COLOMBIA-VENEZUELA:
Diplomatic Crisis
Worries Border Dwellers
By Constanza Vieira
CÚCUTA, Colombia,
(IPS) - Rubén Plata
works like
"fly-by-night" capital:
wherever he finds the
best returns is where he
can be found. He moves
from one activity to the
next without looking
back, although he draws
the line at anything
"crooked."
He has been selling
orange juice on a street
corner in the Venezuelan
town of Ureńa, across
the border from Cúcuta,
the capital of the
northeastern Colombian
province of Norte de
Santander.
He pays 2,000 bolivars a
week (around a dollar at
the official exchange
rate) to far-right
Colombian paramilitaries
in "protection" money,
so that they will leave
him alone. He also made
these payments in the
past, when he sold
coffee to public
employees in city
government offices and
in the main square in
Cúcuta, a city of nearly
one million, from a
heavy box of thermoses
hanging from his
shoulder.
The 48-year-old started
working at age seven,
after running away from
home because of abuse.
He has shined shoes,
washed cars, milked
cows, and sold
cigarettes, eggs, cakes,
fruit, "raspao" --
shaved ice with syrup --
and even birds: canaries
that he touched up with
paint to make them
prettier.
He never went to school.
But after he discovered
that "the world was in
the alphabet," he
learned to read on his
own, stringing together
the letters, in
newspapers.
But although he can't
write well, he won over
his wife, who like him
is Colombian, with his
letters. She understands
what he writes, because
he was able to improve
thanks to the adult
literacy programme
carried out by the
Venezuelan government of
Hugo Chávez.
He has travelled "all
around Venezuela" and
seven years ago settled
in Ureńa. His two
children, ages 13 and
16, both go to school.
They are Venezuelan
citizens, are into
sports, and the elder
says he is going to be
an electronic engineer.
The university is
tuition-free, and he
will receive a stipend
from the government, to
live on while he
studies. "It’s a real
blessing," says his
father.
Although he was born in
Colombia, Plata says he
is "from both sides of
the border." In 2004, he
gained permanent
residency status in
Venezuela. But he was
not made a citizen, even
though he provided all
of the documents and
papers they required. He
did see others carrying
in folders with a single
sheet of paper -- and a
stack of bank notes.
In the supposed
"industrial" zone of
Cúcuta, most people eke
out a living selling
contraband items
smuggled across the
border. But the real
industrial area is in
Ureńa, where between
30,000 and 50,000
Colombians work.
At 6:00 AM Colombian
time, which is 7:00 AM
in Venezuela, crowds of
Colombians cross the
bridge by foot, bicycle
or motorcycle to go to
work in Ureńa, basically
a large outlying
neighbourhood of 37,000
people on the other side
of the Táchira river,
where small workshops
operate in nearly every
house.
Plata parks his
three-wheeled juice cart
every day at the corner
of a laundry that washes
jeans. He installed a
sunshade over his cart,
to provide his thirsty
customers with a bit of
relief from the burning
sun.
At noon, workers from
the small local
factories flood the
streets in search of
something to eat.
Hundreds pass by Plata’s
cart, wearing blue
coveralls.
"Don't look for
Venezuelans here,
because there aren't
any," he tells IPS. "All
of the companies here in
Ureńa are Colombian. Can
you imagine how much our
country benefits from
Venezuela? That is what
the presidents should
see."
With regard to the
escalating diplomatic
crisis between Chávez
and his Colombian
counterpart, the
right-wing Álvaro Uribe,
he says "they are both
crazy, two armed
madmen," and adds that
he does not pay
attention to them
"because I do have to
work for a living,
whereas they have
salaries."
After Uribe abruptly put
an end to Chávez’s
efforts to mediate an
agreement between
Colombia’s FARC
guerrillas and the
government for an
exchange of hostages
held by the rebels for
imprisoned insurgents,
the Venezuelan leader
called home his
ambassador to Colombia
for consultations, and
said he was putting
relations with that
country "in the
freezer."
But despite the insults
exchanged over the last
week by the two
presidents, who are at
opposite ends of the
ideological spectrum,
Plata says he hopes
Colombian opposition
Senator Piedad Córdoba,
who had been appointed
by Uribe to facilitate a
hostage-prisoner swap
and who enlisted
Chávez’s help in the
first place, can
persuade him to continue
his efforts.
"I said wow! if Chávez
achieves that, it'll be
the most wonderful thing
in the world. But look
what happened now. The
whole thing fell apart,"
he remarks sadly.
"I cried last night when
I saw how that poor
woman (Córdoba), who
wasn't doing anything
wrong," went from being
the official facilitator
of the hostage talks to
being accused as a
"traitor and terrorist,"
he adds.
Plata believes that "Uribe
got scared" that the
leftwing Venezuelan
leader’s ideas would
find an audience in
Colombia.
"That’s what happened to
Uribe, he didn't like
it, and he said, no,
let’s put an end to
this," says Plata, who
adds that he thinks
about "those poor
people, the families of
the hostages, who are
sad and crying."
He also comments that "Uribe
has to realise that what
Chávez is doing isn't
bad. Chávez is a
realist. He sees what he
sees, and what he sees
are things that are
wrong, and are badly
done."
"What Chávez wants is a
solution. He wants to
change the world,
modernise it. But it
turns out that the
oligarchy has a strong
hold," not just in
Venezuela, but "in the
whole world." That’s why
they tell him "why don't
you shut up? When he
tells them the truth,"
he says, alluding to
Spanish King Juan
Carlos’s angry outburst
at Chávez during the
Ibero-American summit in
Chile early this month.
"What has Uribe done in
Colombia? Why are there
so many Colombians in
Venezuela?" he asks,
referring to the nearly
six million Colombians
who have crossed the
border "seeking refuge
because of our economy,
the poverty in our
country."
"With this nutcase here
(Chávez), I have my own
little house, thank
God." He himself built
his two-room brick house
on a lot granted to him
by the Venezuelan
government after massive
numbers of Colombians
were displaced by
paramilitary attacks in
1999 and 2000, across
the border in Norte de
Santander.
And the other day, he
fell sick, but "health
care here is free," he
underlines.
Plata also points out
that in the past,
labourers did not have
social benefits, and
could just be fired for
no reason, and without
pay. But today,
employers in Venezuela
provide their workers
with equipment, like
coveralls.
In Venezuela "there is a
future, there is work.
In Colombia, where can
you feel that there is
work? Over there, it's
like it used to be
here."
He says he would vote
"yes" in Sunday’s
referendum on sweeping
constitutional
amendments in Venezuela,
"to give him (Chávez) my
vote. I’ve never voted
for anyone in Colombia,"
where he has only cast
blank ballots, he adds.
Local residents on both
sides of the border say
this is the "busiest"
border in South America.
Most of the trade
between the two
countries, forecast to
amount to six billion
dollars this year, moves
across this border.
This week, while
Venezuela decides what
measures it will take to
"freeze" relations with
Colombia, cross-border
activity has been
frantic.
The Colombian customs
agency reported on Nov.
22, the day after Uribe
cut off Chávez’s
mediation efforts, an
unusual increase in the
flow of goods from
Colombia to Venezuela:
31 million dollars,
compared to a daily
average of 14 million
dollars.
And on Saturday, when
the mask fell off the
supposed "warm
relations" between the
two presidents, the
weekend average climbed
from two million to over
15 million dollars a
day. |
