Plan Vuelta a la Patria: about 200 Venezuelan migrants return to their country after xenophobic attack in Chile

A total of 200 Venezuelans return to their country this Monday from Chile through the government program known as “Plan Vuelta a la Patria”, after the aggressions and attacks against migrants that occurred at the end of September in the city of Iquique, in northern Chile.

“Today 200 nationals return from Chile to Venezuelan territory, thanks to the Vuelta a la Patria Program. Venezuela welcomes his sons and daughters with open arms ”, indicated the Venezuelan Foreign Minister, Félix Plasencia, in his account of the social network Twitter.

Previously, the vice minister for Latin America, Rander Peña, had indicated in a video broadcast on the same social network that the return plan for this group of venezuelans was activated, “After the terrible events that we saw on September 24, 25 in Iquique”.

On September 25, a massive march against irregular migration carried out in Iquique, in the north of Chile, ended with violent incidents against foreigners, including Venezuelans, who were stranded in the city waiting to regularize their situation.

The march, which moved through the center of the city, ended with the burning of tents that were used by foreigners to spend the night in squares and beaches, act that was denounced as a xenophobic attack.

The government of Venezuela repudiated said aggressions and the president Nicolás Maduro ordered the activation of the so-called “Plan Vuelta a la Patria” so that the Venezuelans affected in Chile could return to their country.

According to data from the Interagency Coordination Platform for Refugees and Migrants of Venezuela (R4V), almost 5.7 million Venezuelans have left their country due to the crisis.

Of these, about 457,000 have settled in Chile, which makes it the fourth largest recipient of Venezuelan migrants in the world.

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