Brazil says border will stay open
Influx of thousands from Venezuela sparks anti-migrant ire
SAO PAULO — Brazil won’t close its border with Venezuela, despite tensions that led to attacks on migrants who had fled to the border town of Pacaraima, an official said Monday.
Institutional Security Minister Gen. Sergio Etchegoyen told a news conference that closing the border would be illegal and wouldn’t help ease the situation in the border town.
Residents of Pacaraima attacked Venezuelan immigrants on Saturday after a local storeowner was robbed, stabbed and beaten in an assault the Brazilians blamed on four immigrants.
“The closing of the border is unthinkable because it is illegal,” Etchegoyen said.
Political and economic turmoil has driven tens of thousands of Venezuelans across the border.
Roraima state Gov. Suely Campos has pressured Brazil’s federal government and judicial authorities to close the border with Venezuela or send help.
On Sunday, Campos requested that Brazil’s top court temporarily suspend the immigration of Venezuelans into Brazil. There is no date for a court decision on the case, but a similar request was denied in April.
“Unfortunately it took a violent episode for the federal government to understand it needs to face this issue in an effective way,” Campos said in a statement on Monday.
Camila Asano, a director at Sao Paulo-based human rights organization Conectas, said campaign trail rhetoric is one of the reasons for Saturday’s violence.
“Federal and local authorities don’t know what to do and are feeding this conflict with populist suggestions to close the border and establish quotas,” Asano told The Associated Press. “Sending Venezuelans to other states doesn’t solve the whole problem because many will stay in Roraima anyway because they are closer to the border, to their families.”
In a document filed with Roraima authorities, Campos said there is risk of “bloodshed” in Pacaraima and “the chaos is a result of the omission of the federal government.”
Etchegoyen said closing the border “wouldn’t help with the humanitarian situation in any way.”