**Diary from Guasdualito, Venezuela**

June 2008

By: Joakim Daun

I wake up in my bunk bed at the church hostel. I am staying here until I can find an apartment. I thought I would stay in this room for a week but is already been a month. Before I arrived in Venezuela I was told there was place to waiting for me and I have the money from the Swedish Cooperation Agency and everything, but things are complicated here. I can´t find a place to rent because in Guasdualito there aren´t any “to rent signs”, because people are afraid who might come and rent. They are afraid that person that wants to rent is working for the guerilla. Last week I went to see one apartment together with one of the local staff from the organization I work with, and it was not an easy process.

When we arrive there is no one there. The guy was supposed to meet us outside the apartment he is nowhere to see. We ask around on the street if they have heard of a place to rent but no one knows anything. Then finally someone tells us that yes there is a place to rent not too far away from there. I turns out the guy was right there watching us the whole time.

Then the he starts questioning us. Who are you?, what are you doing here? How many people will live in the apartment? For how long? Are we going to bring more people? I had hoped to see the place first…. Eventually he feels he can trust us and he calls a woman that needs to approve that he can let us in. Yes, it is okay, he opens up and we get to see the place. Everything here has to be put in the context of the security situation. I was hoping to buy myself a cell-phone here, but after standing in line for over an hour, the woman at the cell-phone store tells me I need a Venezuelan identity card to be able to buy a phone. I insist and ask to speak to her manager and for her to show in written where it says that they cannot sell to foreigners. I also tell her that what she is doing is discrimination. She tells me she is busy and putts a pair of headphones in her ears and starts sorting some papers. Later at the office they tell me that what she did was wrong, but that is the way works here because of the big influx of Colombians. Supposedly, they come over and buy all the cell phones and then sell them cheaper in Colombia.

It is 7.00 am and I go for a run before the heat gets unbearable. I also pass by the outside gym. There is only one gym in town, and normally it opens at 8 am but I managed to talk to the guy that manages it so that I can come before I start working at 8. When I come back it is already 35 degrees Celsius and I am happy to take my cold shower. Here I don´t even ponder over the fact that I don´t have hot water; showering is cooling down more than anything else.

Guasdualito is situated south of the capital Caracas and the bus ride from Caracas takes about 14 hours. The small town is situated in the Venezuelan country side only 30 km from Colombia. It is called cowboy land for two reasons, first, because of all the farming and the big cattle industry and secondly because here the state has been absent for a long time and conflicts are solved by the guerilla groups and through hired killings.

The region has to types of weather extreme heat or rain. When it rains the streets get flooded but at least afterwards the air is cooler and almost fresh. Also the rain makes the street cleaner from insects. By the evening of a really hot day the street gets covered in black, from bugs, cockroaches and all other kinds of insects. You here the crushing sound under your sandals when you walk and I have gotten used to it, but I still don´t like what I refer to as the monster cockroaches that are the size of your palm.

When I get to the office there is already a lot of movement, the refugees come and enter as any other person in the office. Before working with the Jesuit Refugee Service I interned at the UN agency for refugees (UNHCR) and they have very clear security rules and if you pass by their office here they have locked gates and you have to announce your visit.

At the SJR it is different. Someone knocks on the door and you open and great the person, may it be your co-worker, the guy that comes fix the computers or an asylum seeker. At SJR they don´t differentiate. Sometimes I think it is weird, especially, since we are in a very dangerous area with presence of illegal armed groups such as the FARC, ELN and FBL. Moreover, about 180 people get killed yearly by bounty hunters (hired killings). I have been told not to walk alone after 10 pm or at all. It is a strange feeling because you don´t see anything more than lots of Venezuelan military officers everywhere, but they tell me that any of those civilians can be a person working for the guerilla. So one must be careful with who one talks to and what you tell them.

The Catholic Church is powerful here and has a lot respect and I always say I work with the church because then no one will hassle you or question what you I am doing here.

