Amid crisis, Venezuela’s Lebanese community eye Lebanon

Lebanon has had its share of street unrest over the years, but protests in Venezuela this year are making it seem the more appealing option. (AFP)
Updated 03 February 2019
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Amid crisis, Venezuela’s Lebanese community eye Lebanon

  • For Venezuela’s Lebanese community the turmoil at home is making Lebanon seem very appealing

DUBAI: A Venezuelan man sits on the sidewalk of a city in chaos. He clutches a black gym bag, carrying all his possessions, forced to leave his home due to unbearable economic and political crises that have withered the country. 

A world away, a Lebanese woman withdraws US dollars from her bank every week and tucks them under her bed for fear that the economy, and the currency, will crash. Both countries are suffering dire economic woe, yet more and more Venezuelans are migrating to Lebanon every year.

“When people leave Venezuela, they are not thinking: ‘I’m going back to Lebanon because there is no government.’ They are looking for work,” Amir Richani, a geopolitical analyst with ClipperData, told Arab News.

“The migration of Venezuelans is due to the economic situation. As long as it does not improve, we will only see more people leaving.”

Venezuela — sitting on the world’s largest oil reserves — has suffered economic meltdown under President Nicolas Maduro, marked by hyperinflation and shortages of basic necessities, including food and medicine.

Opposition leader Juan Guaido, who declared himself the interim president last week, argues that Maduro usurped the presidency following elections in May 2018, widely considered to have been fraudulent.

Yet despite this turmoil, what could possibly motivate Venezuelans to leave their country for one in as bad a condition as Lebanon?

It has been nine months since Saad Hariri was tasked with forming a government in Beirut. Lebanon has the third highest debt to GDP ratio in the world, and its economy is in tatters. 

Last year, the global ratings agency Moody’s gave Lebanon’s economy a “low (+)” grade, due to “the deterioration in the regional economic and political environment.” This, and the fear of a real estate collapse, have taken the country to the brink. 

Economic growth has plummeted. At a solid 9 percent before the Syrian conflict began in 2011, it has hovered around 1.1 percent for the past three years. Public debt stands at $82 billion, equivalent to 150 percent of GDP.

However, the Mediterranean country is still seen as a more stable option than Venezuela, where the value of the minimum wage keeps dropping with daily fluctuations in the price of dollars on the black market.

“Although many of them come back to Lebanon as Venezuelans, a big portion of them are still attached to their Lebanese roots,” Richani said. “So as long as Venezuela is in conflict, we will see a larger number of Lebanese descendants coming back or trying to come back to Lebanon.”

‘It’s sad and it’s frustrating’

Venezuela has long been a country with problems. Its capital, Caracas, is the second most dangerous city in the world, with a murder rate of 111 per 100,000 people. Its inflation rate has reached hyper levels as consumer prices rose 488,865 percent in the 12 months since September 2017, and it is ranked 139th of 140 countries in the world for corruption, according to the World Economic Forum’s 2018 Global Competitiveness Index.

According to the UN High Commission for Refugees, about 3 million people have fled Venezuela, with more expected to follow. Roughly 350,000 of Venezuela’s 32 million citizens are of Lebanese descent, while more than 12,000 Venezuelans are registered with the embassy in Beirut.

Lebanese-Venezuelan Rodan Imad was one of those who left. Imad fled Venezuela for the US in 2007 before moving to Beirut in 2011, after he and his family were robbed at gunpoint in their home, which was becoming a regular occurance.

“The sweat and hard work that my parents had put in, in just one night, was completely destroyed, and we just have to accept it,” he said.

After he left for Beirut, Imad studied landscape architecture at the American University, where many other Venezuelans also enrolled. While he was lucky enough to be able to afford the tuition, many others were not.

“I saw how people were coming from Venezuela, they were coming from very rough times, they lost their businesses, they lost all their savings,” Imad said.

