Close the border

“Close the border, close the border.” That was the cry from citizens outside the Queen’s Park Oval, Port of Spain on Thursday night, mere metres away from a heavy police presence and Venezuelans who are trying to register to work in this country.

Led by Kia Hosein and Winston Ragoo, over 100 frustrated citizens voiced their disapproval with the Government’s decision to allow Venezuelans to register and work for one year in TT.

Hosein, speaking on a microphone, said to her followers that they must take their protest to Parliament. “We can’t stay up whole night, but we not moving. The news stations will tape that we did not move, the whole world will know we did not move, the country will know we stand up and we did not move and that is most important. We are not going to stay shouting all night, but we not moving. We are taking a peaceful march from here with the protection from the police service to the Parliament office where we will get comfortable.”

Hosein said a two-hour protest outside the Oval was not sufficient.

“Who want to go could go, but the real (people) will stand up and stay because you can’t take back something with that little minor sacrifice of two hours. You come like the other protests it had before. You have to stay, the world must know we sleep on the ground for our country, the country must know how much of us sleep on the ground to stand up and fight because that is how they will join us.”

At the Oval, Police Commissioner Gary Griffith spoke to one of the organisers as the protesters kept chanting, "Close the borders."

The protesters did not back down and moved in a convoy style to the Parliament building on Wrightson Road, where they assembled at about 11.30 pm.

Today is the last chance for Venezuelans to register after a two week amnesty that began on May 31.

National Security Minister Stuart Young is expected to have a press conference at 6 pm, an hour after the registration is due to end.