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Migrant Lives

Venezuela Exodus: Migrants Now Crossing Into Northern Brazil

An estimated 40,000 Venezuelans have taken up residence in Boa Vista, the capital of Brazil's Roraima state. Many are roughing it in the city's 53 public squares. And their numbers are rising.

BR-174, on the way to border
BR-174, on the way to border
Giacomo Tognini

BOA VISTA — While Venezuelans fleeing their country's debilitating economic crisis have been crossing by the droves into Colombia, another migrant route has emerged. A growing number of Venezuelans have begun heading south, into the Brazilian state of Roraima, with reports of more than 8,000 entereing the northernmost and least populated state of Brazil in the first four weeks of 2018.

From there, some continue on to Brazil's more populous southeastern cities. But a surprising large number are settling in Boa Vista, the Roraima state capital, where Venezuelans (about 40,000 of them) now make up approximately 10% of the population, the Rio de Janeiro-based daily O Globo reports.

After crossing over from the small Venezuelan city of Santa Elena de Uairen, Venezuelan migrants must endure an arduous two-day journey along a 218-kilometer highway that links the border region of Paracaima with Boa Vista. Along the BR-174 highway and in Boa Vista's streets, locals and migrants speak a mix of Portuguese and Spanish to communicate.

"Life on the streets of Brazil is better than life in Venezuela, because at least here we have food," Luiz Gonzalez, 36, tells O Globo. Like many other recent arrivals, he sleeps in a city square — along with about 300 other Venezuelans.

While Brazil registered only 280 asylum requests from Venezuelan nationals in 2015, that figure skyrocketed to 17,130 last year. None of the petitions were accepted by Brazil's National Committee for Refugees, largely because most Venezuelans in Brazil fled their home country to escape hunger and poverty, not political persecution.

With an average age of 25, many Venezuelan emigrants in Brazil are eager to work and seek temporary residence, a status that allows them to apply for jobs in the country. From August to December 2017, 3,350 Venezuelans submitted applications for temporary residence permits.

He is here to protect us.

Boa Vista is bearing the brunt of the recent wave of arrivals. The number of Venezuelan children enrolled in local schools shot up by more than 1,000% between 2015 and 2017, and the city's three migrant welcome centers only have space for 2,000 people — wildly inadequate for the Venezuelan population of 40,000.

Late last year, after the governments of Roraima and Boa Vista declared they did not have the resources to keep up with the pace of arrivals, the federal government declared a state of emergency to tackle the immigration crisis. With an increase in petty crime and prostitution on the city's outskirts that some locals attribute to Venezuelans, intolerance and xenophobia are also on the rise.

Rather than attempting a life in one of the dangerous and overcrowded centers, many Venezuelans rough it out in one of the city's 53 squares. At Simón Bolívar square in southern Boa Vista, 300 migrants camp out beside a bust dedicated to Venezuela's founding father.


"For us, Simón Bolívar represents liberty and social equality," says recently arrived 29-year-old Kelly Gomez to O Globo. "This is our Venezuelan territory in Brazil. We feel (Bolívar) is here to protect us'

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Economy

Lex Tusk? How Poland’s Controversial "Russian Influence" Law Will Subvert Democracy

The new “lex Tusk” includes language about companies and their management. But is this likely to be a fair investigation into breaking sanctions on Russia, or a political witch-hunt in the business sphere?

Photo of President of the Republic of Poland Andrzej Duda

Polish President Andrzej Duda

Piotr Miaczynski, Leszek Kostrzewski

-Analysis-

WARSAW — Poland’s new Commission for investigating Russian influence, which President Andrzej Duda signed into law on Monday, will be able to summon representatives of any company for inquiry. It has sparked a major controversy in Polish politics, as political opponents of the government warn that the Commission has been given near absolute power to investigate and punish any citizen, business or organization.

And opposition politicians are expected to be high on the list of would-be suspects, starting with Donald Tusk, who is challenging the ruling PiS government to return to the presidency next fall. For that reason, it has been sardonically dubbed: Lex Tusk.

University of Warsaw law professor Michal Romanowski notes that the interests of any firm can be considered favorable to Russia. “These are instruments which the likes of Putin and Orban would not be ashamed of," Romanowski said.

The law on the Commission for examining Russian influences has "atomic" prerogatives sewn into it. Nine members of the Commission with the rank of secretary of state will be able to summon virtually anyone, with the powers of severe punishment.

Under the new law, these Commissioners will become arbiters of nearly absolute power, and will be able to use the resources of nearly any organ of the state, including the secret services, in order to demand access to every available document. They will be able to prosecute people for acts which were not prohibited at the time they were committed.

Their prerogatives are broader than that of the President or the Prime Minister, wider than those of any court. And there is virtually no oversight over their actions.

Nobody can feel safe. This includes companies, their management, lawyers, journalists, and trade unionists.

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