“You see engineers who graduated from Venezuela, engineers and doctors, who come to Lebanon working in low-paying service jobs just to make ends meet. It wouldn’t be the same in Europe, but they don’t have any family elsewhere so have to come to Lebanon because they think they will feel secure. But when they arrive, it’s hell.”

While Lebanon is more financially and politically secure than Venezuela, it is still far from ideal. “Lebanon is not the land of opportunity. People just had to start again,” Imad said.

‘My second home’

As more Venezuelans of Lebanese descent arrived, a Latin American club at the American University of Beirut was formed to bring all those who had fled closer together and to create a community in their new home.

“We started out as 40 members who were mostly just Lebanese, but over the years, as more Venezuelans came, we reached higher numbers, with Venezuelans, Chileans and Colombians,” Ihab Richani, co-founder and former president of the club, told Arab News.

Apart from organizing Spanish classes and get-togethers, the club also tries to voice its members’ opinions on the conflict in the South American country.

“We try to, but we don’t have much of a voice here in Lebanon. We’ve reached 200-250 people in a protest, so it’s not a powerful voice, but at least it feels like home when we’re all from Venezuela, and everyone is interested in going back,” Ihab, Amir’s brother, said.

While they attend protests against the regime in Caracas, they also attend Lebanese protests. “It’s our second home, at the end of the day.”


Germany pushing for EU to relax sanctions on Syria, sources say

Updated 2 sec ago
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Germany pushing for EU to relax sanctions on Syria, sources say

This requires an unanimous EU decision
Germany’s foreign ministry declined to comment

BERLIN: Germany is leading European Union discussions on easing sanctions imposed on the Syrian government of toppled President Bashar Assad and aiding the country’s population, foreign ministry sources said on Tuesday.
“We are actively discussing ways to provide sanctions relief to the Syrian people in certain sectors,” one of the sources said. This requires an unanimous EU decision.
Germany’s foreign ministry declined to comment.
A lightning rebel offensive overthrew Assad on Dec. 8 and Islamist rebels Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS), which led the advance, set up a caretaker government.
The US on Monday issued a six-month sanctions exemption for transactions with some government bodies to ease the flow of humanitarian assistance, address Syria’s power shortages and allow personal remittances.
The EU, United States, Britain and other governments imposed tough sanctions on Syria after Assad’s crackdown on pro-democracy protests in 2011 spiraled into civil war.
HTS has renounced its ties with Al Qaeda but is still designated a terrorist entity by the United Nations and US
German officials first circulated thoughts on easing sanctions on Syria in documents sent to Brussels before Christmas.
The FT first reported on Tuesday that the documents outline how the EU could gradually ease restrictions on Damascus in return for progress on social issues, including safeguarding minority and women’s rights and upholding commitments to ensuring non-proliferation of weapons.
The FT, citing an unnamed source familiar with the EU discussions, added that, like Washington, the bloc could make any easing of sanctions temporary to ensure that it could be reversed if necessary.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock on Friday traveled to Syria for a one-day trip with her French counterpart on behalf of the EU and met with HTS leader Ahmed Al-Sharaa.
Baerbock said during her visit that all Syrian groups including women and Kurds must be involved in the country’s transition if Damascus wants European support.

Algeria slams French ‘interference’ over jailing of writer

Updated 40 min 11 sec ago
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Algeria slams French ‘interference’ over jailing of writer

  • The Algerian foreign ministry said Macron “unduly and falsely” presented Sansal’s detention “as a matter of freedom of expression, which it isn’t in the eyes of the law of a sovereign and independent state”

