Afro-descendence in Venezuela: Between legal recognition and political-social negligence

Abstract

Venezuela, despite being a multicultural and multi-ethnic country, is traditionally only recognized as a country of European origin; At times he accepts with apprehension his indigenous heritage, but never his African past. For decades, the Caribbean country maintained an opendoor migration policy for those from Europe and the Europeanized countries of South America such as Argentina, Chile and Uruguay, with the purpose of laundering the population and advancing the process of de-Africanization of the Venezuelan society. This narrative was accompanied by the systematic invisibilization of people of African descent in the media, as well as their exclusion and underrepresentation in educational, labor, political and cultural spaces. What this article tries to show is that, based on these facts, a narrative would be constructed in which there was no Afro-descendant population in Venezuela and the small population present was attributed to unwanted migration from countries such as Colombia, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic. This perspective had long-term consequences, which meant that the denial of Afro-descendence became a statistical invisibilization, but also in political, social and legal negligence, which continues to be suffered by the majority.