Speakers at the conclusion of the lecture on Venezuela on Thursday evening, (from left): Professor Gerardo Gonzalez, Dr. Diego Ramos, Hector Muñoz and Dr. Antonio Carmona Báez. (Robert Luckock photo)
PHILIPSBURG–“The Netherlands recognises Juan Guaido as Interim President in Venezuela, even giving diplomatic status to his party. At the same time, it maintains diplomatic ties with the government in Caracas and this violates fundamental norms of international law and diplomacy found in the Vienna Convention of 1961, and that is alarming in the world of international relations,” said Dr. Antonio Carmona Báez, during his address at the lecture “Venezuela Migration in the Caribbean – Problem or opportunity?” at University of St. Martin (USM) on Thursday evening.
Báez is President of USM and specialised in international relations and political economy development.
He was one of two speakers along with Professor Gerardo Gonzalez, professor of public policy at Institute de Estudios Superiores de Administration Caracas, who gave the keynote address. Gonzalez is an expert on Venezuelan migration in the Caribbean.
“I would like to suggest we are not only seeing a humanitarian crisis, but also a crisis in the international law system,” Báez stated. “Diplomatic relations between Venezuela and the Netherlands have deteriorated and I have witnessed this personally at The Hague.
“In July 2014 a general was arrested in Aruba on accusations of drug trafficking. The Netherlands rebuked Aruba and overturned the sentence on the basis of diplomatic immunity. When Juan Guaido declared himself interim president the Netherlands found itself in a dilemma. Was it to follow the US [United States – Ed.] and allies in recognising Guaido or, like most countries, respect the sovereignty of that republic?
“Then in February 2017 Venezuela briefly closed the borders with the islands. Still, the Hague maintained relations with Caracas and every year on July 5 representatives from the Dutch government would attend Independence Day celebrations organised by the Venezuela embassy. In 2017-2018 there was further deterioration with economic problems, political crisis and rising violence in the streets.
“You can’t talk about humanitarian aid while imposing sanctions at the same time. The US economic blockade not only affects Venezuela but also the region. Until recently the number-one visitors to Aruba and Curaçao, after US citizens, were Venezuelans.”
According to Báez, the Netherlands is forming an alliance with the USA, the UK and France in case there is a Venezuelan attack on the countries of the Dutch Kingdom. The budget for defence of the islands is 23.8 million euros to deal with the situation in Venezuela, of which 12.6 is destined for defence, 10.6 for the crisis within the kingdom, although it was not clear what that is, and 2.2 million for border control.
“It’s interesting to see the amount of money placed on an internal crisis,” he observed. “We don’t know what that is for. Is it to take care of homeless Venezuelans, to set up refugee camps, to deport them, or to send them to the Netherlands?”
The topic shifted from a critical look at international relations and diplomacy to the human aspect of the crisis in Venezuela. There were emotional testimonials from at least two professional Venezuelans invited to speak and they made passionate pleas for Venezuelans in St. Maarten to be accepted and registered.
“We found an opportunity to escape from Venezuela to come here and help with the reconstruction,” said Hector Muñoz, an engineer who is trying to start a company here. “We have come here not to beg but to contribute. I have seen the good treatment the government of St. Maarten has given us. I don’t know how many we are, but I am asking the government to regulate our situation. It’s not good for us and not good for you that we are in the shadows. We want to integrate into society and pay taxes.”
A Venezuelan doctor, Diego Ramos testified as to how bad it is in Venezuela, trying to survive on US $4 per month but also enduring endless power cuts for six hours per day.
“The Internet connection is terrible when I try to talk to my family in Venezuela. It’s just luck if you get connected, otherwise you have to wait a couple of days. There’s no power to charge your phone. If I am here, it’s because it’s a really horrible situation. People are suffering. I have to work to send money to my family. But we feel safe here.”
He revealed that Venezuela is not producing new passports. “To renew a passport would cost about $85,000 and that’s if the Venezuelan government wants to renew it. When it expires you are illegal again, but worse still, you are robbed of your identity. We are prisoners wherever we are.”
Gonzalez, a sociologist, gave an overview of the facts and figures pertaining to the crisis in Venezuela in graphic detail with a PowerPoint presentation.
“More than five million Venezuelans have left the country in the last five to 10 years. It’s the most important exodus of people in the western hemisphere in the 21st century,” Gonzalez said. “Venezuelans are currently the second nationals to seek political asylum in the European Union. The first are students. That’s a little-known fact.
“Forty-nine per cent of Venezuelans are eating twice or once a day, 77 per cent know close friends or family that are going hungry, 63 per cent have very low food security, meaning they don’t have enough money to buy their basic food requirements, 92 per cent of the population is not eating enough or well. Last year the inflation rate was 2 million per cent. This year it’s better: 2,674 per cent in August. Hyper-inflation is a very unique situation.
“Prices increase five per cent every day. The price of the dollar in Venezuela changes twice a day at 11:00am and 3:00pm. Even if there is food in the supermarkets, 61 per cent of the people cannot afford to buy it. The minimum wage is around $3 per month, but to survive a family needs at least $600 a month.”
Gonzalez also talked at length on the migration trend of Venezuelans in the Caribbean and to the ABC islands (Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao) and the negative and positive effects of it.
The lecture concluded with a question-and-answer session with audience and presenters. Prime Minister Leona Romeo-Marlin said she agreed with the need of a registration system “to know who is here.” She said the Venezuela issue will be discussed at an upcoming meeting in New York to find solutions.
“We have to ask ourselves, even if there is opportunity in migration, how many more people can we take? These are tough decisions government has to make,” she admitted. “We need a registration system to monitor and protect. We do understand the plight of the Venezuela people and now it’s a St. Maarten problem. They need to be able to integrate and contribute with some form of legal document.”
Master of Ceremonies for the evening was Patrick Gumbs, senior policy adviser for the Government Foreign Relations Department. The lecture was organised by the Social Economic Council and USM as a follow-up to the May 2019 symposium on the subject.
Source: The Daily Herald https://www.thedailyherald.sx/islands/91104-baez-netherlands-has-violated-the-norms-of-international-law-diplomacy-over-venezuela
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