ALGIERS: Algeria accused France on Tuesday of “unacceptable and blatant interference” after President Emmanuel Macron said Algiers was “dishonoring itself” by keeping French-Algerian writer Boualem Sansal behind bars on national security charges.
Sansal, a literary figure who has been critical of the Algerian authorities, was arrested at Algiers airport in November and has been kept in custody despite calls from Paris for his release.
In its response, the Algerian foreign ministry said Macron’s comments “can only be rejected and condemned for they are blatant and unacceptable interference in an internal Algerian affair.”
Sansal’s arrest came amid growing tensions between France and Algeria over a range of issues.
“Algeria, which we love so much and with which we share so many children and so many stories, is dishonoring itself by preventing a seriously ill man from receiving treatment,” Macron said in a speech on Monday.
He described the 75-year-old, who acquired French citizenship last year, as a “freedom fighter.”
The Algerian foreign ministry said Macron “unduly and falsely” presented Sansal’s detention “as a matter of freedom of expression, which it isn’t in the eyes of the law of a sovereign and independent state.”
“It essentially stems from challenging the territorial integrity of the country, an offense punishable by Algerian law,” it added.
According to Paris newspaper Le Monde, Sansal’s arrest was linked to statements to a far-right French media outlet in which he repeated Morocco’s claim that its territory was truncated in favor of Algeria under French colonial rule.
In a speech in late December, Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune called him an “imposter” sent by France to make such claims.
Sansal is known for his strong stances against both authoritarianism and Islamism, as well as being a forthright campaigner on freedom of expression issues.
In 2015, he won the Grand Prix du Roman of the French Academy for his book “2084: The End of the World,” a dystopian novel set in an Islamist totalitarian world in the aftermath of a nuclear holocaust.
Algeria had already withdrawn its ambassador over the summer after the French government supported a Moroccan offer of autonomy for the disputed Western Sahara in place of the self-determination referendum stipulated by a 1991 UN Security Council resolution.
 

 


Orthodox Christians mark a somber Christmas in Gaza

Updated 07 January 2025
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Orthodox Christians mark a somber Christmas in Gaza

  • In the courtyard of the church, which was partially destroyed in an Israeli airstrike in October 2023, the destruction that has devastated much of Gaza is clear in the surrounding bombed-out buildings

GAZA CITY: Orthodox Christians marked a somber Christmas on Tuesday in the war-torn Gaza Strip, with worshippers saying there would be no gifts for children and no joy during this year’s holiday.
In the richly decorated Church of Saint Porphyrius in the heart of Gaza City, as fighting raged across the Palestinian territory, around a dozen members of the Orthodox Christian community gathered for the annual morning service.
Sitting in the wooden pews, older men and women joined Archbishop Alexios of Tiberias in lighting candles and praying for friends and family and for an end to the now 15-month-old war.
Around 1,100 Christians from various denominations remain in Gaza amid the fighting, sparked by militant Palestinian group Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel.
“Holidays are limited to prayers only, with no gifts for children, no joy or any signs of joy for children on this holiday,” Ramez Al-Suri told AFP.
“We hope and ask all countries to help bring a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.”
“We have been at war for 15 months and we in the Christian community always ask for peace and all our prayers are for love and peace for all and for the war to end as soon as possible,”
he said.
In the courtyard of the church, which was partially destroyed in an Israeli airstrike in October 2023, the destruction that has devastated much of Gaza is
clear in the surrounding bombed-out buildings.
Standing outside the church, Fuad Ayyad said “we wake up every minute to bombing, massacres, genocide or the martyrdom of a citizen.”
In the 2023 strike that hit the church, 18 Palestinian Christians were killed, according to the Health Ministry in the Hamas-run territory.
“Today we welcome the holiday with joy, but a diminished joy as Christians,” Ayyad said, adding, “sadness remains present and dominant within the Western and Eastern churches and within the Palestinian community whether Muslim or Christian.”
On Dec. 25, when the Catholic and other churches celebrated Christmas, Pope Francis called in his annual address for “arms to be silenced” around the world and appealed for peace in the Middle East, Ukraine and Sudan.
He also denounced the “extremely grave” humanitarian situation in Gaza.
The Hamas attack of October 7, 2023, resulted in the deaths of 1,208 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli data.
Since then, Israel’s military offensive has killed 45,885 people in Gaza, a majority of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry that the United Nations considers reliable.

