Venezuela: Four Corners-Venezuela link includes many local ties

Twelve families from Venezuela took English classes at San Juan College last semester. Baseball, a mainstay of recreation life in the Four Corners, is the No. 1 sport in Venezuela. And several local companies such as ConocoPhillips in Farmington have their employee rosters dotted with people who have lived or worked in Venezuela as part of their job in the booming oil-and-gas industry. The unsuspecting student of world affairs might be surprised to learn how many links there are between New Mexico and the South American nation of Venezuela. 'The governor was just there,' an aide to Gov. Bill Richardson pointed out. Immigration, obviously, is a longtime fact of life for New Mexicans. Not only do thousands of Mexicans seek passage across the Mexico-New Mexico border each year, but many more come from further south in Latin America. They see New Mexico as a popular gateway state into the United States.