RESEARCH PAPER ON UNDOCUMENTED COLOMBIANS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP08C01297R000700050030-9
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 27
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 28, 2012
• Sequence Number: 30
• Publication Date: April 14, 1972
• Content Type: CABLE

DEPT._121,.("TRIBUTION__16D ) at% I ? VI 4/1Z? I
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V.ARAC? A.113Q2
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CD tbe' alEllt of January 15, 1971, .44.1.7,t1.1r tempest In thc2
-relfAchs b0;w.)n Vencizu6La etd .ColcalbLAAlas Iri.ovokd when a df-.!tachizent'of
tho Ve;mzu0an tational Guard (the. bor6.,.:r .snd prison pe1le6) eiccer.16.er.1: 0
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? .t; :,01:ial;Ger shacks,
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?Barrio 24 jullo,' and arrested
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73 .12u
? 44
. reciacnts '(?Indencl.ltdo!..;')' who cou d
la'net prouce
. .
OM. ?????????? ? OM ..????? ?????????? ? ????????... ?? ?
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i.)atIon papers; tile inontados ;.fare., place. aboard .a bus and driven aw-ozr;
? ho deaort Glmjir3.reglial to the Colombin borde:7 town of Iacao. T1 Colo-
. .
pr.-.1ss reported that the merchants Or ivaicac,..who specialize in a?
?
had fast-crowing contrabna trc46 wl,th /3enezuo1a, took up a publle :
fw.7 the 15 men 13 women?i,,na 45 ohild'x'an who had?been tey.orsrlly
.4
oed ln schoolhOuso while tryins to arranso their return to Venezuela.
a 1
? In the recr1;zinations?. that fz.)1loweat tho Vi? nezuelan officia1 :110 ordc:ref.:
: !i;his pollee oration wds never identflea, Inded2 it seened contrary to
'present Vc;r1c:meion7policyr, which was to atudicusly avoid all sourec:s of
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fli.ct '41th .Co'!ombia while 'secret neeotiations-proceeded An. a t4.1 f4x unsuc-
eessful.4effol.t to not.tie an increasinsly- acrimonious territorial disut.zi be-
,.
twecn tne two nations over .the'ull-rich lands under the Gulf of Vehezv:ela,
of the Colombian indc,eumcntr,tclos. itself an unusual proedil
Se4.7 the cucto3oarlly tolore.nt Venezuelan polAce, was never rr)portc...d i .6*rle?V&--
ucan press until it became the ol)ject of bitter coxoent in Co1o2bian
pa,pers5 In an oftitorial printed three dayc later .El FATeetado'c of BoGot,-!....C.
?.
'The press reports of the attack of the Venezuelan National Gu3rJ,
wit.411ba7ioncts rifle butte,, aro latch mcire InIxt...e:3siv than the''ecnst..ant
?cuon of te problem of .t);e thoucands of our compatriots in the
cov.try.." in un.effOrt to ,show that 1;ho Cololuban
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.;;;IlellAn invIteA
to ::.::al'czosalbo atr; the
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6 a conenee, Sua?zoz 1:0.2.;:ro of
Cr,OCO Colot.1 e,3 ti
thc a:ne. ar:ote.:r
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? the rest of the state. ".(The question of this Great population fi.om the
litAGering eountry.has prosented.us with a major medical-welfare preblums to
the degree that the?greing-number of ColcmlAans receiving maternity and medi,
cal services in the hospitals 'of Maracaibo hs i diminished the possibility of
belpin Venezuelans's? 'Governor Suarez said s adding that the Colombians were
1t4 ,yrineipal orGanizers:of utban land invasions and composed the major nor-
.
tion of the inhabitants of ?the now squatter settlements surrounding Maracaibc-.-
In reply the ? Colombian Consul in .M*.racalbos Oscar Echeverria Mejiass told
1
v,:cporters the .next day that the mere faet..that 200,000. Colombians live in
ikaracalbo indicates that such Jinn= conglomrations an enormous majority of
it linked to the Zuldan economy4 would require .a heroic effort. robra de re-
f-
0
manosto -expel an woAld -cause .1nea1culable traumas of many kinds. The ox-
pulsion of Colombians from the Barrio 24 de Julio was so violent that many
?
persons. were taken to the frontier in their underclothes ..-Many .of them
were
[orcf-1 to leave their children behind. The most fortunate were able to take
Cheir childrens.but not their clothes and belongings. Yone of them wish to .703-
1 ,? - ':
!main:An Colombias because ? it-1S in Maracaibo where they have their intere?ts
)
,
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:which the authorities have not enabled them to recupprate.?J Row,--r. the
problemHwas explained in a much .broader scope by Venezuelan President Rafael
.'a.ldera'in 'a press conference a week laters3
?
)
\I
0 ...the hundreds of thousands of Colombians who dwell and work ln Vene-
zuela --most .Of them wihtout having filled the lec:al requlrer3ents.foz
entry Into our country,- are the bet testimony before the world .of the
cordiality and fraternity which we Venezuelans have always disnlayi7d
. tmlard -',Ilem,. ..Iobody has ever thont of expellini; these hundreds of thou-
sands of ColOnbianst although juridically it would, be unobjectionable....
Bul.:. the flowPf those cnterin ille;7ally has been until now uncon.i..rel-
able, If froM1 1960 to 1970 the number of illorralimmicr,rants, known as in-.
(1.0.ennt:Vi.0.! is calculated at several hundred thousands, this n.erIns
-'7.f.tns o-L'i thou2'ands have come each year; ctnd whoh one speaks of expelling
?0 or 100hor200 of them that continue i)onetratingt there are those who
pretend' tht Venezuela is comicl ittin inhuan deeds ['These ir.1.70.za.
1
co!a; ftpm ve..cy?;fart from Colombia's Pacific Coat, from the frnntle::. with
.
l':uirAorit p.,:.opiewho have made ion jotwneys ana vho create nrobic::.::.. -.Cor
.Colembir., ch as 'in 1,2aicnot such as when a f.roup of il1er..-,a1 1::2mirz,.nts
arOretmrneet there to Colombian coil and public o)inionils unduiv sn.rr2f1.
...,t arewarc.that.:this is an economic question that many Colombinns -
contribute witi their labor and effort to our dcv lor=nt process, but
',;1--J also ::.tr,,, :the ocnctin c),Ir.lriz 111,..ito (.):' money to Colo-?
_ .
thf1.1;..contribAtes io.ColobIa'sbalanco of payrIcats.."
The ,*(!searth. for this essay besan as a.stucV of the Inpact
, . ,
. ..% r. .
. .
the urban L.,rowth of.MaracalbOt but w.c1enod. in scope with.the diseove!ry th:.:t
- 4
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?,..._,.....,..... ..1-4%,:-..--k$. t::44 i'.0....4.34...-;.4.:;,.its
- .4..-.. I , 0.,.: .1.01 ier. k... l.::.,,.i..r/.,:t1.:1'; 2 0 6,1,10 0. :" ..i.,2 ( .... .. . 2, .
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1,;!....:rtc?A0MC.1.1, Jr 20%? ?./ v -4, .,- , ...._....,......._.
2071. P 91',-.:t P;:,,-.orLm!-...2 n.lraultbe Jan. ..)L-%A.,,,
lc;-..?.
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j. jn. 292 1971..?
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. urban grolz.t.h p5,:oblems of Maracaibo are those generated .by the arrival of 'rage.
4/ . .. .
numbsrs Of .Colombians. Tho impove...:otnoastion of Colola has re-
.0?
hiJtory. 3.1;sentially the present
,
vive0,its pastf.role as anc.eocnomio hinterland to Maracaibo and western Vene-
, ?
. ,
zuela,4gerIfulfilling a 1ea75ly-urbani7ed Venezuelaos ever .increasing de-
umnd fOr e.aop foodstu'ffsz:nd.ohoap labor, During atonth of tra7o1 lin western
?
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Venezuela cna ii the ooastal region of Colombia,' I vas able to intervicv a widc
vario:Jy of public officials . as 'veil as aany Colombian Indoeumentados in the .
squatter slulas of Maracaibo, in city jails in the rioh. banana region south of
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1.,14,3 Maracaibo, oh cattle ranches irkthe PorijaLdistiot that lies between the
aalzo and k.he mountain frontier with Colombia, Because of.the'clandestinc nature.
. . . . .
. .
of those mls: ns ficia
oatIo, ofl statbs cs ae 1
ftir galess and estimates
. ? . //ely mening .
pubjeot to wide tiargins of :error. Neverthelsso'it seems abundantly clear that
theso.migrations, together with.other.faotors, are presentli generating major
?
political'ana economic problems'bstween the two countries.
