The first shipment of 24 tons with humanitarian aid for Venezuela landed on Tuesday at the airport of Maiquetía, which serves the city of Caracas.
According to Mario Villarroel, president of the Venezuelan Red Cross, the shipment contains medical supplies, power plants and medicines that will be distributed to different hospitals in the country.
The Red Cross announced a few days ago that it would triple its budget in the South American country to face the situation, going from the current US $ 9 million to more than US $ 24 million.
The help comes after the regime of Nicolás Maduro, who for years had denied the existence of any humanitarian problem in the country, gave its approval to his entry.
Maduro received on April 10 at the Miraflores Palace Peter Maurer, president of the International Committee of the Red Cross.
After that meeting, he affirmed his “willingness to establish cooperation mechanisms for international assistance and support, in full respect of the Venezuelan legal system”
Different humanitarian organizations and the opposition had demanded for years the entrance of the aid before the situation that is lived in the country, punished by the scarcity of food, water and medicines because of what the International Monetary Fund has described as “one of the worst economic crisis of all time. “
For his part, Interim President of Venezuela Juan Guaidó, endorsed by more than 50 countries led by the United States, said the operation is “recognition of the failure of a regime that until weeks ago denied the existence of a humanitarian emergency.”
Guaidó also emphasized that the aid is only a “palliative to contain the emergency”, and that the crisis will only be resolved when the socialist ruler “ceases the usurpation” of power.
The situation has been aggravated in recent weeks by the problems in the electricity supply and, consequently, in the water supply.
United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres said last week that at least 7 million Venezuelans need urgent humanitarian aid.
According to the UN, more than three million Venezuelans have left their country in recent years fleeing the economic crisis.
With information from www.bbc.com.
