Volunteers prep aid for Venezuela
Opposition urges Venezuela military to let in supplies
The emergency supplies have become the focus of a political struggle between Maduro and Guaido.
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 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,” Toledo said at a media 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 Guaido, who declared interim presidential powers in late January, accusing 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 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 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 nutritional supplements that can treat an estimated 6,700 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.
“We expect more to come,” U.S. Ambassador to Colombia Kevin Whitaker said. “This is a down payment.”