.The rolations*bstween' the two countries have always been intimate and ?
somewhat aub:s_suous. '211.o colonial -province of Maracaibo, containing one of the
richpst reserves of petroleum, erdbraced large portions of *what is now
Colothbian te-.oritory and.during tout of the 18th century was governed by 6. Vies,
roy in Bogotft. While Naraoalbe and.toSt of its Andean hinterland supported ths
royalist cause dUring the .Mars of Independence, they subsequently became part
,of the short-lived.Republie of Gran Colombia, which 1110:operated the present
(territories of Venezuela, Colombia and Ecuador before disintegrating in 1330,
after less than a decade of tenuous republican life, 'under the pressures
regional and leadership rivalries, (According- to the Pombo-Michelena Treaty-
.:igned in 1333, large portions of that is now Colombian territory, including
,
b).ombiaus access to the Gulf of Venezuola? would have been ceded to VenezuelT,
... /,?
ifowever, w".'1 .,...e the Colombian Congress ratified the treaty, the Venezulan Ccr-
7:csb did no thus leaving the way open for the present territorial dispute
.!
thti?; oll-ric:h continenti shelf lInclor the Gulf of Venezuela. During the
)civil wars of tho 19th centurlest thth irontior'arcas.of
scrved as 1-1.712',1 for inclpicni; and dc..%atcd factions in these fronucnt
7.
I. Lieu 000,.; (,,L.;. i.'ortoul, nisto.vo uc,1)...Atlit:I.oirLa. ,-.!e VPrcl., ;:.3.1 ;..divi:.::1,
Co.rocas. 19',:ivr. .1
Vol. 11. P, i()o. 1.1-:11.(.; '.,,,.1:.c.n. v) eonroos, ci.tr c1117 .*:.ts
..,.-r),'?,,.,... Ac):.i;.:.?::?.: ..?........; t ? ? rl- ,. ? . .7, .. . ? , ? . , . ,.. i ? - , ) .. '7'1 7 . . 1 1 ,f, "I, 01 .t ...4.. p rov:i.:.::i on::: o. C t. I': ,7`. t r : ?
.
in 1836 in?o':aer to block tho presiden.tial aspirations w.L.' Vone..44(-. pi-L.n..-.:.
nectlA.ox, '2orciun Minister 3.7.3htos
:.
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ropu'4:11.
--because of..the priwitivo? highways system, the most feasible way of traiPAInd-:'
?
? between MaracrAbo?ana. C9reoss Arryond.1950 wan by coastal stertmPr-- PCV-
. ,
--eral generations (4 youth from the Venezuelan Andes traveled to the Colombian
4
cities of A Pamplona and Bogo4,11 to be eaucatod, In his Venezuelan classic, Los
Andinos on el Poder91 Domingo Alberto. Banzol viv./..dly describes this symbiosis
. //
it flourished during the coffee prosprity>oround the tut'n of the cenIurys
? Ther.ltato of Tehira. in the Venezuoin Anak::3 wrts the nav,a vnitinr% thr
'zones of undeniable.imnortnnce, Alon .slopesiue forth the.
..wIlicys of Cacuta.(Colombia), D.-kind-6f geof-;rahic staircase
breath to the Colombian Andes, CdcutL4 Is the only passap:o that ean link
the reat Colombian highlands --and thir cities clf Boot6 and Ta.-.-
with the coast of Lake. *Naraealbo,...Arciving in TAchira lz a continuing
1=1gratipn of Colombians fro% the North of Santander Depart7aent. The
Colombian is a born. colonizer, Few farmers are. as adept a8 he in the rud-
est tasks of the earth. Patient and ingenious the Colombian knows howto
extract from the soil the best ...fruits and to elude the worst difriculties
But the r)lombian broup;ht to Tz..,chira, when he migrated .cn rn:7= in the
middle .the 19t11 century, that commercial spirit that inevitably shaped 'f.,1
thn character of .t.lcuta. A frontier city, in the midst of a tan5le of
valleys with openings that face Colombia's Mar;dalena Rivor to the south
and Lake laracaibe to the north, Clicuta has been a kind of Polish corri-
dor in the history of the relations between Venezucia,and Colobia lts.
streets are the necessary crossroads of people looking for so%lethinf.:1... the
mectingjplace of merchants and adventurers, In Cacuta there devioped a
class of merchants very similar to, those of Naracalbo in their -quick wits
U, nd deed greed, , ;
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:_;
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Today the commerce between Venezuela and Colombia, most of it in contra-
band, superficially resembles the economic relations between a developed and-ot
lutclerdeveloped country, Colombia exports to Venezuela cheap labor cattle
i-
(r)ughly 3009000 head per year) coffee, potatoes, textiles and finished clot!::.
Venezuelan 'contraband flowing into Colombia is mainly-in consumer durablo.
,
refrigerators, TV sets, washing machines, radios, canned foods, medicines and
?evn cannisters for compressed natural gas, HowevLs, nearly 'all of thosemenu-
4
11
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faetured goods are either imported into Venezuela or merely assembled there.
) -
While the legal trade between the two cauntries is officially registered by-
their central ?banks at about 12.5 million:2 the contraband traffic and remit-
tances home of Colombian indocumentados working in Venezuela probably amount
at least ::en times that figure, The smuggling of cattle, at roughly ")110 per
heed, isistlmted to be worth around :3.5 million nor year, If one om
from other kinds, of smuggling and the money sent home by indoc=cn:
could. be conservatively produced amounting to between 10. and 20 perccrnt of
le-c;tra,-;a8, i(iug-, pp. b-15.?
:Xavier 72,aena "El .Comereio Coll)mbo-Venezolano?"'in El Vnivcr,(3al.Crzc
29,,171, P, 2,
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i .Colombia's official 1970 export total. of .million.' Not suprisingly, little
ofithis cash ever flows through the Colombian banking system. Venezuelan boll-
.?
yars (US31 = Bs.4, 0) paid to?Colomblan merenants and cattlemen for contraban6.
goods arc promptly eenverted into dollars at bank wlndows in Venezuelan fron-
tier towns, thus avoiding.ColombiOs strict foreign exchange controls. The t:e::
?L'
private ,banks' in San Antonio, ;Venezuela, which is just across the border from
i?;-1
e.
the Colombian commercial center of Cdaut4 are reported to tall roughly '.3.00
million each year in dollars In this fashion' Likewise, most of the -oostal mon-
.
fay...orders sent to Colombia by indocumentadon working in Venezuela as farmhand
.aftd housemaids are cold on. the Colombian b4ek market and later negotiated in
:Venezuela in.the same way, Indeed, 'the most common reason 'given for both the
-contraband trade .and.the-migration?of indocumentados into Venezuela is the eve:
-widening difference in value, between the Colombian peso and the Venezuelan bol:
-var, With such a ?differeptial..between the two eurrenoies.and between the level
of.eonsuMption in the .two countries, an illiterate Colombian girl working il-
?
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legally as a;housemaid in Caracas can earn as much as a lawyer in her home towf
,and support her family, in Colombia with her savings.
Together with the widely diecubsed disparity between the. two currencies,
.7s- ?
'deeper motive, for the 1Crge-sea1e migrations of Golombians into Venezuela may
be seen in the aiffeiTent demographic extravaganzas in the two countries,-Vene-
,
zuelacs population has grown at an annual average rate of 2.9 percent in the
with'the death rate declining since 1936 from 16.1 tc
Since the 1936 census, Venezuela. has been transformed
..half-oentury 'since 1920,
16.6 per thousand today.
I by frs oil prosperity from a nation 65.3 percent rural to' one officially est
-
mated today at 77 percent urban .(persons living in places of more than 1,000
inhitants), one of the highest urbanization rates 'in the world. The propor-
tion of Venezuelans living in cities of more than 20,000 inhabitants has ris
6
meanwhile, from 13 percent in 1936 to 5ET..2 Percent today, tc.ithe degree that
1142.7 percent of its People are Concentrated now in its' 12 cities of more thnn
. ?
Colee.bia , began the .present centomy with around four million inh,flbit-?
.
ants, slightly less than twice the Venezuelan population at the time, and t11:
proportion .has remained roughly constant until today, when Colombia is
. ,
ly estimated -to have around 21 million people and Venezuela around. aa.
