By Lucas Aguayo Araos |
Arica, Chile (EFE) amazed at how even their broken dreams were, their fears, their shared destiny.
Jimir, indefinite age, disheveled hair, dark skin and with a combative spirit, arrived at the border between Chile and Peru more than three weeks ago with the intention of completing his umpteenth escape from poverty, this time back to Colombia, and there he continues, living poorly. between cardboard and plastic, because the country where he worked -Chile- does not let him leave and the one who needs to enter to complete his journey -Peru- does not want to open the door either.
Her crime, having entered Chile irregularly, where for some time she was able to work as a domestic employee or in the service sector, without a contract, in the informal market.
“I was working here, I helped my father, my daughter, my sister. But the situation here has become very difficult,” he explained to Jimir Coromoto, referring to the increase in violence in Chile and the legislative changes introduced in the heat of political debate, in particular the recommendation of the Chilean attorney general’s office that preventive detention be decreed. for those migrants without documents suspected of having committed a crime.
“We cannot work here because they ask for a lot of documents, they ask for too many documents, we don’t have a passport or visa. We do not have a Chilean ID. We are Venezuelans, but there are compatriots who come to do things that they should not do here or in their countries and for them we pay everything, we all pay the price for everything”, the Venezuelan complains.
The border of Chile and Peru
Sunset is about to fall over the Pacific and in the dry land that separates Chile from Peru, the humidity of the sea mixes with the autumn wind coming from the altiplano, knocking down the night temperatures.
Around him, close to 400 more people, all of them men, women and children trying to cross the divide, rummage through their threadbare bags to combat the cold one more night.
Let’s see if “at least the government softens its heart, if it has a family, children, we also have children, we have a family, we are not all the same. If his heart softened, so that the border was opened (and thus) one could leave, even if it was to work in Colombia, because we are not going to stay here in Peru to throw shit at him, no ”, he implores.
Xenophobia
A few meters further on, Belquis Vasques assures, for his part, that he wants to return to Venezuela because after six years of stumbling around his South America, he misses his roots.
“I lived in Peru, I lived in Ecuador, I came to Chile and well, I want to try it in my country. I know that things are difficult in my country, but what happens, I’ll explain. In these countries you have a bit of economic stability, but (here) xenophobia, classism, racism… children at school suffer a lot from ‘bullying’”, she denounces.
“And that is one of the things that makes you think, what do you do with having economic stability but without having emotional stability”, he wonders.
Vasques arrived at the border at the beginning of May, equally fearful of the new laws but above all of not having been able to integrate into the country despite having worked hard, she says, and was one of the nearly 200 lucky ones who got a seat on the repatriation flight that took off from the area on May 7 for Caracas.
“Yes, I heard that things were difficult to enter Peru, but I have been here for 8 days. The Government of Peru closed the borders because they say that we are criminals, we are murderers who do not want us in their country. I am not a criminal, I am not a murderer. I am simply a mother who wants to cross through Peru to reach her country, ”she told EFE hours before leaving, among the bags hanging from ropes that were her home at that time.
The same thing I do here I can do in Venezuela
Yuri Gil, a stylist by profession, barely five months have served to discover the miseries and traps that are hidden behind irregular migration, a global phenomenon that is now on the rise also in South America, and particularly in Chile, a country that has been locked up for decades. in itself.
“I am a stylist, I worked in Santiago de Chile as a stylist. I would like to return to my country to do the same. To continue with my work, ”she points out passionately before assuring that she has only been there for five months and explaining why she was unable to adapt.
“At night, very cold, very cold. It scares us, being here with the children because we have small children. We are afraid that they will get sick. This with the barriers they have made, we had to move to this place because we were afraid of having them in that place ”, he adds before thanking the solidarity of some inhabitants of the area
“If we have survived several days here, thank God and the Chileans do not bring food. And we have been able to survive with the children. It is not easy, ”she adds. His odyssey also closed a chapter on Sunday: Gil was also one of the lucky ones who was able to board the first plane sent from Venezuela.
According to what Interior Secretary Manuel Monsalve said this Friday, Chile and Venezuela are negotiating the terms for a broader agreement that facilitates the repatriation and expulsion of migrants and puts an end to this border drama.