QUITO, Ecuador — Ecuador has withdrawn from a regional bloc led by Venezuela in a bid to further distance itself from that country’s socialist government.

Foreign minister Jose Valencia said on Thursday that Ecuador has decided to abandon the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America, or ALBA, immediately because Ecuador wants to be “independent” of organizations that are trying to impose “specific views” on Latin America’s social and political issues.

ALBA was created in 2004 by the late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez in a bid to counter U.S. influence in the region. It currently has 12 members that include Nicaragua, Bolivia, Cuba and several small Caribbean islands.

Ecuador was once a close ally of Venezuela but relations have soured since Lenin Moreno, a centrist, replaced leftist President Rafael Correa. </s> The Ecuadorian government is asking 13 other South American nations to attend a regional summit to discuss the Venezuelan migrant crisis.

The foreign ministry said it was inviting Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Costa Rica, Chile, Mexico, Peru, Paraguay, Panama, Dominican Republic, Uruguay and Venezuela to a Sept. 17-18 meeting in Quito.

According to the United Nations, more than 2 million Venezuelans have fled the worsening economic crisis in the oil-rich nation since 2014.

Desperate migrants have been fleeing through neighboring Colombia to countries like Ecuador and Peru in search of work.

The International Monetary Fund is forecasting that Venezuela’s inflation could reach 1 million percent by the end of the year, sparking regional concern that the migrant crisis will only get worse.

Last week, Ecuador and Peru announced new rules blocking entry to Venezuelans traveling without a passport. Most poor Venezuelans don’t have passports, which take months to obtain and cost hundreds of dollars.

Brazil sent troops to its northern border on Sunday after residents there burned a Venezuelan migrant camp.

Ecuador’s deputy migration minister, Santiago Chavez, said it was important to establish policies to “confront in the best manner and most responsible way, the unusual flux of Venezuelan citizens.”

The United Nations refugee agency estimates about 550,000 Venezuelans have entered Ecuador in 2018 but claims that only 20 percent of those remain, with the rest continuing on to Peru and Chile. [Read More]

 

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 Source: VOA News: Science and Technology </s> The Ecuadorian government is asking 13 other South American nations to attend a regional summit to discuss the Venezuelan migrant crisis.

The foreign ministry said it was inviting Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Costa Rica, Chile, Mexico, Peru, Paraguay, Panama, Dominican Republic, Uruguay and Venezuela to a Sept. 17-18 meeting in Quito.

According to the United Nations, more than 2 million Venezuelans have fled the worsening economic crisis in the oil-rich nation since 2014.

Desperate migrants have been fleeing through neighboring Colombia to countries like Ecuador and Peru in search of work.

The International Monetary Fund is forecasting that Venezuela’s inflation could reach 1 million percent by the end of the year, sparking regional concern that the migrant crisis will only get worse.

Last week, Ecuador and Peru announced new rules blocking entry to Venezuelans traveling without a passport. Most poor Venezuelans don’t have passports, which take months to obtain and cost hundreds of dollars.

Brazil sent troops to its northern border on Sunday after residents there burned a Venezuelan migrant camp.

Ecuador’s deputy migration minister, Santiago Chavez, said it was important to establish policies to “confront in the best manner and most responsible way, the unusual flux of Venezuelan citizens.”

The United Nations refugee agency estimates about 550,000 Venezuelans have entered Ecuador in 2018 but claims that only 20 percent of those remain, with the rest continuing on to Peru and Chile. [Read More]

 

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 Source: VOA News: Education </s> The Ecuadorian government is asking 13 other South American nations to attend a regional summit to discuss the Venezuelan migrant crisis.

The foreign ministry said it was inviting Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Costa Rica, Chile, Mexico, Peru, Paraguay, Panama, Dominican Republic, Uruguay and Venezuela to a Sept. 17-18 meeting in Quito.

According to the United Nations, more than 2 million Venezuelans have fled the worsening economic crisis in the oil-rich nation since 2014.

Desperate migrants have been fleeing through neighboring Colombia to countries like Ecuador and Peru in search of work.

