Curacao’s iconic floating market is reborn after reopening the border with Venezuela

Four generations of the Lambs have crossed 100 km of sea between Venezuela and Curacao to sell fruit and vegetables in the emblematic floating market of Willemstad, which has recovered in recent months after four hard years of border closures.

“We have the best of the best,” says one of the vendors to a woman from Curacao who asks about the price of avocados, while a couple of tourists walk on the boardwalk and observe the colorful market with curiosity.

“It was very hard. “A lot of people depend on this,” says René Cordero, 32, when remembering the days of closure. “The reopening was very good news for everyone, Venezuelans and Curacaoans, because it creates sources of income for everyone.”

Just like his father, his grandfather and his great-grandfather, René lives in this picturesque market – a fixture in Curacao tourist guides next to the multicolored colonial-style buildings of Willemstad and its beaches – which is gradually returning to normal.

Venezuela’s borders with Curacao, Aruba and Bonaire, islands in the Caribbean belonging to the Kingdom of the Netherlands as autonomous countries, were closed by order of the government of Nicolás Maduro in 2019 and reopened in April 2023.

Curaçao had received food and medicine sent by the United States as “humanitarian aid” requested by the opposition leader Juan Guaidó, then recognized as “interim president” of Venezuela by the White House, in a failed offensive to displace Maduro from power.

The diplomatic crisis meant a pause for this market that began with the refinery that operates in Curacao, founded in 1918. More demand for food, more money, and an opportunity for populations in Venezuela passing through the Caribbean.

long tradition

The sun hasn’t risen yet. You hear a radio from Venezuela: an announcer reviews the performance of Venezuelan baseball players in the Major League spring training and then the national anthem plays. Los Corderos and their crew, meanwhile, sort out the merchandise before opening.

“I took my first trip when I was 16, with my dad,” Ramón, René’s father, tells AFP. “It’s not easy, but here we are.”

“I always tell people when we travel: ‘from the moment you get out of bed to come until you go back to your bed when you return, this is work and work’adds Ramón with a laugh.

The family boat, Francisca I, floats behind their vegetable stand after having made the eight-hour journey across the Caribbean from La Vela de Coro (Falcón state, northern Venezuela).

These merchants buy their merchandise from the large import and export ships that arrive in Curacao, many also from Venezuela, and resell them in the market. They stay two months in Willemstad before returning home to plan their next visit.

A difficult obstacle has been the mandatory repairs of the ships, due to their deterioration during their long anchorage. Of about 30 vessels in the floating market dynamics before the closure, six are active.

Ramón sold animals from a pig farm he owns to raise the necessary money and came to bet on the dangerous migratory route of the Darién Jungle, a crossroads between Colombia and Panama heading to the United States. When he had visited seven countries, he says, he returned to Venezuela due to the tightening of President Joe Biden’s immigration policy.

And it coincided with the reopening of the border between Venezuela and Curacao.

Symbol

“Here the price is a little more comfortable than if you go to the supermarket and everything is fresh”says Carlos Veris from Curacao after shopping with his wife.

Tourists are key in the equation. “The cruise ships arrive nearby and that helps us a lot”, maintains René.

During the closure, Curaçao authorities gave permission to Haitian artisans to work in the market, who today remain there alongside Venezuelan vendors.

A street plaque, donated in 2007 by the refinery, celebrates the tradition: “This floating market has been for almost a century a symbol of the fraternity and brotherhood of two neighboring and brother towns.”