Venezuela’s political fight could snarl rush to ship aid in
CUCUTA, Colombia — For Anahis Alvarado, whose battle with kidney failure has become more desperate as Venezuela sinks deeper into crisis, the prospect of bringing in emergency medical and food supplies can’t come soon enough.
She’s watched five fellow patients in her dialysis group die over the past few years due to inadequate care. Only a quarter of the dialysis machines where she receives treatment at a government-run clinic in Caracas still work.
And last week she had to spend almost a third of her family’s monthly income buying basic supplies like surgical gloves and syringes that President Nicolas Maduro’s bankrupt government is no longer able to provide.
“We’re losing time,” the 32-year-old Alvarado said. She hopes relief will soon be on its way.
Some 1,000 kilometres away, in the Colombian border city of Cucuta, opponents of Maduro are hastily putting together plans with U.S. officials to open a “humanitarian corridor” to deliver badly needed food and medicine.
The aid convoy is seen as a key test for Juan Guaido after the opposition leader declared himself interim president in a high-risk challenge to Maduro’s authority — a move that has the backing of almost 40 countries.
But getting the food into Venezuela is no easy task. On Wednesday, a large tanker, mangled fencing and a shipping container were scattered across a bridge connecting the two countries, a makeshift barricade reflecting Maduro’s longstanding rejection of outside assistance.
“We aren’t beggars,” the embattled socialist said Monday in a speech to troops.
The standoff has troubled international relief organizations, many who say the issue of humanitarian aid is being used as a political weapon by both sides.
Maduro’s government has steadfastly denied the existence of a humanitarian crisis that has forced some three million Venezuelans to flee in recent years, even while handing out heavily subsidized food staples to rally support among the poor.
Meanwhile, the opposition is vowing to proceed with its aid plan at all costs in an effort to break the military’s strong support for Maduro.
“You have a clear choice,” Miguel Pizarro, a lawmaker co-ordinating the relief effort, said in pointed remarks Tuesday to members of the armed forces. “Either you are part of the problem, or you put yourself on the side of the people who are in need.”
On Tuesday, the International Committee of the Red Cross repeated an offer to distribute humanitarian assistance but only if authorities agree to guarantee the aid safely reaches those in need.
“Right now, both sides are comparing muscles to see who is stronger,” said Daniel Almeida of the Switzerland-based humanitarian agency CARE.
The Trump administration has pledged $20 million in humanitarian assistance to Guaido’s government in addition to the more than $140 million it has already made available to South American countries absorbing Venezuelan migrants. Canada has pledged another $53 million to Guaido.
U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton last week tweeted a picture of hundreds of boxes of ready-to-use meals for “malnourished children,” each printed with an American flag, that he said were ready to be delivered.
Cucuta has become the top destination for Venezuelans who travel long distances to the city in a desperate search for food and medicine.
Alvarado said if it wasn’t for a friend who made the trek for her last week she wouldn’t have the antibiotic she needs for an infection. She paid for the medicine with money from an aunt in Argentina because her once middle-class family struggles to survive on her mother’s meagre retirement pension of $8 a month.
During dialysis sessions dangerously shortened by an hour to cope with the lack of machines and supplies, Alvarado keeps herself busy by writing poetry.
“I want to get better so that I can begin to help others,” she said. “All of us are victims and all of us need to work hard so Venezuela can resurge.”