Venezuela’s Acting President, Delcy Rodríguez, has called for the return of Venezuelan citizens currently residing outside the country, asserting that “it is time for you to return to your homeland” so that you may be “recognized.”
The leader—who maintained that Venezuelans who have left the country have been “severely battered by xenophobia” and “deprived of their essential human rights”—issued an appeal for them to return to Venezuela. “It is time for you to return. The country needs you,” she affirmed.
After noting that Venezuelan migrants have fallen victim to attacks and faced employment-related hardships, she offered her support and highlighted that Venezuela has long functioned as a “host nation that has welcomed communities from various countries.”
“We have been a country that knows how to coexist with migrants; yet, our own migrants who crossed borders did not encounter a people like the Venezuelans. Instead, they encountered populations that rejected them and exploited them. That is why we say to these migrants: it is time for you to return,” she clarified, according to reports from the television network Globovisión.
For years, Venezuela has maintained its “Vuelta a la Patria” (Return to the Homeland) plan, through which thousands of people have returned—many of them after having been previously deported from U.S. territory to third countries.
Nearly 7.9 million people have left Venezuela in search of protection and a better life, according to data from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR); the vast majority—6.7 million—have been taken in by other Latin American and Caribbean nations.
