The first shipment of humanitarian aid from the Red Cross intended to alleviate a dire economic crisis in Venezuela on Tuesday arrived in the once-prosperous, oil-rich country, a representative of the organization and a lawmaker said.
The delivery came after an about-face by Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who last week said that his socialist government had reached an agreement with the Red Cross on aid.
Maduro had blocked previous efforts to deliver assistance and has denied the existence of a humanitarian crisis.
“The International Red Cross today delivered its first batch of support for Venezuela, together with the revolutionary government that I lead, and it was received in a legal and orderly way, complying with international protocols,” Maduro said in a speech broadcast on state TV.
There was little hope that the shipment — intended to help hospitals cope with shortages of equipment and frequent power outages — would be anything more than a palliative measure for Venezuela, where more than 3 million people have fled the chaos of hyperinflation, and chronic shortages of food and medicine.
However, opposition lawmaker Miguel Pizarro said that the lack of “interference” by Maduro’s government with the entry of aid was a positive step and that more shipments would arrive in the days ahead.
“The same people who had previously denied the arrival [of aid], who had previously brought this country to the verge of confrontation, are today complying with humanitarian principles,” Pizarro told reporters at the opposition-controlled Venezuelan National Assembly, adding that the Red Cross would handle the logistics of distribution.
Venezuela was plunged into a political deadlock in January, when National Assembly President Juan Guaido invoked the country’s constitution to assume an interim presidency, arguing that Maduro’s re-election last year was illegitimate.
Guaido has since been recognized as Venezuela’s rightful leader by most Western nations. Several countries, including the US and neighboring Colombia, contributed to a February effort to deliver aid across Venezuela’s land borders in the hopes that soldiers would disavow Maduro’s orders to block it.
While that effort failed, the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies late last month said that it was prepared to start an aid operation.
Tuesday’s shipment, which arrived via airplane from Panama, included 14 power generators, 5,000 liters of distilled water and three surgery equipment kits capable of serving 10,000 patients each, the Red Cross said.
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