The drama of the Venezuelans stranded at the Adolfo Suárez-Barajas international airport in Madrid increases with the hours. The most affected by the situation continue to be the passengers of the Estelar airline, around 60 people who continue sleeping around door 4 of Terminal 1, although they will have to evacuate because the authorities gave them an ultimatum.
The majority of those affected have been able to stay in the homes of relatives or friends, but those who have been left without resources and do not have a place to return to are resisting at the air terminal. They feed on bread and some plates of food that have been donated to them; and they clean themselves, as best they can, in a bathroom that was provided for them.
Jhonny Velázquez is one of those who remain in T1. At this point the only thing he wants, he says, is to return to Venezuela. “We ask the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Spain to give us help, and also the Venezuelan consul in Madrid to give us an answer. We have sick people here, we need help. I have already been here for three days, and there are colleagues who have been waiting for a response for more than a week,” said the Estelar airline passenger, who was supposed to travel on the flight that left on Monday.
Ignacio Marcano had planned to travel to Caracas on December 8. He spent months planning his Christmas vacation to visit his family. This Thursday afternoon he went to Terminal 4 of the Madrid airport to try to find answers to his questions.
“We woke up to the news that Iberia’s license to fly to Venezuela was revokedso we don’t even have hope that they will reschedule the flight. The question now is: are they going to refund us the money for those tickets? Here at the airport no one knows how to give us a reason for anything, and what they told us is that we have to wait; “That in case there is any news, the airline has regular channels to provide information,” said the young Venezuelan, who has lived in Madrid for six years.
On Wednesday, the Nicolás Maduro regime, through the National Institute of Civil Aeronautics (INAC), revoked the license to fly to and from Venezuela to Iberia, Tap, Gol, Latam and Turkishbut on the other hand it has not made any statement in relation to the airlines Estelar, Air Europa and Plus Ultra, which have also suspended their flights from Madrid.
Venezuelans stranded in Spain hope for a quick solution
There is also a group of people affected by the cancellation of Plus Ultra flights in Madrid’s T4. In their case, the airline has offered them the possibility of traveling to Venezuela on December 18, with the exception that they would have to pay 1,200 euros to change the ticket to business class.
Néstor Oropeza had a ticket to travel this Thursday. When he arrived at the Madrid airport he found out that he had to call a phone number, and almost an hour later they answered him to give him that alternative.
“I don’t see this as fair, because I no longer have a way to pay for hotel or food; nor do I have 1,200 euros more to give me a return ticket, because everything is expensive here,” said Oropeza.
In the case of Estelar, an airline employee who was on Wednesday morning at counter 150, set up to serve passengers, explained that they do not handle information about what will happen beyond December 1st, since the initial communication they received was that the flights would depart after that day.
The employee – who preferred not to be identified – pointed out that another problem they have had in knowing how many are affected is that many passengers buy round-trip tickets, but do not return to Venezuela, but rather stay in Spain.
He added that when purchasing these tickets, emails and phone numbers that are not reachable are often provided, so until now they do not know exactly how many people are affected by the cancellation of the flights.
The next few days will be decisive, since everything depends on the conversations between the Venezuelan and Spanish authorities.
