The Venezuelans left in limbo by new US immigration plan have a new play for a slice of their homeland: they’re taking back their country
A few days after Venezuelans began streaming into the United States, a long-shot attempt to build a wall in Cúcuta, Colombia, became the news story of the weekend. The wall, which was meant to symbolize the border, had been torn down, and instead of a new barrier being built, the country had “leaking out.”
Now the country—which has the world’s largest proven oil reserves, a booming economy, and one of the fastest-growing economies in Latin America—is starting to do what most countries fear to do: take back their very own country.
On Monday, thousands of Venezuelan citizens—many of them migrants—set foot on the streets of Cúcuta, the capital of Bolívar State. Within an hour, Venezuelan flags had been waved in the streets, and Venezuelan national anthem was played in the streets of the city while people took to the streets calling on their government to bring back their own country.
The streets of Cúcuta in Colombia were the scene of the largest act of protest against the new US immigration policy. Photograph: Juan de Dios Medina/Reuters
“This is the first stage of a campaign of resistance to the imperialist invasion of our country,” said Gustavo Torres, the chairman of the Cúcuta City Council, in a press conference.
On Monday night, thousands of citizens took to the streets of Cúcuta to protest the new immigration policy.
Venezuelans have already started the process of seizing their country back. “Today, we’re starting a new campaign,” Torres said. “We don’t know what its consequences will be, but for the past 28 years, we’ve been living under the neoliberal dictatorship of the US and we’ve had enough with it.”
“Today, we’re starting