,)7!?,!*rrfl Mr-r7Plored system ofdium-
. sized andbarge eities, Colombia has extonized in
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recent decades at a far
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'slower rate than Venezuela, The urban population
1,
'(.1,500 persons), grew gTOM 29.1 to 52.8 percent of the total between the 1938
14uld 1964 censuses, while in 1967 Ofli pen t of the population lived LI
Colombia's 17 cities of more than 100,000 inhabitants..1 Other indices of Co'e-
?
(communities of more than
. .
lombiaes relative poverty have been its death and Infant mortality rates,.
which in recent decades have been nearly twice Venezuela's, while Venezuela's
per capita income in 1968 ($908) was moro than triple. Colombia's (?28O) ix the:
i
,
sx.0 year.
Tha :greatest burden of this poverty h'si been borne hy Colombia growing
.Nany observers. have noted. that
. rural pcipul tion. ? America, excepting. Vene-,
I
zto1a 1as Lvor repovered-from.the Great Depression in terms of real per cap-
.tta income from eipi rts...This has been especially true ta.te case of Colem-
bia's coffee economY.,which grew in exports* by 5.6 percent rally between
1880 and 19302 The most eloquent index of the divergent fortunes of the Vene
-.zuelan and Colombian?econoties in the four decades since the Depression is the
? fact fthat -While in 1930. the Colombian Des? was worth five Venezuelan tolivar?r
?-todaY the:bolivar is worth:five-pesos.. The peso was roughly at par with th
dolllar in 1930; today it is worth aboutfour cents. In his essay on "Land Use
'and, Land Reform in ColoMbia 3Albert O. Hirschman.wroteg "The Depression of?
1929 had immediate emd.pervasive effects, gqith the budget- difficulties and,
:even more ,impOrtant, foreign loans no longer obtainable, public works were
severely retrenehod and the unemployed. drifted. back' t?heir families in tha
country; but with coffee prices declining precipitously, farm income shrank
--at. the same time. Given this double squeeze on. per capita farm income, inten-
'sification of internal migration and settlement was to be expected, However,
: most of the public lands with an acceptable andyfamiliar climate in the Cen-
3
tral portion S of the national territory had en taken up by this time; worse,.
* some of these lands had lost their fertilfty through erosion. As a result,
settlers increasingly.occupied.lands 'which -they knew :to tho?privately owned,
Thus boF:nn a series of bitter conf1ietr3 over land that continue until this'
day, ColoalbWs Supreme Court in 1926 and 1934 ruled that landloas r11.
proof of owner'ship to. expel squatters from their haciendas, a kind pf impos-
sible, tidliat heal" proof in a society that had functioned on the basis of
-1 ? ,?777--7-77777., -77,77.71Tr'17777=. ? .?rc(i..e :Lc.; ion 'O-
1.orz.blanr: 4" In liar:Aro Cardona 0 ? ed.. ;
Bf-trzy 1,..,..?.V...sa;itl.r.eo Col?ITS2Ar.., TunpablishoZt (ioc,
)':(;orioraic Grc1;h Cciter,Chapt; I). 3,
1.1.'3 ob rrwcri Jonrnovri (2014(% l'zogr7r,:-.:18 1J, nn of Econorn5,
Latin Amer:I.ca, iiourlieUtly'A)Ionor b00.1:.6p.A;AJ).
19o9.
.C6ral thesis) :1:ale
e Pol.-M-07.incr PA
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:two. t)7,.1.?
? .
'icht4-were aggravated by :continuing disputes batween landlords and their pconl';
vex. Ithether
the unpaid.farmhands.could plant coffee( on thoir subsistence plots
edcd by the landlord .in exchange for free labor on:the haciendarplanting of
offee on t4eso plots would snot only give theipeons an independent cash incomeif
ut would make them more difficult to eyiot because:they would have to be.com-
ensated.for these improvement-b.. These conflicts have led to successive waves '
f rural violence over the past four decades, most recently the series of
cions of of haolendas over the past few months by landless peasants exasperated
?ith the slow ,pace of the Colombian agrarian reform..By?far the most dostruc-
___
iVe of these: conflicts was the deoacre of 'Aolencia (1948-58)v a kind of uncle-
.
?
lared?tribal war between rural bands of the Liberal and Conservative parties
hat.cost.an estimated 300,000 iiveeand'has t 'Colombials. traditional polit-
.
cal.system a husk of its.former self. ;?
?
Both the internal violence in Colombia and the Colombian .migrations into
?
?
enezuela seem to be motored, at least in part, by increasingdemographio pres-
, .
. . .
1 ? _
ures on available land... According to the 1966 CIDA study of Colombian land
,
. . .
enure, 64 percent'of Colombias farm faMilies are either landless or occupy .
absistence plots averaging 1.7 hectares (four acres) in size; moreover, about
?
4o percent or:;those occupying these tiny subsister.:6e plots are either squatter.:
or.renters.2 Berry notes that "between 1938 end 1951. the increase in the agri-1
? ?
ultural population seemed to have been mainly in 'the Or of non-owners (ac-
?
ording to tho two population censuses)." Strikingly enough, the greatest rura:
opu.lation increase between 1951 and 1964 vas in the four Departments of Colo-m-
?
?
lags Atlantic Coast 1Magda1ena, Cordoba, Atlantico and Bolivar), preeisely the
egion from which the heaviest Colombian migration into the Maracaibo area has
oceeded in recent years. The average annual rural. population increase in the
1 64 period for these four Atlantic Coast departments was three percent
?
traordinary rural growth rate for any country in this rapidly-urbanizing
;orld?vhile all of Colombia's other departments had rural population increaFo
E(-;rry
undr cultivron.if..: a 321%tivly p()rzlon
:led for. erory:.. :Ind livestock; the ratio has been about 10 percent,...stItes L
P thc rate of increase in the years 1951 to 1965 are about l.2 perct ond
or 193F.3 to 191in the nelithborood of 1,95 to 2.05 percent. In otA?r words:
s -
Tib rate of incxease in 1:-.;nd cultivated seems to be decreasin." Derry notes
atcr in his 3.tudy the quailtative factors that newly-cultivated land 2:7:.3MS to
ack the potential of the traditional areas and the erosion factor in long-
. CIDA (Comit6 Interamericano do Dego-roll? Asrico1a). Colombia: Tenenc1a de
icrra.vOesarollo Soeio-ceonomico del Sector AgricolA. WaShin6ton2
4):7 '))60 ). .
.? ?
?
?????? ? ? ..e.? ??? ..? ?
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less than two porcent.1 Given this denorapi ;etting& the contrast in. man-
.t ratio between the two countries is er,poolly dramatic. While Venezuo1a4s
ulation has tripled since 1941 and its laud in crops? has Increased by rough. Y I
8.5 percent since then rural population has actually declined in bvl:h.
alive and absolute terms .oVet the past three decades from 2.64 million in .
a
an officially estimated 2%53 million today. While Colombia?s agricul-
al work forco,ihereaced substantially from 1.76 million in 1933 to 2,6.5 mil-.
t-L,In 1960 Venezuela's farm labor force declined slightly from 7249000
?
to around 7001000 today; it has declined even more so Oonc:14Prs.
-hc present Venezuelan rural labor force oontains a largo number of Colom..
n indocut;entados. According to CIDA& Colombia has reughly 1.3 hectares of -
a in crops for each member of its firm labor force & Venezuela has proper-
nately twice that amount.2 With Venezuela so heavily urbanized with much
- :??
.ent lond An Venezuela& with a desperate shortage of salaried labor on Voris. '
lan haci6dasg and .with 6o Dercont of tho Vpnezuelan agricultural labor.