The International Monetary Fund is forecasting that Venezuela’s inflation could reach 1 million percent by the end of the year, sparking regional concern that the migrant crisis will only get worse.

Last week, Ecuador and Peru announced new rules blocking entry to Venezuelans traveling without a passport. Most poor Venezuelans don’t have passports, which take months to obtain and cost hundreds of dollars.

Brazil sent troops to its northern border on Sunday after residents there burned a Venezuelan migrant camp.

Ecuador’s deputy migration minister, Santiago Chavez, said it was important to establish policies to “confront in the best manner and most responsible way, the unusual flux of Venezuelan citizens.”

The United Nations refugee agency estimates about 550,000 Venezuelans have entered Ecuador in 2018 but claims that only 20 percent of those remain, with the rest continuing on to Peru and Chile. [Read More]

 

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 Source: VOA News: Disasters and Accidents </s> The democratic challenge to dictatorships and xenophobia in Latin America

During the conference entitled The democratic challenge to the autocracies of the 21st century in Latin America, organized by the Center for the Opening and Development of Latin America (CADAL) on Tuesday at the Senate of Uruguay, the Government of Venezuela was described as a dictatorship and it was exhorted that the democratic governments of the region, especially the Uruguayan government, not be indifferent or accomplices against today’s Latin America’s autocratic governments.

The panel, made up of Uruguayan and Venezuelan parliamentarians and regional authorities, debated the democratic clauses of the different institutional organisms in the continent in the face of the erosion of the rule of law and the autocratic governments of Latin America at present. Special emphasis was placed on the cases of Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba.

Venezuela is a country that is beginning to be closed from outside; the region begins to close the doors, says Jorge Gandini, president of the lower house of the Congress of Uruguay during the conference in reference to the new migration rules adopted by the governments of Peru and Ecuador and the tensions with the northern border state of Roraima, in Brazil.

Gandini explains that, unlike the Government of Cuba, which closed its doors from within decades ago, Venezuela is beginning to isolate itself in the region as there is the possibility that millions of people, seeking to flee from the deep economic crisis, will cause problems to the fragile socioeconomic stability in nearby countries.

According to the United Nations Organization for Migration (IOM), around 2.3 million Venezuelans have emigrated due to the economic crisis the country is experiencing.

At least a million of them have passed through Colombian territory since the beginning of 2017, of which more than half million have traveled by land to Ecuador, Peru, Chile and Argentina after extensive bus trips or even on foot.

Peru has become one of the main destinations for this migratory movement due to the migratory facilities that have occurred with the last governments. According to the United Nations Agency for Refugees (UNHCR) only in 2018 the Peruvian government has already received 90,000 asylum applications from Venezuelans.

However, in recent months there have been outbreaks of xenophobia among some sectors of societies in certain recipient countries.

During the conference both Gandini and Uruguayan deputy Rodrigo Goñi, both from the National Party (Uruguay), expressed their concern regarding the position of the Uruguayan Government against that of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

Unfortunately, we have a government that has been indifferent against Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba, Goñi said, pointing out that the Uruguayan government has become equally an accomplice of governments that are responsible for deaths and violations of Human Rights.

The government of Uruguayan President Tabaré Vázquez has been characterized by not defining a strong position in the face of the democratic crises that Venezuela and Nicaragua are going through. The Uruguayan chancellery has repeatedly expressed that it opposes any illegal act of violence with political ends in Venezuela. However, the chancellery has not spoken out about the investigation of the International Criminal Court (ICC), which is investigating the use of excessive force by the State security forces and the use of violent means to repress the protesters, according to the announcement of the ICC prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda in February.

The political position that Uruguay has taken in the face of the political crisis in Nicaragua, which has left between 317 and 448 people killed since April according to humanitarian organizations, is somewhat different from the one it has taken against the former President Hugo Chávez’s country. The Uruguayan government has adhered to the positions of the countries of the region that condemn the government of Daniel Ortega, urging his government to stop the attacks against the demonstrators.

