US announces aid as Venezuela grapples with humanitarian crisis

Washington does not recognize the government of Nicolás Maduro, and tensions between the two countries remain high.

The United States has pledged more than $171 million in humanitarian assistance and development funds to help Venezuelans affected by the South American country. economic and political crisis.

seven million people have left the country in recent years as a result of the crisis, and most are now spread across Latin America and the Caribbean, according to United Nations figures. Many face difficulties in accessing basic services, food and formal employment.

“This new funding will help provide food, medical care, emergency shelter, and access to protective and legal services,” US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield said virtually at Friday’s donor conference in Brussels.

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) said in a statement that $84 million of the funds will go to direct aid for Venezuelans who remain in the country. Another $31 million will be used to help the economic integration of Venezuelans who have fled to Colombia and Ecuador.

The remaining $56 million will support a series of humanitarian programs for Venezuelans and their host communities, covering emergency shelter, access to health care and protection of vulnerable groups, USAID said.

The funding follows Washington’s announcement in September that it would provide nearly $376 million in humanitarian aid to Venezuelans.

The United States supports the Venezuelan opposition, recognizing its parallel legislature and denouncing what he says is the dictatorship of the socialist president Nicolás Maduro.

Under the administration of former President Donald Trump, the United States intensified its sanctions against the South American country. He froze and seized Venezuelan government funds at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and used the money to support opposition lawmakers who oppose Maduro.

The Venezuelan opposition has complained that the US authorization process needed to replace its previous contact person for the distribution of funds, former interim president Juan Guaidó, is dragging out. They say the funds will help humanitarian efforts.

maduro government opposes what he says is foreign interference by the United States in his politics and has said that the opposition stole funds that could be used for social and medical support.