'cc over L0 years of age& one can scarcely wonder at the large-scale and sus.
ined clandestine migrations of young Colombian peasants across the unguarded
frontier into -Venezuela 'along what-arc-known as-the caminos verde
,
ae green trails),
' The camirios verdes lead'to many places in Venezuela. They lead to banana
mtations at the southern shore of Lake Maracaibo, to cattle ranches in the
ctija District beteen the lake and the Sierra do los Motiloncs, to whorehous.
in te oil towns and roadside establishments throughout western Venezuela,
the rancho squatter slums of Maracaibo and Caracas & to the coffee farms of-
hiral to agrarian reform settlements and to burning timber and clearing land
,Venezuela's great national forest reserves to work as gardeners and chauf.
l!rs and housemaids in the homes of leading politicians and businessmen in
T,
3t of Venezue1a4s groat an extraordinary series of 1969 reports on
se migrations& German Carias of the Caracas newspaper El Nacional wrote that
LonE, thr; v(:dc=;!3 ?those 1.).1.1c:r5.ns *;e:tx ntraw hats? thirts and 1-,11nt5
.11.ed with dusti dung-stained rubber sandals that wore worn aud ri%lyed.. On the
grass is spisead out their miscriablo lua.gage: a cardboard suitcaso, a
I-
bcrlY, .31,1);':.-a, II, 11,1 v, 15,
lines() ratios are.based on statintieo of :land. in crops 0.35 laillicm hec-
ros i'or Colombia, 1.6.5 miiiion for -venezuwa) supplica in elDA, p. 19, and
.1. tho!'ronezuoi:)n Agriculture Nini:;try. :En c.ontra:;t to thu desponito itind
)
lortage in Colombia, the Vonezuell:In Naticnfa Ar;:ran Inctitute (I&N) hao z-n-
!bnood that one-third 'of the 165&000 lc. -iir()oln,distry.but7.ta over the pfist
7.: ..:_1:.: ht?,..',-. ::: 1:-.. ...... ..:.,:...7..-...1?:. : .....: s-;.J., LI:- ,%?-? - - - -- - - :- - - -----: - - + '
,
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I anti six hammock .? When C ,arC.7.s katervlowed seven iMoc-omnntad.os in tho p?i'fl''
.
. --
'oi" entering Venezuela by the carlOnos
puniciDlo Of Vloplis my Loas,
1*()
: earn seven bolivar2 a day (US1050), with the tros z21222 (three meals)
\K
i thrown in.?- On a. cattle haqenda In the rich dairy district of Peri:As a
vcrcl
one of them told hiri In ths
?V.Z1fr
paid on: 1y
(50 US cents) d.ly without meals, In Venezuela there's a chance-to
? .
I
young indcic:urontdo told me a few weeks agog ?I entered this time via 9-lasuta.
I took the long bus ride from Rioaoha on the coast south into the mountr-.ins
to nouta because I went with sope Falsmos who had" entered that way before,
- i
who knew tho trails, so there wera,no problems. You,havo to cross a.river a.nd
. o . .
.1 1 .. ? ?? . .
ppy the pan who takes usiin his Canoe ten posoFi. (US 50 cents). Than you .,...o.,,,
,,f...?-
,
ahOther trail 'o ,avold the Nations. Guava post, because If the National Guarfi
.,
L
catches yo, they will take you prisoner or oharge' you 20 or 30 bolivars j-r
v..:
1 H
let yo l pcss,,?whatever?yoU have. 1 don't dare to leave this hacienda at nig1-1
-.to go into town f r a fewHdrinks, because if they oai.;ch pelt;hey211 throw me
? 1 -
tnte, jail-
a rounduR
'iradio.? ?
? ?
,
1Carias cites a confidential Interior Ministry report. stimating' that be-
' I
tween'100 and 150 Colombians enter Venezuela 'illegally each days amounting t,
???????r?II?
fithout14 my having done anything. In the month of Januarys there ?was
in Maracaibo and they. were -deporting Colombians. I'heard this on tis
."
a yearly.total;of between. 36?0. and 55s000. The post common estimate given 1:
:Venezuelan officials is that around 5000000 Colombians have entered Vonezucl:I..
.111cittcilly during the 19606:and that Colombians and their children might
a1n9unt to nearly?ten percent of Venezuela's total population. When one consi::.
. ?
-ers??that.roughly 300,000 Europeans entered Venezuela legally between 1950 an,:.
' 1961,2 At may be that immigrants and their offspring may now constitute cles,,
__to 20 percent of Venezuela's population. Until the. conflict over the Gulf o:
? ?
? . Venezuela disturbed relations between the two countries in 1970, Colomblan
had been entering Venezuela in large numbers on tourist cards and frontier'
passes to .stay ?illegally as residentss The s r kind of tourism was
? by ?Colombians entering the United States after Congress in 1965 sh--
..ducca Western 'Hemisphere immic;ration to the U.S. In the two years betwn,
. 0.
and 1967, the number-of? Colombians entoring the U.S. on tourist cards
11:777.1S4r1 kri:O.als for re.1 flnr.O.onr0 1,31;er reprinted An a book,
. _
CY:oninon'Voretos (1969)4 from which I uote. 4.14 ? ?
???????? ? ????? ftft. ? ? .? ?
2. Chl-II Gsen Mirtrim,c.ntog -n 1063
? ???? ??? .? ??? ? . ? ? ? ?? ? ? ?? ? i? ? ?
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..- ,-'(.?
fopol.sid with considerablo'airm *.Pccontly tht..t so;:4:t-o million L..11:::
. rpsiding illegally in the U.13-.-after terIng on teur.ist and stu6ent visas.-
- -,
..., ... . . .
the United-!Sti.ware to. have yeoportionacIy.the.same problem that.vene-
ztela has with its'Colomblan indocumentados,..thero would be 20 million tnstca:-
/ ?????:4?,0?1?MM....a.w...???r?o?????F?',...,???????? ? i?
. . . . .. ? ? . .
4M. - . . ? ?. ? ... . - . ? . . . ,. ? . ? ^ .. .,.
01 two million illegal aliens residing .in the U.*.
. . ..
. ..?......?:?
1 Over the paat two years a ,novi resentmentoand suspicion has suffUsed ",,:he
--.
Wliationc; between VentiZuela.snd CeloMbia because Of; the proportions readhod by
,
tYie illegal migrations and the territorial .dispute ever the Gulf of Vene-yuela,
Some Venezuelan newspapers, most notably the chain owned by Se.naor 1.11uel
Angel Capriles, have7oharged that Colomblan,peasants forming csrmlunities el%
Venezuelan soil are reservists of the Colombian army and have been financed by
,..,. .
_INCORA, 46.1e Colombian agrarian refor411 agency,' During 1970 'and early 1971
there ha?.: been troop.mobilizations on both..sides of the frontier, and the
. .
armed forces of both countries have been hastily purchE:sing new equipment
_
abrot:i.d. In his message.to the state legislature earlier this year, Governor
,. ..,_
aup.rez Romero of Zulia spoke of "the negative action of Colombian immiGration"
?
because of. "the anarchic and disorderly exploitation by Colombians of Venezue.;
1 .
lan'natural resources." Ho gave three example
1 .
I ?
\
a. In the zone of the Guasare niver, in the Mara District, bordering the
Valledupar region of Colombia, thore is a prof7r3m of timbc:r exploitation
on Venezuelan territory that is stimulated by the Colombian Go%rornment,
which finances the colonists and builds Penetration roads to rCri2OW; the
..7-roductior:I. The Directorate of Fydrolic Works, of the Public works
inis
try and the National Agrarian institute pessess.information of this.
b. On Lake 1.%tracaibo. an. estimated 5,000 Colombia:15f are enad in fish- .
. 1lA ;oule of these r1:3neralen enter the lae, through the Gull' of Ven:.1.zusia
? and others througb the rivers south of the laze, progressively displacing
? native fisnermen.
o. In the Perija, District, along the new MachiqueS-Co16n hiP:hway, a move-
'mcnTt of Colombians has appeared to settle in the new lands opened to ag-
ricultural exploitation by the new hishway.
The most widely publicized .of:these penetrations occurred in the rich Gua-
.
sare Valley, which is divided from Colombian territory by a high mountain
range. On March 9,.1970, the newspaper Panor4ma of Maracaibo reported that
Attilio Villar:nosal Los inclocumentados Colombianos..Caracas, 197)9. P. c.
2? Paul Yontmmer7,."Illezal Aliens fos-e?Ecr-Docoening Crisis,? The,!eIT York
LLmes.-Obt. 17, 1971. P. 1. -
WT7E., fo71: cy7,.7rrT,1, E"2_ 71(1rD. Cars,
1470, 2, 10, iic'oroducad frou the Capri:roF; rf.arazine-a.Y.Z-Z.Late in Octo-u'r 1971,
obn.incd diplomatic asylum in the Licarnuan Embas:..y in
J$.raca:, --the ricara.p.;nan Amb-ilscador is hi:3 son-in-law-- after a mllitary trl-
)nal ordred. his arrest for publixhInp; what were purported to be secret De-
'ens? nnistry documents roportinc; Cob )17 troop /Lover.ents that hoz:-
'ile actions aain:;t Venezuela. Caprlies tht-,t his parliar.lentary
)1ty was bein.0_: vio19.ted. while the-vr-nf--1.n?
twve:e ?Iwvified? the 195/:,-Intc:r-Alacran Treaty pl..ovidinf; for poJ.1t1-
. .
14 ar-'5'1um in cPlibarlOs Howevor,-Caprlis. allozfled to leave tho country.