However, regarding the migratory aspect, Uruguay has been characterized as a friendly recipient of the Venezuelan migratory flow, despite the fact that the number of Venezuelan residents on Uruguayan soil did not exceed 13,000 at the beginning of 2018. On July 26, The International Labor Organization (ILO) stressed that the Uruguayan legislation on immigration is a model to replicate in other countries.

Diego Cabrita, representative of the civil society of help to the immigrant in Uruguay Veneguayos, indicates that the number of cases of Venezuelans with problems of paperwork has diminished since the migratory norms have become more flexible.

For PARLASUR parliamentarian for Venezuela, William Dávila, it is necessary to be forceful against Maduro's government, which cares little that migrants cause problems of instability in the countries of the region. However, it is unconstitutional to limit the circulating right in the region to Venezuelans, demanding documents that are difficult to access in Venezuela such as the passport.

Dávila indicates that the PARLASUR should urge the governments of the region to respect the treaties that gave rise to Mercosur, respecting the fact that the Identity Card is a legal document to move from one country to another in the continent.

However, the migration issue thanks to the Venezuelan exodus has not stopped becoming a political, boiling issue in the region.

After the riots in which locals burned the belongings of 1,200 Venezuelans in the border town of Pacaraima, between Venezuela and Brazil; and where 25% of the inhabitants are Venezuelans and live in tents between bus stations and abandoned houses in the area, Brazilian politicians from the state of Roraima have once again called for the closure of the federal government's borders with the support of communities driven by a wave migration that has oversaturated the health system and the services of a state with little infrastructure. Turning, for the first time in history, Venezuelan migrants into political material which can be attacked with the support of the nascent xenophobia in the region. </s> The Ecuadorian government is asking 13 other South American nations to attend a regional summit to discuss the Venezuelan migrant crisis.

The foreign ministry said it was inviting Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Costa Rica, Chile, Mexico, Peru, Paraguay, Panama, Dominican Republic, Uruguay and Venezuela to a Sept. 17-18 meeting in Quito.

According to the United Nations, more than 2 million Venezuelans have fled the worsening economic crisis in the oil-rich nation since 2014.

Desperate migrants have been fleeing through neighboring Colombia to countries like Ecuador and Peru in search of work.

The International Monetary Fund is forecasting that Venezuela's inflation could reach 1 million percent by the end of the year, sparking regional concern that the migrant crisis will only get worse.

Last week, Ecuador and Peru announced new rules blocking entry to Venezuelans traveling without a passport. Most poor Venezuelans don't have passports, which take months to obtain and cost hundreds of dollars.

Brazil sent troops to its northern border on Sunday after residents there burned a Venezuelan migrant camp.

Ecuador's deputy migration minister, Santiago Chavez, said it was important to establish policies to "confront in the best manner and most responsible way, the unusual flux of Venezuelan citizens."

The United Nations refugee agency estimates about 550,000 Venezuelans have entered Ecuador in 2018 but claims that only 20 percent of those remain, with the rest continuing on to Peru and Chile. </s> Latin American ministers met Monday to end the massive Venezuelan migrant crisis that has jolted the region, as Venezuela's government accused the United Nations of exaggerating the situation to justify "international intervention."

The delegates from 13 regional nations were seeking outside funding as they discussed in Quito a common solution to regularize the situation of hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans who have migrated due to a situation whose very existence Caracas denies.

Venezuelans who immigrate "are highly vulnerable to human trafficking, the smuggling of migrants, labor exploitation, lack of access to social security, extortion, violence, sexual abuse, recruitment for criminal activities, discrimination and xenophobia," said Ecuadoran Deputy Foreign Minister Andres Teran.

The two-day meeting in Quito precedes extraordinary talks at the Organization of American States set to begin Wednesday to discuss the same issue.

Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodriguez said the government had complained to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres that "individual officials" have been portraying "a normal migratory flow as a humanitarian crisis to justify an intervention."

The UN says 1.6 million Venezuelans since 2015 have fled economic meltdown in the country, which has been hit by shortages of basic necessities such as food and medicine.

