CALGARY -- What started as a trip to visit relatives in Venezuela has turned into a nightmare for one Calgary family.
Luis Rojas, his fiancée, two young children and mother have been in Caracas for almost five months, and they say they’re unable to get a repatriation flight back home to Canada.
“I feel terrible,” Rojas told CTV News. “I want to go back home ... and just feel safe again. That’s my main priority for my family and I.”
Months after Ottawa closed the border and most travellers returned home to Canada, the Rojas family says they’re caught up in red tape and unable to find a flight.
The family believes it could be a political issue.
Relations between Venezuela and Canada aren’t strong, and Canada’s embassy in Caracas has temporarily suspended operations. With borders closed, the family says they believe the Venezuelan government has final say on who can — and who cannot — leave.
Rojas said he believes his family is low on the priority list.
“When you ask for specific information here, they are very vague,” Rojas said.
The Calgarians have been aiming to leave the country for months. Rojas says they missed the original repatriation flights and they were not granted “the proper permits from the government” for the last few humanitarian flights.
Venezuela's health care system has been struggling to control the pandemic as the country currently has more than 7,600 active cases.
Rojas told CTV News he’s concerned about the virus because his mother, his son and himself are immunocompromised.
He also is concerned about what he says is growing unrest outside the apartment they're staying at.
“We don’t feel safe,” Rojas said.
The father said his family can sometimes go days without water or electricity.
More than 6,000 kilometres away, his brother says he’s growing impatient.
“There’s nothing they can do and there’s nothing I can do,” José Rojas said from Calgary. “We just have to sit here and hope that a humanitarian flight or something happens so they can get back.”
CTV News reached out to Global Affairs Canada for comment on this story. As of publishing time, no response has been given.
