Volunteers prepare U.S. aid delivery for Venezuelans as Maduro digs in
CUCUTA, Colombia — Dozens of volunteers prepared sacks of rice, canned tuna and protein-rich biscuits for malnourished children at a warehouse on the Colombian border on Friday as Venezuela’s opposition vowed to deliver the U.S. humanitarian aid to their troubled nation, even if it means mounting a mass mobilization of their countrymen to carry it in.
As the food and hygiene kits were packed into individual white bags in the city of Cucuta, just across the river from Venezuela, U.S. officials and Venezuelan opposition leaders appealed to the military to let the aid through.
Lester Toledo, who is representing opposition leader Juan Guaido in the aid mission, issued a message to troops, telling them the aid contains food and medicine their own families need. He recalled how in 2016, a large group of Venezuelan women dressed in white and intent on crossing the closed border with Colombia made their way through a line of national guardsmen in order to buy food on the other side.
“I am convinced that the way we are going to pass this aid is with the Venezuelan people,” Mr. Toledo said at a press event unveiling the aid. “People, people and more people bringing in humanitarian aid.”
The emergency supplies have become the focus of Venezuela’s political struggle between President Nicolas Maduro and Mr. Guaido, who declared interim presidential powers in late January, accusing Mr. Maduro of being illegitimate following an election last year widely viewed as a sham. The Venezuelan military has blocked the bridge where the aid is stationed and Mr. Maduro is refusing to allow it in.
The embattled Venezuelan leader dug in further Friday, contending the aid is part of a coup being orchestrated by the U.S. government.
“There’s an attempt to violate our national sovereignty with this ‘show’ of a humanitarian operation by the government of Donald Trump,” he said.
The goods, including packaged corn flour, lentils and pasta, arrived Thursday in what the opposition is hoping will be the first of many shipments of humanitarian aid from countries around the world. Opposition leaders said three countries in the region will become aid hubs and that some nations, like Colombia, will likely have more than one collection site. The first shipment includes food kits for 5,000 Venezuelans and high-protein nutritional supplements that can treat an estimated 6,700 young children with moderate malnutrition.
Additional aid is being stored in Miami and Houston and “ready to be deployed to the region immediately,” the U.S. said in a statement.
“We expect more to come,” U.S. Ambassador to Colombia Kevin Whitaker said. “This is a down payment.”
Asked what would happen if the Venezuelan military blocks the aid from going in, Mr. Whitaker said any obstacles would be dealt with as they arise and reiterated that Mr. Trump has made clear nothing is off the table — though, he added, the priority is to arrange a broad international mission.
Mr. Whitaker said the U.S. involvement stops at the Colombian border, where the Guaido-led opposition will be charged with distributing the aid inside Venezuela, a seemingly tall task as Mr. Maduro shows no signs of conceding.