Venezuela volunteers begin preparing for US aid entry
US AID HAS BECOME FRONTLINE OF TUSSLE BETWEEN GUAIDO AND MADURO
Thousands of volunteers in Venezuela were to begin mobilising yesterday to bring American aid into their crisishit country despite a blockade by President Nicolas Maduro who claims the assistance could be a cover for a US invasion.
Once-wealthy Venezuela is gripped by a power struggle between socialist leader Maduro and Juan Guaido, the head of the National Assembly who proclaimed himself interim president last month and now has the backing of more than 50 countries.
But even as the political battle pitting Guaido against Maduro continued to deepen, Caracas confirmed talks had taken place with an envoy for US President Donald Trump’s administration.
The oil-rich country’s economic meltdown under Maduro has left millions in poverty facing shortages of medicine and food, with hyperinflation making purchases impossible.
Aid piling up
US aid that has been piling up in the Colombian border town of Cucuta has become the front-line of the confrontation between Guaido and Maduro.
“Venezuela is preparing for the humanitarian avalanche,” Guaido told about 4,000 supporters clad in white T-shirts and green scarves who gathered Saturday to sign up as volunteers.
The throng included doctors, nurses and students.
Six hundred thousand people have registered to help bring aid in through border points, Guaido told the Caracas rally, asking the volunteers to meet in town councils yesterday to get instructions about the process.
Without revealing details that could jeopardise the operation, Guaido said volunteer brigades will travel in a bus caravan to entry points for the aid which he wants to come in next Saturday.
Coromoto Crespo, 58, told AFP he volunteered because of the urgent need for supplies.
“To find medicines requires a miracle. I need tablets for high blood pressure, and what I find, I can’t pay for,” Crespo said.
“One of my relatives died because of a lack of antibiotics.”
Guaido has targeted February 23 for entry of the aid, more of which arrived for the stockpile on Saturday. Three US military ■ ■ Crossing point blocked Maracaibo San Cristobal COLOMBIA (NL.) (NL.)
Maracay ValenciaBarcelona Barquisimeto cargo planes delivered several dozen more tonnes of food assistance to Cucuta.
Another US aircraft is due in the Caribbean island of Curaçao from Miami on Tuesday, and a
Ciudad Bolivar Maturin
Ciudad Guayana BRAZIL
GUYANA collection centre for Brazilian aid will open Monday on the border, Guaido’s team said.
The US shipment Saturday was accompanied by a delegation led by Mark Green, head of the US Agency for International Development.
US assistance has been blocked by containers which Maduro loyalists placed on a border bridge to prevent access.
On another front, Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza confirmed having held two meetings with special US envoy Elliott Abrams. Arreaza, who travelled to New York on February 13, said he held the talks with Abrams at the request of the State Department. He declined to comment on the substance of their discussions.
‘Witness’ charged over UN experts’ murder
Repeat of call
Guaido repeated his call on Venezuela’s military — whose support for Maduro has been crucial — to let the aid pass.
“You have, in your hands, the possibility of fighting alongside the people who are suffering the same shortages you are,” Guaido said in a tweet addressed to soldiers.
A State Department spokeswoman, Julie Chung, issued a similar plea during a news conference in Cucuta, urging the military to stand aside at a time when Venezuelans are “dying of hunger.” Maduro asserts that aid could be used as a way for the United States to invade. He called for reinforced border security and dismissed the arriving “crumbs” as “rotten and contaminated food.”
On Friday Maduro instructed his army to prepare a “special deployment plan” for the 2,200-kilometre border with Colombia.