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."..ic. 1...o ..: :1:. c:i k.,.i..u. .;:,': :A.(3-1;., tl';'D (.0i(,:li. b:-.,...',c,
CIIP.:1.Qd 111 11"r0 arc ar; b.Y.Colomblen 1.1docu7n.entades, From these inva2ion.:1 .hayr:
I
' emerged tolins with lively comMeree like Tres Bocasv on the banks of the Tara
4 4 . ?
'iliverp in Venezuelan territory, and other all settlements (caries) ruic
by Colombian authorities.'' Mueh deeper intg Venezuelan territory, an ostit?t
ed 500000.Colomblan conueueros (nomadic.praticioners or slash-and-burn Elg,t-i
culture) have denuded a.lart;o portion of the forest reserves in the states o
. Barinas and Apure. In the Alto Guasaro, a caser'S.o of 108 Colonbian
. and a school with a Colombian teacher was &. covered on Venezuelan sol)., A
-detachment of the Venezuelan J%ational Guard was sent there, and a Venezuelan
????
..-..teacher substituted for the Colombian tea,chor, But the Colombian peasants
,?
.1
were allowed to remain, since the Venezuelan countryside has been so depopu-
latcd that no Venezuelan peasants 'are available .to send in their .place, The.
Venezuelan Government has begun a crash program to build an economic infra-
structure along its frontiers, but it faces an apparently impossible task IL
1
Ilnding Venezuelans to occupy these remote areas, ..Meanwhile, most of the of
'fee, cattle and banana haciendas of western Venezuela have become utterly de
pendent on Colombian.indocuentados as the basic source of manpower for thel
\
t. farming operations, This is especially true of the cattle and banana planta-
\,.
/ tions to the south and test of Lake Maracaibo; most of this land was cleared
by Colombian indocumentados in the late l95Os after the opening of the Pan-.
; American Highway in the area, A Vonezuolan,lawyer uho took me to interview
indocumentados-on the dairy farms of the Perija Valley explained the migra-
.,.
+ 4: ?
*tory process in this fashion;
? ?
.1 Befoc in PerijA many people cam from the Eheavily-NcrO] tJ Co
1 of Colombia. But now many come from the southern departments of Colombia
?from Tolima and even. as far south as Pasto Lwith heavily Indian racial
/ stock). ::any are 17 or 18 yeo,r2 ola who.had no oDportunitics in the soul.:
1 of Colombia; often accompanied by younp; girls of 15 and 16 ye--,.rs old,
sometimes prea:nantpsometimes oven with two small children; and they are
not m7.,rried,There are also petty merchants called nalet,-!.7s (bare-en
who live off the Colombian peons, fellow-Colombians who si)1l the pens
ruir; ana cheap merchandise smuled from Colombia/ the cone to
the haenaas in f..roups of five or si:c and are fed by ...t.T.Te peons and
with them in stuff that's expensive here in Venezuela. Also there ;7,re t?h
11
women who arrive at the haciendas with the men; the. men o to the f
? 1,C.TJ1. the SC,a7,, in the kitchens cook for t1-1-3
he;:e aro. ',:hz1 this
rlotionp.hd exploitation, low i::.;:lore is eleci;ricity in anc:
imprever=ts, so life: is better nerct .but there is much r-oro.
now into t banana region to the south of Lake 1aracaibo.
on the haciendas the liatiAal Gur:rd leavs.thom alone p and on :3At71;:s
and L.uncy:;iyou can see?lots of Coloians on the strect;:i cf snll tor;:;
.11ke CuayabO and Encontrados anc1 2.a1b1ra..-6ut 1the 3c,tIcn7..J_
,
?
hrt,:;cr.Idos?(planters) make c. tional Guax,lon, Euld oft
hands. Often the: J;....11 detachments of the, Na.tIonal
- .
i.0 ? ?
t
?
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? . '
,
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o...,c1)rrd in Iiijich tho hacndado nonths pay to a p:on would ,
Osonoonct-, t) t?. 40 the Nationr11 Gi. o,n InOenuilntE?Iflo and ha-uo 1:1m
polled from the country. Thls occasionlly has led to a number of bloody
1ncidenl4sOf revonv.e by the fi.ndocntof..;.0p,
1.;ta-1,?akioi?2;'tnewsQ..ivas.and'when'tnei61-they right among th?emselves.
4 . ? ?
?
4 In Ip590 when'e0frentier agreement was simed between Venezuela and.Colom-
bia tc*Tert frec.movement of pc?ople in the frontier areas rthe Treaty
of Tlui it:ws.said that Venezuela cupnijed the hospital's and
.L ??
? bla Sup,i1101 44.1-patients, and this is the truth. 1ed1cal services in Co- :
%? lembia ara.very poor9.. because all they have is rc4gious and charity .in-
stltuti6ns mithput Government help. People who urr.cently 'need surry pet
_
Jtheir opationit3'd6ne free in the Univrsity Hospital ln 1aracalho, which
at times has 6d percent of Its beds occupied by Colomblas, When they arc
nobody asks their nationality, polombians'who are Critically sick
or injured: pass unchallenged through the V.,:nezuclan checkpoints along th#.:
'border.'
-L Per1,16. :Ina other zones there elre ColQmbians who have had 24cod luck and
have c:otten .ch n5.. have haciendas, but their haciendas have been invad-
-0 by other Colombians. Thero are Venezuelan haciendas where both the
fOremh. and the squatters are 'Colombians and there have been bloody clash-
..eS between them. ht aro donourpced 'in the press as Coloz:lblan towns in
? Venezuela are reallj.cseres (disrsed rural settlements). Mkt: the *-
, ? c4se:of Calle Largo" vhich-YE7 60 70 pe*.ccent Colombian in population.
-.On .';ature!ay's and Sundays all you see in the streets are Colombians be-
cause. they come tbere on weekends to drink. They don't live In the vil-,
lase of.. Calle Larz,a, but thc'surroundin haciendas each have 20 or 30 or
..40,Colembian peons. So on Sundays they look like Colombian towns, but
?mobt,of the.businesses are owned by Venezuelans, althoup7h there arc Colon- ?
bian propric:tors too. There are also many Colombians who occupy plots of .
.1ftnd in t:he Venezuelan' aFrarian reform, but they live with very little'
. .credit. They were given these parcols by the Venezuelan rational twrarian.
H Institute (IAN). Their credit 12 inoufficient and the 'crop fails, and
thC y wind -up owin;?.; money to the Arfricultural Bank. 'ihat then happens is.
'----- that they rive their ',plot of).and.to ,..omcone else, or just abandon it.
Often their ararian reform plot is taken over by an Italian farmer who
- makes a r:uoness of it; collecting a 7)lot here and a plot there until they.
have what (..,mounts to a hacienda. The Italian has an agricultural tradi-
tion, while ?the Colombian and Venezuelan peasants do not; all they.can
'grow is plantains and yuca and.potatocs., while the Italian grows grapes
on the sane -land and tomatoes' for the of season market in Caracas.
?
Thanks to the oil prosperity of tho?past half-century and.also to the as-
Acultural expansion near the lake over the past 15 years the State of Zulia,
as been increasing in-eopulation.at the very high and sustained rate of five
ercent annually ever since 1920. .In the fifty year?period between 1920 and
9709 the population density of.Zuli.a.has-increased*more.than tenfold from 1.9
o 'an estimate: 2.5 persons per square. kilom,pter whilo its share of Veno23.1e-
.
a's total ?population increased from 5,1 to 12.2 percent at the same time.1.
its implies a population growth -rate roughly twice the national averae for
. ?
nalf-c2nty,
?
fjnI
s?t. C., - irie zc: of thc
V t17:7,
;caacs was reproductive, the great inflator .of population growth
.on. Over the as half-contury. ?Julian blrth rate was always above four
a
Cc113, Cic In JA.,?:-)1(t1b11 cn Ven:izuola,
r ? . _ .? ?? ?
?
?
4 6
?
I
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?. ?
1 ?
percent, reaehinE; aIllgh of 4.85 pereent.in tho early 1950s, durin the Koraon
when the oil Companies in the Maracaibo Basin amb9rked on an intensive
larogram of.exploratry drilling that attracted'iarge.numbors of new migrants
intothe,arcla.and t --itni: surge of. prosperity.' It the same time, Zulia's "nor-
:
? . ?? ?? . ? ? ? ,.?,. ????. ?.? . ?,,
? I , '
?.:al).iy rate hasHdeclinedeven?more?dramatically than the nations./ average
? , , '. ' . . .
