The Chancellor of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Jorge Arreaza, rejected on Monday the acts of xenophobia that Venezuelans live in Ecuador and held the government of that country responsible for the infractions committed against the physical integrity of Venezuelans.
From the Casa Amarilla (Seat of the Foreign Ministry), in Caracas, the Foreign Minister read the statement which states that «Lenin Moreno, in his capacity as head of state, is in a position to recognize that nationality is not a criterion of criminalization; therefore it is repugnant that he uses this trick to evade the responsibility of his government in the reproduction of violent crimes».
The statement from the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry responds «to the pronouncement made by the President of the Republic of Ecuador, Lenin Moreno, who after the femicide perpetrated by a Venezuelan on January 19 against his partner – an Ecuadorian girl – incited the bodies security of that country to apply «the full weight of the law» through the creation of brigades that will be responsible for controlling Venezuelan immigrants in the streets, work spaces and the border, a fact that immediately triggered violence and xenophobia against the rest of the nationals who are in that country», says a press release on the website of the Vice Presidency of the Republic.
Arreaza noted that the government of Ecuador is trying to «evade its responsibility in the crimes of femicide, which reached the figure of 88 women killed in 2018 for reasons of gender, that is, a fatality every four days,» added the foreign minister.
The Venezuelan Foreign Minister said that Venezuela is a country that opened its arms to more than 500,000 Ecuadorian citizens «who have come to work, but never the policies of the Government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela have pointed to any group because of their nationality or origin», he said.
In that sense, Arreaza added that the National Government will continue to expand the scope of the «Vuelta a la Patria» (Return to the Homeland) Plan and the protection policies of the returnees.
Following, the complete text:
«The Government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela has known of a case of criminal violence that occurred on January 19 in the city of Ibarra, Republic of Ecuador, before the eyes of the community and its own public force, in which would be linked a Venezuelan citizen.
By condemning in the strongest manner this repugnant event, the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela considers it necessary to refer to the inexcusable communiqué issued by the President of the Republic of Ecuador, Lenin Moreno, through which, irresponsibly, an unusual attempt was made to establish correlation between violence against women in Ecuador and citizens of Venezuelan nationality.
In his capacity as Head of State, President Moreno is obliged to know that nationality is not a criterion of criminalization, which makes it especially repugnant to use this trick to evade the responsibility of his government in the reproduction of violent crimes with which it has not been able to deal, such as femicide, which only in 2018, reached the death toll of eighty-eight (88) women murdered in Ecuador for reasons of gender, that is, a mortal victim every four days.
This behavior of President Moreno, besides being a carrier of prejudice and discrimination, is detrimental to Human Rights and constitutes punishable offenses both in the laws of both countries and in the international sphere, for which Venezuela holds the citizen President of the Republic of Ecuador and the State it directs, as responsible for any infraction against the physical, moral and citizen integrity of the Venezuelan nationals who are in that country.
Consequently, the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela denounces and rejects the decision of the Ecuadorian government to create what it has called «brigades to control the legal situation of Venezuelans», a measure confessedly derived from the criminalization of Venezuelan nationality, as constituting a patron of violation of human rights, as it is a generalized and systematic attack against a community with its own identity based on political, racial, national, ethnic or cultural reasons, for which reason the Venezuelan State reserves the decision to go to the authorities international organizations seeking to determine the responsibilities that correspond within the framework of international law.
President Moreno’s statement instigated a spiral of xenophobic violence against the Venezuelan migrant community in Ecuador, and it is the duty of his government to preserve the integrity and life of Venezuelans and Venezuelan women».
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