Political fight could snarl needed aid
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,” 32-year-old Alvarado said.
She hopes relief will soon be on its way.
Some 620 miles 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 Guaidó 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 around the world.
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 long-standing 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 3 million Venezuelans to flee in recent years, even while handing out heavily subsidized food staples to rally support among the poor, especially ahead of elections.
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.
The Trump administration has pledged $20 million in humanitarian assistance to Guaidó’s government in addition to the more than $140 million it has already made available to South American countries absorbing the exodus of Venezuelan migrants.
Among those waiting in limbo is Aminta Villamizar, a retired cleaning woman, who lost her right leg and two toes on her left foot because she can’t find enough insulin to treat her diabetes.
Lying in bed in her Caracas apartment building, she waits while her grandson, Antonio, measures her blood sugar levels.
“I was a person who worked my entire life, but this sickness destroyed me,” she said.