Ilince the. 1929s0 Zulia"s death rate in1926'(2..-5.percent) was'roughly 30 per-
, .
lent,highOr thin tWnational average (1,89 percent) for that year; after-the
i
all compaes [,ipec?L opt dysontary and malaria in.the.Maracaib0 basin durini:,
,
4
1920s Zulia"s dth rate dropped to well below the national average. By
? t
, ? .i? i ,
1 , t , ? I
L96 it was 1.21 perCent (lompared with 1.5 zrcent for all Vpnezuela)? and'by
,
. . .,
1967 Zulia"s,recoi.dcddeath rate wasdownto.056 percent; with tha national
, .
!.. . .
werago at 0.66 pereent. ;Comparing the?eensus-figures.of 1920 and 1961, which .;
? ?
, . . ? f
?
,
aay notifully measure .the impact of migrationss one: finds the number of par? ,
sons bpi= cmtside ho. state increasing from 3;160 .in 1920 .(less than three
? ,
Dercont of.:Zulia's; population) to ,242,792 in 1961 (26,4 percent). According 4-
o..,,, ...
. .
rofessor:Dionisio Carruyo?.? the leading analyst of. Zulian demography, 42 per-
, .
ent ofHthemigrants,to..the statewho.arrived'in the 1961 census year were be-i
, .
twoen 15 and 30 years ola, the optimum breeding ase brachet0-1
Although the population of Zulia grew by only '35. percent (from 38,498 to
1.190458).between the censuses of 1673 and 1920; It has taken -impressive quan-
L;um jumps ever since then, doubling every 15 years over the past half-century
so reach the present estimated population. of 1.4 pillion, 88 percent of w'nic1-1
Ls urban. This enormous surge in population began almost overnight, in the.
.)rief.period between 1922 to 1928 when Venezuela grew from an insianificant
,?roducer of oil to the world's leading exporters sedond in production only to
she United States. Frightened by.sociarrevolution'in Mexico and the aplsear-
Ince of salt water in.their Mexican wolls, the big oil companies moved their'
)ersonnel and bagage south to drill in.Venczuela. On the great day of Docem-
,-,er 14, 1922, perforations made below an abandoned wall near Lake Maraca.,o
. ln frlo ljtr:;h 3:'!:1 :1,n the v
1).4 ? .
i95P, Covor=ont, .to jo:1.11 In an extracr(anaIw
:ram called the -.1:ian ac.Er..127cnclat wh5.ch allowed thousands of to
filly without wo:i:'Jang.
12anco Ct trri.da Venezuela,' 1.7i Econoa cn 75
Caraea2, 1966, 2, 55. The n4mir-(7i'?wc_iaL:3liL ci anAlually
after 1950, r,-:mainins_atthe hirshrs1' a1.7,:,.r.!. rate of rouhly 1,20C)
?k ???% is .1- % ? ? 7 - !?' 74,
ot:trr's.7,
19.58. t;i-len the new.-VencZuoln-i.':ovc,rnmennnounecd .1tc, now pQlloy r)o
'Ore Peta:oir.:um concessions, the oil co::17,:-Ani.cL; their cx.olonAtory
uia by hall over tbc next five yoars, ??31.1 bale../ the pre-l95) dri11.11
nr.?,
4)1(Inlr-00 Carl-070'o: ':*M6'71minte ol.z;;Lvizo iv1-10
1.11 *1'.0.--,111 A'AmInkit*rnel t"ht.1 FInJ
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.iallii incrw.lsod -.L'apidly u)..Itil IA; ..1c.._1. " r, w,; -...:1;2, r.iooro..-: Y'? .
1 an(i. blow a column 200 feet into the'aira. .C.t_ras a 11,.1gs gushsr: tthe
-74ductivo in the orldt? reportea '.6:1 i:o.,. Y.:7:i1.7-1s."1-1 During most of
1 ---. ..? .? .. ?: . . . ,.....
.?Ast venotuelan oil production.doUbl,ed e7ery years Ancreasing from ona
-? ? .
,n barrels lil 1921 .to 137 .mlilion.ln,1929. All the big oll corapanies began
'1.rls frantically at the fringes. of their concessions to taP 'each others;
lts:, Standard of Now JCIrSeylp Vh1Ch latCr.WCIS? to control the l'ions sllaY'c
. .
.r.ezuelanproduction, spent over *20 million. in drilling In western Vene:.
alono9i'i'mt had -railed to produce oil commercially by 1929. Durin(s the
,I)o.Tioet, migrations into the LaRc liaraealto region. reached avalanobe -.r,:?-
kr,
:..,-
on In the.slx years between the censuses .of 1920 and 19261 Zulia?2 popla?
: grew from 119,000 to. 20,000. Ae.cording to Edward Lleuwen:
... .,
The industry 5atherad. a docile. unorganized labor forse. Since sparsely ?
? populatcd western Venezuela had no surplus of workers; it was at first dIfm
fioult to obtain labor, Zarly attempts ,to bring mon down from Caracas and
the Andean states failed,. because they quickly contracted malaria In the
low, humid; hot Earacalbo F:asin and returned home. 'Phe eoaoanics hired
whet Zullan acricultural laborers they could and some locAa Guaira 'Indi-
1 ans, but the shortac,e had to be made roo by *brining in Iross fromthe
1 West indies..,.eanwhile, a -long-ro.nzo .pror,ram to make the entire lElke ra-
g7--)n mere sanitary got undorway. I:.osquito--infested swamps were sprayed
1
with crude, water supplies were purified, and sewoso systems were in-
stalled, Troublesome malaria was aIl but eliminated and dysentary brolr:ght
Ilnaer control....As news of the improved woring and livin conditicns
i,... spred, Venezuelans from all parts of the nation bep:an misratins to the
oil fields,...Co=anles preferred the already acclimated Yrl.rRueritcos
ifrom the island of Zarp:arita. with a strons maratime traditxon, 'oric.se na-
k, tives,Included many ..:...00d swimmers suited for drillins work in Lak i7ara-
/- eaibo and bandy AnclinDS "deroa---'c. econ.crlo -tA-,u1v, A.-'1- or-1-r, --..,e ?
to a migratioa of :Car racr..,,.tex. numbers than were actuaily cmployea by tne
companies, Campssinos heard of the att7Retivo waes anti. social ',7z.:!nefite,
?and when they failed to get employment in the industry9 they fourd -zork in
.:, .ii.
the towns that sprung up around the camps. niF,rants froa all -oarts of Vsno-i
voAela came to swell the population of the little parasite to that ii_7c;c:.
off petroleum workers' maGes and com1.-.?.).ny purchase2. The municipality of
Cabimas9 in which the La nosa flold was situated, increac:,ed its pc.f.,ulotio
moro tlAil tenfold (from 19940 in 1920 to 21753 In 196 ilto row,..h1;;
in 1971)9 and a like growth took place in the municipalty of Lagunillas.
he ?city of Maracaibo had prospered hut did not grow:much during the 19th
;..:
4,
, century. A French vtor in 1600 wrot et "Maracaibo is situate& on the western
I '
sho.ca of the lake of .the 'same name and si% leagues from the sea. Its earth
.r.2r,-; 12 sandy and ulthout vegetation; its temperature is all the WIC: hot be
?
cauoe; tho broozes are weak and i'.1::,:olL,.r the land has no runninz str:?o.ms ar..
rains are rarc....the air one breathes ln sumraer feels. llhe it
?
"" Zn1 oven ..fter some v -1
crlYodiffioult 1? th
).n.1-Ing- --e early
' V? ,. ?2 ? ?
? -,.. -..,:c;I:?. ..]..:..,-? ,,.- x,:trol...,i1,.,..4:.;? V., ,..,....o: 1.0..5-...!. ? A 10.s tory . 1,111;Lvef.'? G., -
4
1C v.P ...,:e
2 lro ..'con' ?"'V.ir?-- ? --. : P_ .
U.l.,W,t:.
. nr6nllunn 1T7
?
;
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?
?
?
Iver:;-detro;?ad th.xce timos,by inditinr_t la f.;,..c.:! 16th cent.ury be_tfore a peri:lanent
. .
. . .. , .
..,.
.6olon3'' cou34 beestablishedand the. city wan saal,-.e:d Seyeral times in t, 17th
? ,/ ? .