The direct contact with the refugees is beautiful. As I am starting up my laptop an old thin man comes in the door and smiles at me. He walks right up to me and shakes my hand and smiles and says” how have you been?” I have only met this man once before a few days ago in the office but he greets me as if we had known each other for a long time. The humbleness of these people is amazing. I can´t do anything else but smile back and greet him. Although last time he was here he was coming to get approved for a microcredit loan for a business he wants to start up, this time he says he only came to see how we are doing. I am astonished, these people often live far away and don´t have much income but still he comes to chit chat for half an hour. Most likely he had some errand in town, but still.

However, I don´t always feel that welcome here. I have lived in several Latin American countries and I feel that one of the characteristics for these countries is that the people are extremely friendly and kind and open. The same day you meet them they can invite you to their house for lunch or dinner. But Guasdualito is different; here people don´t talk to me unless they have to. Due to the security situation in the region people are suspicious of all strangers even more so with white foreigners. Although at the moment me and my Swedish co-worker Sara seems to be the only Europeans here, I know there have been other Swedes here before me. Still I am met with a lot suspicious and curious looks wherever I go.

When you go to the store the clerk answer you with the monotonic “a la orden” (at your service), not like in Costa Rica for example where they always give you a smile and say “Con mucho gusto” (with lots of pleasure). But it is also the way they say it, I was hoping to get a friendly smile from the persons at local bread store where I go to buy my bread several times a week, but they always answers me with same polite but distant “al la orden”.

The exception is the Arabs as they call them. Strangely enough Guasdualito, which is a very remote town, has a large immigration of Arabs and Chinese. Basically all the grocery stores are owned by the Chinese and the Arabs own the bread shops. The Arabs are friendlier and don’t seem that suspicious, they ask me where I come from and what I do here but with a smile.

Colombia is close, only one hour away in bus. The first time I crossed the border to go to Arauca, which is the first town on the other side of the border; I was a little bit nervous about the immigration asking me about my business crossing the border. But nothing. There is not even a passport control; here the commerce is so strong that putting up border controls would be counterproductive. The only thing that separates the two countries is a river that you cross over a bridge in less than 30 seconds. At no point did I show my passport.

However, they do stop cars to check for possible smuggling. People smuggle gasoline from Venezuela to Colombia. Venezuela is an oil country and the gasoline is heavily subsidized by the government and to fill up the tank you pay liter amazingly little, only about 3 USD (20 SEK). It is cheaper than anything else; in general Venezuela is a very expensive country, even more so, for a foreigner because President Chavez has recently changed their currency from Bolivares to Bolivares Fuertes (strong), and took away three zeros and the end of the bills. Meaning 1000 Bolivares is now 1 Bolivar Fuerte. For the local people there is no change, things are equally expensive, but for foreigners things have become even more expensive because the currency is overvalued at a fixed rate to the USD and the government has put a limit on how much USD you can take out per year and you can only bring in 1000 USD from outside.

A Venezuelan can only take out 5000 USD per year with a paid plan ticket as proof that they are going to travel and therefore needs the money. Thus, everything is very expensive here and a lunch can easily cost you 10 USD, in the capital Caracas you have to pay even more, whereas in the neighboring countries you can buy a lunch for 2-4 USD. The only thing that has remained cheap is the gasoline. And they Venezuelans will tell you just that, “at least we have cheap gas”. Critics on the other hand say that “gasoline doesn’t feed the hungry.”

Although crossing the border to Colombia and going back on the same day is surprisingly trouble-free, riding the bus to other neighboring towns on the Venezuelan side can be hassle. Last time I went to San Cristóbal, the biggest town in the region about 5 hours away, the bus was stopped three times. Once we all had to get off the bus and they searched through the entire luggage. The other two times people were asked to present their documents and I as a foreigner had to get off the bus twice to be asked about my business here. I guess it doesn´t help that on my passport picture I have long hair almost to my shoulders and right now I have basically no hair at all.

