The International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said on Friday it was prepared to channel humanitarian aid to Venezuela through an operation that could be similar to one in Syria, potentially helping ease chronic hunger and disease in the South American nation.
President Nicolas Maduro in February blocked efforts by political opponents to bring US-backed aid into the country across its borders with neighboring Colombia and Brazil, and has denied the country is suffering a humanitarian crisis.
The IFRC “can count on the legal and technical conditions to work in the country, to gain access to humanitarian aid that is so needed,” the group’s President Francesco Rocca told a press conference. “This obviously will not resolve the problems in Venezuela and nobody should assume this is a complete solution.”
China, which has major oil investments in the country, has continued to back Maduro while criticizing the United States for meddling in the country’s affairs
The group within 15 days could begin providing assistance, and expects that it will initially be able to help 650,000 of the most needy citizens in the country of around 30 million inhabitants, he said.
The first supplies would include medical equipment, surgical kits and power generators, Rocca said, following two major blackouts this month.
Power in many parts of Caracas, and in other Venezuelan cities, went out again on Friday evening, a day and a half after lights came back on in the capital. The blackouts have worsened Venezuelans’ suffering, cutting off water supplies and leaving hospitals and airports in the dark. The involvement of the IFRC could signal that Maduro’s socialist government, which has been subjected to crippling US sanctions, may allow in much-needed food and medicine.
But Venezuelan officials were not present at the press conference. Maduro’s government did receive a shipment of medicines on Friday from China, which has supported the embattled socialist leader and accused the United States of meddling in Venezuelan affairs.