? contu* bY.:,..Henry Morgan, L*Olonnals_and other pirate chieftains-. Maracaibo
-bocame.tWmain:shipping eutlet,for the wheat 'and cacao grown in western Vene-
.._ ? .? ...... ;. .. . . , ? . . '...?
zucla andqpart of the Colombian, or the oommercial fleurishing ofMara-
caibo late in' the 19th century. Domingo Alberto Rangel writes:
.1
The jfprAugb.0 merchants financed the coffee exaansion of the Andean Ttate
of Tchira durin?ll of the 19th century. Maracaibo was airedys at m.;d-
century a moot active pert,' A 1-37emen of the tropics/ there converp7sr2.. the
products of a'vast zone in searoh of an outlet to the. sea. Se rated. fro-i
the rest of Venezuela/ the Venezuela of perpetual civil wars, the :port of
Maracaibo suffered no interruation In its accumulation of mon,.v. A com-
merce that was audaaious and familiar -qth the techr:iques of mercantile
capitalism --the letter 'of credit/ the joint stock company, etc.-- made
flaraenibe the strones t financial market in 19th century Venezuela. For a
long time, ?this city outranked Caracas in mereantile influence and crea-
tive dynamism. The 1:.a2.chos* r?.oncy flowe/teward Tdchira, with Short-
term loans that mobflizod aluntations. TO Maracaibo merchant offered ad-.
vancen to small coffee -growers in the foOthills of the Andes....Marncaibc-
dictated: with its credits, the rate of expansion of the EIcTriclatural
economy of .western Venezuela, The cycle. began when the merchant houseo of -
the Zullan capital -established the volume of leans and concluded when the
canoes filled with coffee arrived in the port of Maracaibo...The rate of
Interest prevailinrc in Earaealbot.the volume of currency issued by its
banks/the price of gold in its 7,;:arket?1ere for the farmers and merchants
of the Andes the Star of Bethlehem for all their ecenomic activities.
The expandin coffee economy exercised a progressive influence throughout :
the Venezuelan :Indes "Daing-the.19th-centuryy the traditional cultivation of
. ,
1
Huheat symbolized in politiessthe Conservative tendency while the recently e7:-
i)c.nding coffee agriculture expressed the Liberal trend."2 In 1391 the re,?chants
of Maracaibo triccl to formalize thei economic sway over the Venezuelan Andes
'by pressing for the joining of Zulia and. the three Andean states (not-: Tf.chirat
4
ida and Trujillo) into a. single administrative unit .roughly correspondirs
to the old Province of Maracaibo, By this time this highly successful enclave
ef'Buropean mercantile capitalism --its leading merchant houses wc,re Breuer
MC:41er; Boulten: Van Dissel Andressen/ Logomaggiore and !lard in-
in Maracaibo Venezuela's
plant (1889) its first public tramway (1883). The pro-World W?sr I coffee ploo-
plity increased Maracaibo's share of Vc;:jezu1at3 exports from*" percent in
to 49 i 1912,j
first commercial bankst its fir,:-;t el,-;ctrlo
The old Andean coffee cconomy declined. rapidly with the Grea: A
?
World War 11, with much of itkiabo.r r:upply, migrating into th
-he old Maracaibo mcrehrAnt
, Lo Annos (:11 ;.oc?,J, P. 17. ?
, Alk:;a1.0 iJardozo r'r.00060
99. 9
T74.';nf.rn
- . 77rk
Gcmcaav lcg)9?
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1
, c,Liir '1's, ,'.:i-..- co t;;Lo o11 '000m? er- 1.....!v: 1920 dt.tspite Its 0..=.-ar..5zy
l/Lri,9.1 sacoc.)380.Maracalbo gr,- Vary slo,.ly in populatien. Its population was
22.0001, ?accord1nT-ton?f 1,3::Iv 0.1j. D16'.":; 1.17. 1673; ov07: 1:he
o...:t four docadcs it? increased at an annual rate 'Of-roughly 1.6 percent to -
1
?
.1920 eenstis total' of 460099 1-But with the oll boom it doubled in tho'next
i
ado0 reaching .110,0100 the bulk Of th's increase coming in tho yesrs between"
9.23 after the Baroso gusher?was brought In, and19300 when prot:Luction ber7.an
t
po dacline.under.the impaot,of the Groat Crash, During those boon yea::::: of the
9,20S'Maracaibo?s poPulation growth must have been more than 10 percet annual'
ly; following the Groat Depression, in th.) 19403 and 1950s the increase was
In63 and 6.03 percent respectively...2 By 1971 the population was estimated at
I i
lk ?
Wround 7000000.
i:
,?, .
Tho Colombian:Lndocumentados have played a major role in the contIntted
. . ,. Mx..........???????r????????.?1????.??..?
,..?
ra/5id expapsion ofMaraca1bo:0 despite the economic recession of the early.
3
1960s that followed tho fall of the Perez Jimenez dictatorship in 1950 end the
.4
.;
1
outback in exploraory drilling in response to. the no new concessions" *policy
1
anneunced the! same .yearg According to municipal officials; 148 new squter
,
settlements 4,1i4 been founded in the city since 1958v .au average of more thr.n
10 oper.:jer, !while th'o-nuMber,of?linear meters of a:tracts quadruDlcd fr(),..,
, . ?,
, t I
roughly 3000010 in 1961 to around 1200000 today. The horizonta. expansion of
I ?'
riarapa4bo!nas. fannoc. outward:from the old port and mar#t at lakeside; with
? ..
.:he..i)roIlferating residential developments and sheppin3-conterz; and
? i '
'Irries all conpected.by'a system of parallel peripheral highways and elaL-e-
.
a.to clover-leafs, Yearly all of ?the few tall buildingi are of recent.coi-ictruc-
i. ?
ion and mostly along Avenida 5 do Julio, the now commercial boulevard w th
? I ?
ts no ct res'and noon sins g and 'gas stations and hamburger stands resemblin
,
4 Amerlicsnstrip pity in the tropical heat This Voracious expansion over the
'aet decade has left most of the city's streets unpaved', while 60 percon%: of
e city uLpopulation lives in the squatter colonies that cover most of this
. ,
-;11 ground. "The Eunioipal Government is bankrsoptv" a high offic5,7,1 :,:l.i ',...,
1
'.
"t stopPed-pavin streets 10, years p.go; I',-; only ha t? money to pay
According to a survey carried cut in 1)(2,j by the Economies 2carell
r of the University of?Zulia0 2marly.
Vol. 62.,/
Sac hinistr,r .eu.11.1p wol'kp
?
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`?' ? ? :
. -
oykorrs- in th3 tor o on the publ1e.payn'/11. Inc.iood, in 1970; 813 perent
?
Zulia's population_was officially estimatoa to bo urban* leavinr.5 a hir-t1
//?
cultural work force Of oily 29536 to?serve .apidly expanding agricultural
?..? ? ..
conony,1 Despito'a rate of uneMployment and 34,4deremp1oyment. (working less than
?
'hours per-weck).:togethor.reaching above 23 percont?.there seemed to be a
vely deL.:and labor in.boti-tthe city ancl the countryside. Colombian indoe-
?01????????????????????
yentados seem to be the only supply of labor for such jobs .as farmhands,'
?
Dust-maids* masons; carpenters* etc, A leading Congressman .who also owns a ..--
"\na plantation on the southern shore of Lai: o M=acalbo*.a region which sup-
ics half theeountrys plantains (atapleof the Venezuelan diot) and lc de-
loping production of sweet bananas (camburos) for export, told me that local
owers are left desperately short pi' labar when ?their Colombian indotontado
rmhands leave after a month or two on thellc(cienda; the growers regularly
nd recruiters across -the border to find more cheap labor. This labor shota^
created .a tolerant attitude toward the f.ndoctumentdos on the part of. the
nezuclan'iiuthorities* some of whom seem-to.be' involved in different kinds of
?egal traffic botween'the two countries. Mecnwhile, the enormous differences
income levels between the two countries is drawing more and more immir,-rants?
)3to Venezuela-. It Is most instructive; in this connection; to compare earnings
;slum residents in Maracaibo and Barranquilla. Colombiaus main Caribbezin port-
ach functions economically much as Maracaibo did before the beginning of oil
/eduction. According to the recent MI2A-ICA11 20 survey of the Maracaibo h.osing,?
..00IO 31,9 percent of the families living in squatter barrios earn less than
s 500 (US410) monthly, and are uneligible for public housingv whUo another
).2 percent of the families living in ranchos earn between 500 and 1,000 bail-
mont4ay. In Barranquilla according to an unpublished study of the squat-
slumf Carrizal (pop. 63,580) made in 1970 by the Departmental PlanninF;
mmission, the average family income as 676 Resos (US332) or rour;hly 136 to-
Ars monthly at the current ?five-to-one exchange rate. This means that tne
craze faIly '.olc-1:c; in 1;ne Nc:racaibo
, - ?