 


Gaza officials say children killed as Israel hits Khan Yunis

Updated 07 January 2025
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Gaza officials say children killed as Israel hits Khan Yunis

  • Four children were killed when a drone strike hit their tent in the Al-Mawasi area
  • Two people were killed when a strike hit a car in Khan Yunis

GAZA STRIP, Palestinian Territories: Gaza health officials said a wave of Israeli strikes hit the territory’s southern district of Khan Yunis on Tuesday evening, killing a dozen people, seven of them children.
At least five strikes targeted parts of Khan Yunis, including one in the Al-Mawasi area where thousands of displaced Palestinians are living in tents along the coast.
Four children were killed when a drone strike hit their tent in the Al-Mawasi area, the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry reported.
A witness told AFP that several tents caught fire from the strike, which also wounded more than 20 people.
Five people, including three children, were killed and several wounded in a strike on a house in Khan Yunis, Gaza’s civil defense agency said.
Two people were killed when a strike hit a car in Khan Yunis, while another two were killed when an apartment was hit.
There was no immediate comment from the military about the latest strikes.
They came as mediators Qatar, Egypt and the United States brokered negotiations between Israel and Hamas in Doha on a deal to end the fighting in Gaza and secure the release of Israeli hostages.
In recent months, the Israeli military has focused its offensive on northern districts of Gaza, particularly the town of Jabalia and its adjacent refugee camp.
“We won’t stop. We will bring them (Hamas) to the point where they understand that they must return all hostages,” Israel’s army chief Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi told troops during a visit to Jabalia late on Monday.
“They see, every single day, what you are doing to them, and they understand that this is becoming unbearable,” he said, according to a statement released by the military.
During their October 7, 2023 attack, which sparked the war, Palestinian militants seized 251 hostages, of whom 96 remain in Gaza. The Israeli military says 34 of those are dead.
The attack resulted in the deaths of 1,208 people on Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to Israeli official figures.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed 45,885 people in Gaza, a majority of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry that the United Nations considers reliable.


Harris will travel to Asia, Mideast and Europe during her final week in office

Updated 07 January 2025
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Harris will travel to Asia, Mideast and Europe during her final week in office

  • Harris plans to visit Changi Naval Base in Singapore and meet with leaders of the city-state
  • The next stop is Bahrain, where Harris will visit the headquarters of the US 5th Fleet

WASHINGTON: Vice President Kamala Harris plans to close out her term with an around-the-world trip making stops in Singapore, Bahrain and Germany, her office said.
The trip, which is scheduled to last from Jan. 13 to Jan. 17, will be a final opportunity for Harris to address US foreign policy challenges before Donald Trump takes office. Second gentleman Doug Emhoff is expected to join the vice president.
Although she has not disclosed her next steps after losing the presidential election, the expansive travel suggests that Harris might want to continue playing a role on the global stage. There’s also speculation that Harris could run for governor of her home state of California.
Dean Lieberman, Harris’ deputy national security adviser, said in a written statement that “the vice president felt it important to spend some of her final days in office thanking and engaging directly with US servicemembers deployed overseas, which as she has said, has been one of her greatest privileges as vice president.”
There are US troops based at all three of Harris’ stops.
Harris plans to visit Changi Naval Base in Singapore and meet with leaders of the city-state. Singapore’s location in the Indo-Pacific region makes it a key partner for addressing issues involving China, including freedom of navigation in the South China Sea.
The next stop is Bahrain, where Harris will visit the headquarters of the US 5th Fleet. The fleet has been engaged in efforts to protect Israel from Iranian attacks and regional shipping activity from the Houthis in Yemen.
Harris’ final stop will be Spangdahlem Air Base in Germany, home to a deployment of US Air Force fighter jets. She plans to talk about the importance of NATO in deterring Russia, which launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine nearly three years ago.
Harris has previously visited Germany and Singapore. Bahrain will be the 22nd country she’s visited during her term.
“The vice president continues to believe in a strong US global leadership role because it benefits the security and prosperity of the American people, and she will reaffirm this throughout her trip,” Lieberman said.