THE ROLE OF CHURCHES AND RELIGIOUS ORGANIZATIONS IN THE VENEZUELAN MIGRATION IN RORAIMA (2018-2022)

Abstract

The Venezuelan diaspora has been a phenomenon engendered by the combination of changes in the international conjuncture and by a double internal crisis of political and economic nature that was structured throughout the 2010s and rapidly reverberated in a rapid international exodus of more than 10% of the  population up to 2020, when international borders were closed due to the multilateral spread of the Covid-19 pandemic across the globe. It is no accident that Brazil has become the fifth largest epicenter of destination for the flows of immigrants and refugees through the state of Roraima as an immediate border in relation to Venezuela. A required response from the Federal Government, “Operation Welcome” was created in order to deal with the complex dilemmas that emerged in the terrestrial axis of the displacements, from the Roraima municipality of Pacaraima (border line), passing through the state capital, Boa Vista (border strip), until reaching the capital of the state of Amazonas, Manaus (the largest economic center in the Amazon). Taking for granted a study agenda focused on the governance system of the “Welcome Operation”, structured by the Federal Government, International Organizations, and Civil Society Organizations, this article presents as a study problem the following question related to the last actor of this tripod: What is the role of churches and religious organizations in providing humanitarian services to the community of Venezuelan immigrants and refugees in Roraima? The methodological approach of the research is characterized by the use of an exploratory-explanatory-descriptive approach regarding to  the ends and as quali-quantitative regarding to the means, with the deductive method being the guiding thread for structuring the analyzes and discussions through a methodological triangulation of the procedures of data collection (bibliographic, legal and integrative review) and data analysis (case study based on social hermeneutics, as well as graphic and iconographic analysis that took into account a thematic selection of paper from the Folha de Boa Vista newspaper). The participation of Churches and religious organizations of Christian nature, both Catholic and Evangelical, has been characteristic for the Venezuelan humanitarian assistance in Roraima, demonstrating that despite the fact that they have missionary goals in order to promote the sense of religiosity, most of the institutions involved work with the prioritization of humanitarian service lato sensu, regardless of the religious affiliations of the target audience. Based on the results presented throughout this research it is concluded that the Venezuelan diaspora reproduces a typical profile of a national crisis with spillovers in international displacement, as well as demonstrating such as in other humanitarian crises that the care of the flows of refugees and immigrants incorporates a clear provision of humanitarian services by Churches and Christian religious organizations within a governance system, in which not only governments participate with human and financial resources, but also includes UN International Organizations and Civil Society Organizations.