Never, in our more than 200 years of our history, have we had a situation like this. On the contrary, our country has always been a recipient: Arabs, Syrian-Lebanese; Spaniards, Portuguese and Italians; Colombians, Peruvians, Ecuadorians, Bolivians, Caribbean; ArgentinesArgentinians, Chileans and Uruguayans. We received all of them with open arms, they joined us, they integrated, they contributed to the country.
The government of President Chávez regularized the situation of the migrants and refugees who resided with us in theour homeland. The 1999 Constitution established, for the first time, dual nationality; after then, residence and nationality would be given to millions of immigrants and refugees who were in an irregular situation in the country, most of them poor, vulnerable.
InDuring those years, we had a truly humanist and Bolivarian government. Now, however, we only expect reciprocity from our brothers. Venezuelans, the sons of Bolivar, the same ones who welcomed them with open arms when they had problems, need the solidarity and brotherhood, the warmth, affection and understanding of the brotherly peoples of the region.
The diaspora is a reality that has profoundly impacted our society. Our people are torn apart; families are separated families, the old ones stayed in the country; single mothers and fathers, the elderly, they are all vulnerable in this tragedy of madurismMadurism. The boys, the young people, of all kinds and colors, had to leave a country where one cannot live, where the citizen is suffocated by an incapable and totalitarian government, where daily life is a feat, a country is being more and more impoverished, ruined, without institutions, without hope, without possibilities of advancement.