majority are willing. Contrary to the myth of Hollywood hard core human smugglers don’t view bondage sex workers as being earners and viable as they as they pose potent risks to the sustainability of the criminal enterprise. In T&T today the human smugglers are now faced with earning from those who cannot pay for their services and they intend to collect their debt which has resulted in handing them off to others who will exploit their labour and service the debt to the smugglers. We now have flesh markets with the most valuable being the markets for the children owned by the smugglers for services rendered attracting the pedophile rings that trawl the Caribbean moving in. Child pedo porn made in T&T anyone!

This flow of Venezuelan women into the sex trade in the T&T market has now resulted in a surplus of Spanish favours on the market which has destroyed the previous situation of demand outstripping supply to one of oversupply which has collapsed the price of Spanish favours. Venezuelan crime groups have moved in and established residences selling favours throughout T&T which has negatively impacted the market position of the powerful, traditional brothels that dominated the supply of Spanish favours. The collapse in the price of Spanish favours has impacted the demand for and the price of favours from non-Spanish women thereby dislocating the market for sexual favours in T&T. This trend is now operational in Tobago. This is a trend noted in the Dominican Republic where in a country that supplies the highest per capita number of its citizens to sex work in the world, the Venezuelans have now flooded into the industry in such numbers seeking to displace the citizens of the Dominican Republic in the industry in the Dominican Republic.

Before the flow of Venezuelan migrants to T&T became a wave Venezuelan organised crime in T&T was undergoing a change that commenced in the fourth quarter of 2013 that is now changing the landscape of supply and gangland in T&T. The new order of the Mexican transnational trafficking organisations impacted Venezuela and by extension T&T generating problems of supply for those who found themselves excluded from the Mexican supply chain. The migrant flow and then the wave brought Venezuelan organised crime and gangland into T&T who had no presence in T&T previously. These new entrants from street gang members on the run from FAES in Venezuela because they lost a war over supply and turf to members of trafficking organisations in Zulia and Tachira states they are now here and the terms of endearment with the occupiers of the turf with their allies in gangland have to be worked out. Both the original and the newly arrived control the smuggling into and intra T&T of the migrants and wield power over the migrant community who have all taken a vow of umerto. The central issue for T&T is the relationship with gangland T&T that will be worked out by the new entrants as they are disruptors in an already unstable terrain in transition under the hegemony of the Mexicans. Already the signs are that the new arrivals are promising those displaced by the new order, supply of what they are looking for ganja and guns but as to their ability to supply and their potential to trigger a gangland war if they can does not bode well for T&T. Another reality that must be understood and monitored is the arrival of Venezuelans with military and law enforcement training and experience within the migrant flow seeking employment. These are assets organised crime and gangland will not fail to exploit to their benefit especially if they are indebted to the transporters. Whilst the migrant flow is the best way to import foot soldiers from Venezuela. Finally, the members of organised crime groups and Venezuelan gangland present in T&T will not register with the government as they must remain nameless, faceless with no trace of them in the system. The challenge is come and find me and deport me! The terrain of criminality in T&T has now changed markedly with this wave of migrants from Venezuela.

April 30, 2019, Venezuela and the geo-political gambit

Venezuela: May 30, 2019 what was that! An attempted coup d’etat, a cessation of usurpation or where Guaido and Maduro merged

Whatever that action was on May 30, 2019 in Venezuela all it proved is that there is no difference between Maduro and Guaido as they both live on the glory of others. Maduro on that of Chavez and Guaido on the implied power of the US on their own, singly, personally they are farts in a gale of wind. Maduro now finds that he must now make room in his pantheon of those whose legacy he feeds off for Putin and Xi Jinping in order to survive politically in Venezuela. Whilst Guaido must forever be the lapdog of the Washington oligarchy of the US. Both Maduro and Guaido have then single handedly destroyed the independence of Venezuela where a simple internal political struggle has now ballooned into a turf war between Trump vs China and Russia who have clearly drawn a line in the sand using the actions of Trump against Iran and Venezuela. Maduro and Guaido are doing every thing and anything in their power to bring this internal conflict to a conflict on the world stage for they are nothing without the intervention of transnational conflict. Maduro and Guaido need each other: they both want no new elections which will open up the field to candidates previously barred from entering for both of them will lose, they both desire to rule Venezuela for ad infinitum using poverty as the weapon of social control, They both share the same neo-liberal financial market austere crony, brigand capitalist worldview and they are both Afro-mestizo with a deep grave, inferiority complex in favour of the blancos of the North Atlantic.

In the presidential elections of 2013 when it was potently illustrated that Maduro was not the heir of the Chavez revolution, he set about the task of purging the Chavistas paying no mind to the grave weaknesses of the economy in light of US regime change agendas made manifest long before Trump. Maduro’s agenda was to apply a dose of neo-liberal austerity whilst intensifying all the endemic weak points of the national infrastructure and economy. Rather than sell CITGO and exit the US he held on to it, rather than defaulting on the debt he squeezed Venezuelans with the Maduro diet to service the debt rather than fixing the national electricity grid he and his gang looted the nation. The result was hyperinflation that is now here to stay and has impoverished Venezuelans. Maduro’s strategy enabled the Trump assault on Venezuela rather that adopting counter measures in advance.

