Indigenous people vow to let aid in
PUERTO ORDAZ: Venezuela’s Pemon, an indigenous people living on the border with Brazil, are determined to allow into the embattled country any foreign aid that may arrive, even if that means a showdown with Venezuelan security forces and the Government of President Nicolas Maduro.
Amid a hyperinflationary economic collapse that has caused malnutrition and the exodus of millions of people, humanitarian aid has become a flashpoint in an intensifying political crisis.
Opposition leader Juan Guaido said last week a global coalition including the United States was sending food and medicine to collection points in Colombia, Brazil and an undisclosed Caribbean island, before delivering the aid into Venezuela.
Brazil has joined the US and most countries in Latin America and Europe in recognising Guaido as Venezuela’s legitimate interim leader, arguing Maduro was reelected in a fraudulent May 2018 vote.
But Maduro denies there is even a crisis, saying it is part of a USdirected plot to undermine and overthrow his government.
Six leaders of the Pemon community residing in the ‘‘Gran Sabana’’ (or ‘‘Great Savannah’’) municipality bordering Brazil told Reuters the population’s pressing needs should trump any politicisation of humanitarian aid.
The Gran Sabana is home to the only paved border crossing between Venezuela and Brazil.
‘‘We are physically prepared — without weapons — and willing to open the border to receive the humanitarian aid,’’ Gran Sabana Mayor Emilio Gonzalez told Reuters.
‘‘Neither the National Guard nor the Government can stop this.’’
The Bolivar governor and military chief for the region of Guayana, which comprises the states of Bolivar and Amazonas, were not immediately available for comment.
Venezuela’s opposition has so far only publicly announced the arrival of aid in the Colombian border town of Cucuta, where it is now being stockpiled. — Reuters