1.comparable area of Barranquilla, In the :Lvcontly invaded. 1z11,ca1bo
rrio of Los Roblesi adjacent tg the city's new Tndustrial Park;
ho Santos lelendez, who me to yenozuftli% ncarly two.decadz;s zLzo as
olz
. r:e.rtado from tilo
"", yc.r1.22
(.:111'..-7". ?1 .-,;-, 4.--.- ?,.....r.,.......--;' ,....,. -.: g- ., ..., r? ?:?? .1 ,,... I ? ?1? i r.,?-? ?%, Ve. ,1 VI ...', 1,) i e. , %. 7 I..., t 1 l? ''t ..e. , ? ?? , 4 ' , . ,:. .1 s% 1 .., 1, ? ???? , , .. . , ,,
of ' .-? IV t," A 1 %? ..,.. 44: V.4 %., 4. J. 1 '..) %.? 4.7) V r.. ; .... A.., ..,?,,,, . ; to ......) ..... 1/4.N, . j,,,, ? .... ,..., ..? ....1 ... l 11 { ..... { ?ur a a.) .1. ?.1.?..0.... V.I., ..t. :,.? ? .4 ..3? v.... y ? _........z........: , ? _,- ......
re 10r1P7',1. de iTc.);-,[1:i.'ki :'; / )07.7 T L.-J..e.:. 4., 0 ( a ., ? i . , July 1 1.c,. it).i . g P.
..
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cctith?Jf the lako ci.nd toel.Ply as m alactrIolau's helper in 1:ars.c.L.,11:4::
? I I '
earmp thrt* 1-,1whas, ftio 1:-/ould earn in a siwilar job ..n '1The
'
Venezuelan doeen%
14 to work with hie handa,":.,Tullo told me, 6fle always
fer ',.'"o,work for the government,' We Colombian.s; c.ome here becaLe we are needed,
Every day more Colombians. arrive, if. the Government erpele130 then 100 rjaore .
will -come in,'
AcY,qe:ss the street 'from-the now campus of tho University of Zulia: In a
squatter settlement called aruma that originally was built on land allotted
by tho geyornment to the Guajiro.indians but which now IC inhabited
largely TL:-,y Colombians, I :taped an :interview 1.th a 37 year-old black migrant
who cate to Venezuela many .years ago from Colombia?s Atlantic Coact, I rpro-
duce a translation.of hi.sstatement-ere,because.it.appears so representative
or the land clearing role of,many:Oolombian migrants in western Venezuela.
? I was the type .of puy who was ;full of aspirations. Lwent out exoloring
and even in my own coUntry, Ny two brothers are still working
.their conuco (subsistence patch) in thunicipio of 11:aria la Eala, where
we all we' born. As for .myself, I wandered about the Departments of
dalena and Cesar and the Guajira about 15 years ago until I heard there
was money to be made in Venezuela I entered throuh the wilderness trailsy
the caro.inos.vecn as they say, but I had no problems with the authorities
.as an .in(.13cq-o because I always stayed the countryside arid they
? don't both= you there, if yoU like the cotryside. The passpors they
were scilinc; wore very expensive, 170 "bol.irS each, so I cane in through
.the crlinon verdes. I founded eircht hao.1,endas in the Indian re.F;ion of the
Zetilones; in PerijA..I cut down trees and cleared the land and left it in
? production; for someone else to cultivate, than I went to clear land oisel.
where, I had a?good boss who took me to Xaracalbo for the first tiF:e in
? 1958. He trusted me with money for the payroll and for buying provisions;
I was almost A% capitalist partner of his. But then I asked him to 1:F.'y as
off because I wanted to.make'a hacienda for. myself, near the E?ata Aa
fiver, in Pcrij6. I planted rice, plantains, corn and yuca, and livc:d on
this, Then I worked 'on contract for others to clear land, to make fal-ms
oUt 3f will..;.erness, and with the money they paid me .I. was able to 17.-,prove
my .a.rm bi by bit. I was able to clear for myself 1,050 hectares (2625
acres) in-anused public lands, a.latlflAndlo with two rivers runnin7
? through it. Of this I had, some 15-0 a? cres in crops. I spent five years
-there, until I was expropriated by the Venezuelr.;n ap;rarian reform. It went
bad i for me because I was an*indocunent-lao who worked on his own with a
certain aspiration, to rise from cac_sno to hcendado, but this wasri't
poble. So then I ot bored with t? he eountrysidc and came to irrc::o.
T; was in 1963 or so. As I saicl, I ?,:ot bored with the countryside s.nci
cacto laraeaibo because here at least there's electricity and schools
and .01311er thnp!s. I began working for construction companies for 16
vq.1"6) it is no lon-er possible for me to go to the
7 " ? o
1Y:)? 'cocar::e. my b!
stu-pid, uncdted, o1 could, back afte:r:
because I wol.'ld be a forci6ner in my own country.
The pattern of Colombian indoc.umntdos invading and clearing lana; often
?llsalIr, for the subsequent' use of Vers::zuclans has become an establisho', L:11;-
b
-01;.1 loot :,21 the coontryNiae awl
?410-1.1that two. of the(:.c.zuntry's mc.):7;1: vorost reservfosv
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rIC:Z)
D.o:st decade and destroyed in.xough7iy ;;) preont of their-total area by norcale
;Colombian conr?707ror, '"?-rnr'"''.1-'? 'ol-o,,,o.-.o.:, 4:8-1.1.ouThLve, ?Both of those for-
i _ost reservos are near.the Colombian frontieran on offle:sal'toldi.7..e. "linat'of-
,
V
'ten happena lc that the Colombian conua.o,:oros entor'into agreements with unscr-
_-_-_,..........
pulous Venezuelans who want thirJ,land;..ho take ?' over from the Colombia_ns af-
. ' /
-tier it boon cleared& paying the Colombinns ,for'thoir 'improvements? ("Dien-
. .
.11churlas). In other oases., the Colombians find Venezuelan women, beget Vene-3
zuelan children; become -members and ovoLl leaders of the Venezuelan peasant s:-
. .
dicatos which makes it impossible fo,r uo to gst thcm out of there without pay-
. -.- . .? . . - %:,
in them.off. But .if we pay them'off, moro Colombians will come ovcz fro m the
?
ther side tory for the same dcal,Unfortunatelya. nobody cared about- what has
_
.cen happeninrrro the national forest reserves until the dispute with Colombla
ver the Gulf of Venezuela became a public; issue,"
-In the city of Maracaibo a similar pattern of land invasion has oreated
many of the new squatter barrios. nThereys a desperate shortoge of public
lands in -Maracaibo because most of the o:ildal (communal) lands were parceled
o ,
out dui,inp: the amez dietatorshi-o (1908-35Y to the? dictator's friends"
one .
city official said. The municiPal housing af2::enoy has to purchase land now be-
cause most of the city's land was stolen in this way. What happens lloW is that
inv'tding land in Maracaibo has become a business. in which Colombians seam to
?lai a major. role. The Andocumentndos have no icgal ?status hea, so they can-
# ..........w......................._
.ot kc;.;.p the land they invade. The organizers of a now invasion.charo. each
-.
r:axkly 50 bolivars for ?settlement rights and 50 bolivars forIstrectS,? But
t . ...,...............
......._...............,...
x
fp w months later each parcel of invaded land can be sold for psi 1,000, and
i.
'or Bs. 2000 after public utilities arrive." Visitinrr the squatter settle-
rents of Maracaibo, one is impressed by the luxurious size of these houso-lcts7
nd by the sight of largo houses with tl?o or 'three air-conditioners no).:t to
iscrable shacks that seem to date from tho original invasion, This -,-,11',?nomonon
.L'
as explained to :no recently by a community development worker in
;..
plivar;
Tnis oarrio wa2 founded five years ao, The first invaors of 1:1co-o.-,-corroo
oin,-7.!aracaibo are Colombians. Won they nee that; a z:11
hcir house-lots at s profit, they sli the olth21' go back tc) ....)1o.:1-
bla or 1.10V3 on to found new borrio? tlzrz.is eut to, 1:):.1 a
my cane, for .example, 7
J . 4 , AUWIOD'.U0...1.-ICIA.: a r?.2..;.1.1.
- ?
. . .Ll
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InF, ano0c:rt').c.rlo, "24 de Jz:A.Lo,' ant!.
.(!caled. th