Guaido and his blanco overlord Lopez did everything in their power to make Venezuela ungovernable and in doing so made Maduro relevant for they never had intentions to participate in the process as they are convinced they cannot defeat Chavez’s ghost. Maduro is then their greatest asset and the unearned gift Chavez handed them. Now the question arises of what is Guaido doing with the access to sanctioned funds of Venezuela Trump has given access to? For the masses are certainly not reaping the benefits of these funds whilst the bondholders of Venezuela are. Since April 30, the masses have voted with their feet on Guaido seen in the collapse of the crowds he now draws in his public campaign to end the usurpation. Whilst all of these games are ongoing in Venezuela the future will be decided by the power relations between now two opposed groups of world power: China and Russia staring down Trump. This is what is important for there is stalemate in Venezuela which will be broken by the actions of these two groups and the terrain of this action must be understood for Maduro, Guaido, the Fanb and the masses are reacting to these power relations for both Maduro and Guaido are politically irrelevant without this power relation. In 2019 Maduro was slated for removal by the Chavista movement many insist that his replacement was slated to be Diosdado. Trump saved Maduro to have him face off with Guaido rather than a new Chavista face. The question now arises of the continued survival of Maduro given his dismal leadership record, at this time time when the global battle for Venezuela has now arrived at the cusp of invasion and war. Does China and Russia want and need Maduro in Miraflores at this critical juncture in the world power engagement?

For this analysis three articles on the role of Russia in Venezuela by the Jamestown Foundation of the US will be deconstructed to reveal a discourse of the world power game in Venezuela and how it impacts power relations between China, Russia and the US with Venezuela as a proxy for direct engagement between these powers.

Article 1:Behind the scenes of Russia’s military detachment to Venezuela (April 2, 2019
https://jamestown.org/program/behind-the-scenes-of-russias-military-detachment-to-venezuela/

On March 23, 2019 it was reported that 99 Russian military specialists arrived in Venezuela and are still there. On March 28, 2019 it was reported that 28 of the 99 Russian military specialists who are cyber experts were posted at Cuidad Guayana at the heart of the Venezuelan hydro-electric generation system supposedly to hardened the electrical system from further cyber attacks. Which points to a double pronged mission aim for the 99 Russian military specialists and their commander on the ground in Venezuela. These are: 1. to harden key strategic national infrastructure against cyber attacks and 2, to quickly establish a national command and control system with its infrastructure over the mainly Russian built and supplied anti-aircraft and anti-missile assets of Venezuela. Key to this task is the commissioning and deployment of the S 300 anti-aircraft and anti- missile batteries which are still in their shipping containers. On March 28, 2019 Cuban media reported that it was Diosdado Cabello who negotiated the stationing of the Russian military contingent in Venezuela, its mission scope and terms of engagement. On March 30, Cuban media reported that Venezuela received 65 tons of aid from China which signals China’s commitment to engaging the US and its stated aim of regime change. Issues then arise if Diosdado will soon replace Maduro as the leader of the government and what is the allocation of roles between China and Russia in this joint effort to stymie Trump’s strategy for regime change. What is obvious is that Russia and China have drawn the line in the sand for Trump over Venezuela and this throwing down of the gauntlet has much more to do than the billions of USD both countries have pumped into Venezuela. Trump’s white supremacist foreign policy in action has earned and generated this push back. Venezuela is now a proxy war between world powers.

Article 2: Russia steps deeper into the Venezuelan battleground (May 2, 2019)

https://jamestown.org/program/russia-steps-deeper-into-the-venezuelan-battleground/

This article alleges that a deal was made between Moscow, Beijing and Washington with the high command of the FANB to remove Maduro install Guaido who will then call elections. On April 30, 2019 the FANB refused to comply with the deal allegedly as a result of actions taken by Guaido on the morning of April 30, 2019 and squashed the deal. The article details the Venezuelan military’s potential to do grave harm to any invasion force with a commissioned and operational anti-aircraft and and anti-missile system consisting of Russian hardware under Russian oversight in Venezuela. For the collapse oi the deal to remove Maduro with a palace coup means that war is now the only means to regime change. The article lists the hardware Venezuela possesses on the ground as: S-300VM (Antey-2500) long range interceptors, Buk-M2 and S-125 Pechora short range anti-aircraft missiles. If Russia has now decided that it will now play a game of chicken with Trump as it is willing to engage militarily with the US and its proxies bordering Venezuela then this is a whole new ball game. A ball game that dwarfs the game Russia plays in Syria the effects of which will wash over all of us in the Caribbean. The white supremacist bully boy on the block just got a throw down in his backyard. How many wars can you fight simultaneously Venezuela, Iran, North Korea plus a trade war that is growing cold with China and a cold war with Russia?

Article 3: Putin and Lavrov rebuff Pompeo’s overtures in Sochi

https://jamestown.org/program/putin-and-lavrov-rebuff-pompeos-overtures-in-sochi/

This article deals with the strategic need for a deal with Moscow if Trump is to attain his foreign policy agenda involving Iran and Venezuela. Trump simply cannot fight two wars simultaneously limiting the political fall out on his re-election bid without Russia giving up one of the two or both. It is as simple as that! Hence Trump’s phone call to Putin and Pompeo’s visit to Russia to speak to Putin. But Putin is calling the shots as Trump needs Russian acquiescence not Putin therefore Putin chose to play coy in Sochi. The central issue Trump must now face is credibility and trust or what have you ever done for me? You simply cannot trust a deal breaker and now the chickens are coming home to roost. The article insists that Russia has three strategic aims: to resist all efforts for regime change in Venezuela, to resist all attempts to strangle Iran by sanctions or military means and to stymie all US efforts to divide China and Russia. Trump has handed Putin the means to effect his strategy to limit US geo-political power whilst boosting Russia’s military power towards bargaining with the US from a position of strength. What happens in Venezuela will be decided in Washington, Moscow and Beijing not in Venezuela and in this brawl of the elephants, all of us, the grass of the Third World will be trampled. Now is the time that we put T&T’s interest and our national security first. Let the elephants who are fighting over the carcass of Venezuela deal with the blow-back from their actions. We in T&T had no hand in the debacle of Venezuela why must we now pay the price?