The United States airlifts additional humanitarian assistance to Cucuta, Colombia to help Venezuelans in need

On March 7, the United States airlifted additional humanitarian relief supplies from Florida to Cúcuta, Colombia, intended to help people affected by the man-made political and economic crisis in Venezuela.

Venezuela’s collapsing health system is leaving hospitals without basic supplies and has prompted outbreaks of diseases that were thought to have been under control or eliminated. The flight contained medical supplies-including examination gloves, surgical gowns, face masks, and cleaning supplies to help hospitals and clinics stop the spread of disease through proper measures to prevent and control infections.

These relief supplies, transported by a U.S. military C-130 cargo plane, are the latest the Trump Administration has airlifted and pre-positioned in Colombia as part of a part of a whole-of-Government response that began earlier this month at the request of Interim Venezuelan President Juan Guaidó. This assistance follows last week’s airlift of water-treatment units, water-storage containers, and buckets to provide and store safe drinking water to help Venezuelans stave off sickness and disease.

Since February 4, 2019, the United States has pre-positioned hundreds of metric tons of critical relief supplies in Colombia and Brazil-procured both locally and internationally to help tens of thousands in Venezuela.

However, the illegitimate Maduro regime is preventing this critical aid from entering Venezuela. The U.S. Government is coordinating with governments in the region, and with our regional humanitarian partners, on the logistics of providing relief to Venezuelans safely and efficiently.

The United States remains committed to helping the people of Venezuela, and this assistance is not the first and will not be the last-the American people are sending to help those in need. With the Vice President’s funding announcement of nearly $56 million in new assistance last week, since Fiscal Year 2017, the United States has provided more than $195 million-including more than $152 million in humanitarian assistance and approximately $43 million in development and economic assistance, to support the generous efforts of countries in the region that are hosting the nearly 3.4 million people who have fled the chaos in Venezuela.

In addition, on January 24, 2019, Secretary of State Pompeo announced that the United States is ready to provide more than $20 million in additional funding to support humanitarian assistance activities in Venezuela. The pre-positioned aid in Colombia and Brazil is part of this initial humanitarian assistance to the people inside of Venezuela.

Original source: USAID
Published on 07 March 2019