I thought my “Visa de Cortesia” would be in my favor, obtaining my visa to come to Venezuela was remarkably easy since the organization I was going to work for is affiliated to the church our visa applications were processed the same day and we never paid any fee, and the our visa is “a friend visa” (visa the cortesia), that you supposedly can only get if you are friends with Chavez, but the local military officers didn’t seem to care much about that, and over and over I had to tell him that I work as a volunteer for the church in Guasdualito but after harassing me for a while they let me get on the bus again.

This made me realize the situation that the asylum seekers are in; most of them don’t have passports. The majority are poor illiterate farmers who have never thought about getting a passport. They crossed the border because they were threatened to death or had family members killed by the guerilla or the paramilitaries. My job here at the Jesuit Refugee Service is “incidencia” which could be translated into advocacy or influence and I am here to strengthen the organization in this area and this includes promoting refugee rights and human rights in media, making the authorities aware of the law and raise awareness in the community to create an environment that is less xenophobic and more accepting to refugees. The situation in Venezuela for an asylum seekers or a refugee in Venezuela is complex. On hand asylum seekers in Venezuela have more rights than in many countries. For example they can go to school for free and have right to free health care. On the other hand Venezuela is among the worst countries in the world to process asylum applications and even if the law says an asylum seeker shall get his decision from the National Commission, (the government body responsible for handling and deciding upon asylum applications) within 6 months, in reality it takes 1-5 years. Last year only 8 per cent of the cases that applied for asylum were given an answer.

This means that the rest of the people will have to live in Venezuela several years without knowing if they will be allowed to stay or not and without any type of identity card which means that they are excluded from many benefits and services. The only thing they are given is “a provisional document” which is a paper that says they are in the process of applying for asylum., which most of them time is not respected by the authorities.

According to Venezuelan law, which is in line with International norms, an asylum seeker has the right to legally reside in Venezuelan territory during his application process and cannot be detained or be deported (non-refoulment). However, the reality is much different and the gap between the law and practice is immense. Just like they military officers stopped me they stop Colombia refugees. At least I had a passport, but these people only have a piece of paper and most authorities are totally ignorant to the rights that these people have.

A few days ago a woman came into the office crying in despair. She tells us how her husband, a Colombian who has applied for asylum but is waiting for his response, was traveling to another state in central Venezuela when the bus was stopped by the National Guard at 2 am in the morning. They search the bus and ask all the passengers for their identity card and when they notice that the man is a foreigner they ask him for his passport. But he does not have one, he does have his provisional document and a permission to travel issued by the local Technical Secretary.

Nevertheless the two officers from the National Guard, strips the man of his clothes and humiliates him for over an hour before they let him on the bus again. The ignorance from Police and military about the law on asylum is widespread and abuse is common. That is why my job at SJR can play a very important role in trying to educate the police and military on the Venezuelan laws and international laws on the rights of the asylum seekers and refugees. And that is why I am here to strengthen this part of their work…

I have just been able to open my e-mail to read a message from the headquarters in Caracas, when the power goes out. Since all windows are covered to avoid that it gets too hot inside the office there is no natural light and the office gets dark. It also gets intolerably hot because at the office we do have one air conditioner and a fans but when they stop working the temperature goes up to about 40 degrees Celsius. I am sweating like crazy and we all grab a plastic chair and take a seat outside. There is not much we can do.

The power cuts are frequent, almost every day and often for a few hours. Mostly in the evenings and it is quite amusing how the whole town goes dark. Here and there you will find a little store that has a generator and still can provide light but in general the whole town is covered in darkness. When the power is not out often there is no water. The worst is if they coincide. I think I prefer the darkness because you can survive without electricity but water is essential. Going a whole day without washing yourself in 35 degree heat is not pleasant. At least now I have learned to bunker up with candles and a bucket of water at my apartment so that when the power goes and there is no water I can still take a bath and sit down and read a book with the light from the candles. Everyone at the office sit down outside and we decide to buy an ice cream from a street vendor that passes by and make use of the time to discuss the upcoming event for the World Refugee Day.

So, I guess it is not too bad; after all we are sitting in the shade and eating ice cream while working. When we come back from lunch 2 hours later there power is already back.