Arab community in Venezuela: missing and victims of thefts
Regional-Venezuela, Politics, 12/24/1999

Rescue operations have been continuous in Venezuela amid increasing interests showed by the local authorities to the hit areas by the flood.

Arab sources in Caracas stressed that there are Arabs missing whose number exceeds 12 in the recent floods and that tens of Arab traders were exposed to organized theft operations by local gangs.

Greek Catholic Bishop George Kahaleh told the London-based al-Hayat daily, "We have numerous families in the coastal area who have been damaged. Some 350 cases were reported among more than 50,000 persons of our community only in the coastal state of Vargas, whose houses and revenues were all demolished except ten houses which are damaged but still can be repaired."

He also spoke about "12 missing persons from the same community, including three Lebanese and nine Syrians, most of them are from Aleppo." He added, "I do not want to give names because we still have hope they are alive. There is somebody who saw them driven by the waters. Yet, we still have hopes they had survived." He abstained from mentioning the name of the missing, adding that there are other missing from other communities including Syrians and Lebanese who were missed without knowing about their fate because communications are broken.

He said that a special fund was established to house some 350 evacuated families, members of his community who have been living among friends and relatives in Caracas, including 50 families which had lost all their fortunes and do not even have the price of their bread. He indicated that among the evacuees are owners of 100 villas in the very expensive Lascoweralis district which was covered by mud.

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