Students from a small Nebraska college who were studying abroad were confined to their campus area in southeastern Venezuela for about a week before aborting the educational trip, a school spokeswoman said Tuesday.
Jacque Smith, of Union College in Lincoln, said 21 students in the international rescue and relief program were supposed to study tropical medicine and humanitarian relief in the South American country for 10 weeks.
They arrived in Maurak on Feb. 8 and were scheduled to leave April 23, but the trip was cut short after the government questioned whether the group had permission to be in the country, and also documentation for two doctors who accompanied the students, she said.
The students and their chaperones—32 people in all—were confined to their campus near Maurak for about a week as Venezuelan officials checked the paperwork, according to the school.
Alicia Archer, a junior from Nucla, Colo., said Tuesday that the week spent confined was “frustrating and boring” but that she did not feel threatened.
“I think other people were a lot more worried than we were,” she said. “We knew it was a big issue, and it could get out of hand, but we never felt like it did.”
Concerns about the documentation arose more than a month into the trip. Prior to that, the students had been taking two- and three-day trips to remote villages to offer medical care.
Smith said the group was not in imminent danger during its confinement, which the government called protective custody, and many of the students were not alarmed.
“The students were far more laid back about the situation,” she said.
Three guards were stationed at the campus during the confinement, but Archer said they were friendly toward the group.
The students had access to a phone, and a Venezuelan guide was allowed to leave to buy food, Archer said.
When the documentation issue was not resolved, the group decided to leave the country. But, Smith said, they were delayed until April 6, when the government gave them clearance to leave.
The group arrived in Miami on Tuesday. Smith said half the students were expected to fly to Omaha on Wednesday, and the rest would be traveling directly home.
Founded in 1891, Union College is owned and operated by the Seventh-day Adventist Church. There are 982 students enrolled there, according to the university’s Web site.
The college’s international rescue and relief program is three years old. The school said Tuesday that it was committed to continuing the program and would determine whether Venezuela would remain a host country.
“It’s definitely a program for the adventurous,” Archer said.
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Associated Press Writer Anna Jo Bratton in Omaha, Neb., contributed to this report.