Venezuela is in a fourth year of recession while the International Monetary Fund has predicted inflation in the South American country will reach one million percent this year.

The flood of migrants abandoning their country to seek a better life elsewhere has left countries such as Colombia, Brazil, Ecuador and Peru creaking under the strain.

In addition to discussing a common regulatory framework, Latin American nations are seeking to show the impact that the massive arrival of migrants has on various countries' finances.

Argentina's envoy Dario Giustozzi stressed the need to "unify" document requirements for Venezuelans, who depending on the nation must present a certificate, passport or visa.

The delegates from Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Chile, Ecuador, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Dominican Republic and Uruguay are scheduled to issue a joint statement on Tuesday.

The UN's representative in Ecuador, Arnaud Peral, celebrated the regional effort and urged international donors to continue contributing.

The United States, a fierce critic of Nicolas Maduro's government, has already disbursed aid to Colombia and Brazil to handle the Venezuelan influx, while Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced last week European funding of 35 million euros ($40 million).

Most Venezuelan migrants have traveled to Colombia, Ecuador and Peru, but only Colombia has temporarily regularized some 820,000 Venezuelans.

With the exception of Bolivia and Nicaragua, most governments in the region reject the Maduro government as a dictatorship and blame it for the crisis.

At the same time, countries like Colombia are seeking greater international pressure to make way for a democratic transition.

Speaking at a press conference, Rodriguez said UN officials had been using data from "enemy countries" and presenting it "as if it was their own."

Rodriguez didn't identify who those officials or enemy states were, though.

"The worst humanitarian crisis the world is going through right now is that cause by NATO and European Union countries in Africa and the Middle East," added Rodriguez, who called on top EU diplomat Federica Mogherini to stamp out "fake news."

She pointed to a new UN report that stated nearly 1,600 migrants had died or gone missing in 2018 on "the way to Europe."

Rodriguez branded neighboring Colombia "pimps" and claimed it is seeking international funds in order to use Venezuela to "live" off donations.

But Colombian President Ivan Duque, who will host his US counterpart Donald Trump in November, advocated for a strategy to "diplomatically isolate Maduro," but batted down any possible "military intervention" led by the United States. </s> RUMICHACA BRIDGE, (Reuters) – Thousands of Venezuelans overwhelmed the Ecuadorean-Colombian border high in the Andean mountains yesterday, as fears of border closings led to a sudden surge in migrants from the ravaged OPEC-member country.

Impoverished Vene-zuelans are fleeing food shortages, hyperinflation, and violent crime in their homeland, often taking days-long bus rides across South America because they cannot afford flights.

Ecuador’s government on Wednesday declared a state of emergency in three provinces due to a jump in Venezuelans who arrived through Colombia. Authorities said up to 4,500 Venezuelans had crossed daily since the weekend, up from around 500 to 1,000 people previously.

Almost a dozen Venezuelans at the Rumichaca bridge, which divides the Ecuadorean-Colombian border, told Reuters they pushed forward their emigration out of fear that the porous Colombian-Venezuelan border, which most migrants cross at the start of their odyssey across South America, could be closed.

“There were rumours that the border with Venezuela was going to be shut and I left early to avoid getting stuck,” said Irene Bravo, 55, sitting on the ground surrounded by big bags as she waited to get her passport stamped by Colombian authorities.

“The situation is unsustainable in Venezuela. Everything is expensive and you cannot afford to eat,” added Bravo, who planned to continue on to Chile with her two sons and extended family.

Around her, tired children slept on suitcases and adults huddled under flimsy blankets to try to ward off the cold mountain temperatures.

Some Venezuelans said they had heard Colombia’s new president, right-wing Ivan Duque, could toughen border crossings, while others said they feared leftist Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro would.

Duque is more hardline than his predecessor, centrist Juan Manuel Santos, but he has not mentioned anything about closing the border and stressed during his inauguration on Tuesday that Colombia had a duty to help its “Venezuelan brothers.”

It was not clear what precipitated the rumour. It was not immediately possible to reach the Colombian government and Venezuela’s Information Ministry did not respond to a request for comment.

