Did you know that Venezuela means “little Venice” in Spanish?  That was the name Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci gave it (Veneziola in Italian) when he visited it in 1499 and saw indigenous huts built on pilings around a lake. (Some 5 million Venezuelans have Italian roots.)

That story came to mind this week when the news broke that Florida’s Governor Ron DeSantis airlifted 50 Venezuelan illegal aliens to Martha’s Vineyard.  Coincidentally, I discovered that my Hispanic cousin Juan Mancinez was among those flown to that magic island off the coast of Massachusetts.  I wasted no time in reaching out to “Juanito” for details on his travails. 

Venezuela was a rich country when most Italians emigrated there in the 1950s.  Oil had been discovered in Lake Maracaibo in 1922 and the boom times began.  The country became the second largest producer of oil in the world and the 4th richest nation on the planet.  It still has more oil reserves than Saudi Arabia or the U.S.  But things went south when oil prices dropped in the 1990s.  Juanito tells me the country never diversified its economy, depending too much on oil revenues.  Worse, socialist policies used oil revenue for government giveaways and free education and healthcare.  Little if any money was reinvested in the upgrade of the petroleum infrastructure. 

Marxist presidents Hugo Chàvez and Nicolàs Maduro spread the oil money around to “win” votes and labeled their political opponents ‘enemies of the state’ and arrested them.  In 2004, the Law on Social Responsibility was passed to ban any content on media that could “incite or promote hatred,” or “disrespect authorities.”  (I’d guess we would call it “disinformation.”)  Then, both the Legislature and Supreme Court were replaced with ones more friendly to Maduro’s version of a ‘Red New Deal’.

Things didn’t go as planned and Venezuela is in a tailspin: 114% inflation, shortages of everything (even baby formula, can you imagine!), poverty in the extreme, and a weaponized justice system.  Some 6 million Venezuelans have fled the country (pop. 28 million).  Cousin Juanito did it the hard way – walking.  He passed through Columbia, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala, and Mexico.  He had to pay dearly to Mexican cartels, saw their rape trees and fentanyl smuggling.   According to international law, Juanito was supposed to claim asylum in the first country he reached but he dreamed of the United States – a capitalist country.  He heard that he could just walk across our border.

When I told Juanito that all our government officials have assured the American people that our border is “secure.” I cited Pres. Biden’s Press Secretary Kerine Jean-Pierre: “It’s not like someone walks over” (8/29/22)   Juanito just laughed, calling it “desinformación” which would get her locked up in Venezuela.

So Juanito arrived in Texas where they gave him food, a bed, a cell phone, and pocket money, merely asking him to report to an immigration office when he gets settled in any American city. That’s when he heard about Governor Abbott of Texas and Governor DeSantis offering one-way tickets to wealthy areas.  In Juanito’s case it was to a beautiful resort island where President Obama has a 29-acre estate.  Not only is Martha’s Vineyard rich, but it’s a sanctuary site with signs like Hate Has No Place Here and All Are Welcome.  Juanito thinks that Governor DeSantis is a very considerate man whose own state is not a sanctuary or welcoming place, but who was willing to pay Juanito’s airfare to a place that treats border violators with dignity and generosity.

Upon landing in Martha’s Vineyard, Juanito and his Venezuelans were shocked to find that the entire corporate media were there to film them, something he never saw in Texas, where only FOX News has covered the 3 million illegals overwhelming our border.  He heard local politicians on the island call Gov. DeSantis a “human trafficker” and “kidnapper” for flying Venezuelans to an island paradise.  And a paradise it was until Juanito and his compatriots were shoved on a bus within 24-hours of arrival and ferried to an army barracks on Cape Cod.  With 70 off-season hotels the sanctuary island had no room for 50 asylum seekers.  But Juanito informs me the compassionate islanders cheered and waved support as the ferry pulled out.  

I suggested to my cousin that he and his illegals would find a better welcome here on Long Island in the Hamptons. Surely, the DeSantis-hating corporate and entertainment elites in the mega-rich Hamptons would not object to a flood of diversity and people of color. -JLM