The second-largest Indigenous community in Venezuela, with about 41,000 members, the Warao are increasingly making the dangerous trek to neighbouring Brazil, fleeing famine and their own country’s economic and political crisis.
Since the early 2010s, Venezuela has experienced economic, social and humanitarian turmoil, causing many residents to leave for neighbouring countries. More than 6 million people – more than 20% of the population – have fled, one of the largest exoduses in Latin America ever.
The Warao people are no exception. About 7,000 Indigenous Venezuelans have entered Brazil since 2014, amid more than 560,000 Venezuelans, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
Far from the lush forests of north-eastern Venezuela and southern Guyana, where they once lived a traditional lifestyle, the Warao – whose name means “boat people” – now survive on one meal a day. Often, it’s a meagre portion of fish and rice. “For the rest of the day, the children’s stomachs are soothed with sugar water,” says a distraught mother.
When Venezuelan migration began, the Brazilian government built shelters and adopted legislative measures to promote the integration of Indigenous communities. The constitutional protection reserved for Indigenous Brazilians now apply to Indigenous people from all countries. The Waraos are, therefore, legal refugees in Brazil.
But most of the Warao have no permanent job in Brazil. Some men unload fishing boats and get a few fish in exchange, but most speak only a few words of Portuguese; hardly any have studied. To pay their rent, they are reduced to begging.
“At first, institutions and associations came to help us, such as ACNUR [UNHCR], but then our situation ceased to be considered an emergency,” says García. This community’s dream is to obtain land to farm in Brazil.
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