In the middle of the commotion at the border, musician Jose Ramon Sanchez played the harp, instantly cheering up his fellow Venezuelans who clapped at the sound of the traditional music from the grasslands and shouted “Out with Maduro!”

“Playing the harp helps me calm the pain of having left my family,” said Sanchez, 37, who left Venezuela’s state of Barinas on July 23 and has been performing songs along the way to pay his way to Peru. </s> Ecuador has declared a state of emergency in three northern states after a large influx of migrants from crisis-ridden Venezuela entered the country via Colombia.

The move is intended to help establish the infrastructure to support the new arrivals, who do not have humanitarian refugee status in Ecuador, as they do in some other Latin American countries.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Human Mobility said in a statement on Wednesday that in recent days, the number of Venezuelans arriving daily had risen to 4,200 and a contingency plan is needed to assist them.

Santiago Chavez, the vice minister of human mobility, said the plan would "give an effective and forceful response in benefit of the preservation of those entering Ecuadorian territory".

As part of the contingency plan, extra immigration officials will be hired and more doctors, social workers and psychologists will be sent to the Carchi, Pinchincha and El Oro provinces along Ecuador's border with Colombia, to assist sick and vulnerable migrants.

International aid organisations will also assist in the efforts by providing tents, water and food.

This is the first time a state of emergency has been declared in these provinces. It will stay in place until at least the end of August.

Special measures

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A number of Latin American countries are introducing special measures to cope with migration from Venezuela, which is led by President Nicolas Maduro and is suffering from ongoing political, social and economic crises.

In August, former Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, granted 440,000 Venezuelan refugees temporary residency permits, which allow them to study, work and get medical care in Colombia.

Brazil declared a state of emergency in May and briefly closed its northern border with Venezuela on Tuesday.

Argentina has taken in some 31,167 Venezuelans under a law that allows foreign nationals to remain in the country "when there are exceptional reasons of a humanitarian nature".

Uncertainty in the country

Meanwhile, Venezuela's pro-Maduro Constituent Assembly revoked the immunity of opposition lawmakers Julio Borges and Juan Requesens for allegedly masterminding what the president called an assassination attempt against him.

Requesens was seized by intelligence officers overnight, while Venezuela's Supreme Court ordered Borges' arrest.

Maduro said in a broadcast that Borges was living in neighbouring Colombia.

A drone loaded with explosives on Saturday detonated near a military event where Maduro was giving a speech. The president escaped unharmed but seven people were wounded.

Attorney General Tarek William Saab said moves were being made to put Requesens on trial, while Maduro is pressing Colombia and the US to extradite opposition figures, including Borges.

Borges, who on Tuesday attended the swearing-in of Colombia's new president, Ivan Duque, called Maduro's accusation against him "a farce."

Translation: Nicolas Maduro you have accused me of the economic war, of the cash crisis, of the hyperinflation, of the generalised scarcity.. And now of the farce of the attack? You do not cheat anyone. You are the only one to blame for the tragedy of the country, Borges wrote in Twitter.

.@NicolasMaduro me has acusado de la guerra económica, de la crisis del efectivo, de la hiperinflación, de la escasez generalizada, de trata de blancas ¿Y ahora de la farsa del atentado? No engañas a nadie. El único culpable de la tragedia del país eres tú. — Julio Borges (@JulioBorges) August 8, 2018

These events came as Venezuela's economy continues to struggle, the International Monetary Fund projects inflation could top 1 million percent this year.

The currency has fallen 99.99 percent against the US dollar on the black market since Maduro came to power in April 2013.

Many Venezuelans are choosing to leave their country as the recession is now entering its fifth year.

Maduro blames the crisis on an economic war led by opposition leaders with the help of Washington, which last year levied several rounds of sanctions against his administration.
Ecuador leaves the Bolivarian alliance of nations run in Latin America, citing the behaviour of the Venezuelan government in several areas including attempting to impose Chavism in America, creating major crises, and ineffectual control of migration.