WILLEMSTAD - For 19 days nothing has been known about Alexander Barrios, a Tachirense who 4 years ago established himself in Curacao as an entrepreneur. Today his family goes out to claim support from the Venezuelan police and they say that on the island, the authorities have not shown interest in the situation.

Alexander Barrios (50 years old) disappeared 19 days ago in Curacao. A businessman from Tachira who has been living for four years now in Curaçao where he went to find a better life in view of Venezuela’s situation. He was legally on the island and worked with an advertising company and planned to open a restaurant in the next few days but disappeared without leaving any trace.

This Thursday his brother Armando Barrios and his father Ángel Barrios decided to present the case to the media in Venezuela, in order to make the public known about what is going on.

Armando Barrios reports that his brother disappeared on February 8, and the last contact by WhatsApp was at 1:34 a.m with his wife, who lives in Venezuela, “we did not hear anything from him. We have gone to all the authorities there, to the Venezuelan organizations on the island and even, we have called the Dutch embassy and the truth is that at first we were told that we should not intervene much with this because we could hinder the investigation. But now after two weeks, we decided to report because they have told us absolutely nothing and we have really investigated, and we have several suspicions that we transmitted to the institutions there without results.”

Marginalized investigation

“What we have done today, is to try to sensitize through the media to Venezuelans abroad, on the island, to GMOs, to organizations that help in human rights and obviously to our Venezuelan police, who should defend and care for our people, because we had to emigrate and in this case in a legal and organized way. And it cannot happen that a Venezuelan goes out and is legal, formal in a country and disappears and nothing happens. It cannot be that in the country where he was and where we have requested that they collaborate, they would not pay attention to us.”

His family has no firm suspicions about what could have happened to Alexander Barrios, they only remember a lawsuit he made against another Venezuelan for missing money, when Alexander Barrios employed him in Curacao and the fact is documented.

A day ago, the Barrios family received a call by WhatsApp where they were told that they had Alexander Barrios and asked for ransom in dollars for him, “but I told them that without proof of life we ​​would do nothing. In addition, the person who called me had a Venezuelan accent and it showed that he was in that country.”

- What do the Curacao authorities say about the disappearance of Alexander Barrios?

- “They tell us that they cannot give any information, that they are investigating. That any information given could hinder. It has been too long, we have taken a lot of information because we are doing the work of detectives and we indicate certain people and places, cameras, but they do not tell us anything about bank accounts or telephone calls. At least during the day he went missing, we know where he was, but they haven't even gone and check,” says Armando Barrios.