Ambassador Orlando Vieira Blanco has asked UNHCR for support to activate humanitarian resettlement protocols so that Eldrick Sylla can live in Canada
Draw. – Venezuelan boxer Eldrick Sylla, who participated in the Olympic Games with the refugee team, has the support of the Venezuelan ambassador to Canada, Orlando Vieira Blanco After he was unable to return to Trinidad and Tobago, the country in which he had been living since 2018.
On Wednesday, the diplomat announced that his office had asked the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to activate the “Human Discontent Protocol” so that the 24-year-old boxer could be received in Canada.
Cela Rodriguez, who landed her first Olympic kick by technical knockout, is suspended for Trinidad and Tobago. To enter, he would have to return to Venezuela to apply for a visa and risk arrest by the dictatorship of Nicolás Maduro.
“We urge UNHCR to step up the process for a dignified life,” Vieira Blanco added in her announcement on the social network Twitter.
The fighter, who remains in Tokyo’s Olympic Village, spoke for the first time since he was notified that Trinidad and Tobago could not enter. Although he revised his situation, he preferred to set aside political issues and analyze the sports field and life teaching that this experience left him.
“I represent Venezuela too. I came as a refugee, but for me, I still represent my country, those who left and those who are there and continue to fight for a better country,” Sylla said through stories on his Instagram account in which he thanked the support he received from the public in these The days when his fate is uncertain.
The Venezuelan is the first Latin American member of the refugee team. A project started at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games to give participation to the world’s displaced athletes. In Tokyo, the refugee delegation included 29 athletes.
