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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsUS military planes head for Venezuela with aid
HOMESTEAD AIR RESERVE BASE, Florida The U.S. Air Force has begun flying tons of aid to a Colombian town on the Venezuelan border as part of an effort meant to undermine socialist President Nicolas Maduro.
The first of three C-17 cargo planes took off Saturday from Homestead Air Reserve Base in Florida and landed in the town of Cucuta. It's a collection point for aid that's supposed to be distributed by backers of Juan Guaido, the congressional leader who is recognized by the U.S. as Venezuela's legitimate president.
Previous aid shipments came on commercial planes.
Maduro has vowed to block the aid, which he calls unnecessary and illegal. He blames any hunger in the country on U.S. restrictions and his domestic foes.
Saturday's 180-ton shipment includes food or health packages for more than 25,000 people.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/us-military-planes-head-for-venezuela-with-aid/ar-BBTGgnY?li=BBnb7Kz
Eugene
(61,974 posts)Source: NPR
February 16, 2019 9:00 AM ET
JOHN OTIS
The U.S. effort to distribute tons of food and medicine to needy Venezuelans is more than just a humanitarian mission. The operation is also designed to foment regime change in Venezuela which is why much of the international aid community wants nothing to do with it.
Humanitarian operations are supposed to be neutral. That's why the International Committee of the Red Cross, United Nations agencies and other relief organizations have refused to collaborate with the U.S. and its allies in the Venezuelan opposition who are trying to force President Nicolás Maduro from power.
"Humanitarian action needs to be independent of political, military or any other objectives," Stéphane Dujarric, the U.N. spokesman, told a press briefing last week in New York. "The needs of the people should lead in terms of when and how humanitarian assistance is used."
Venezuela needs all the help it can get. Hyperinflation and shortages of food and medicine have prompted more than 3 million Venezuelans to flee the country. Many of those who remain suffer from malnutrition and weight loss. Hospital patients sometimes die due to a lack of antibiotics and other basic drugs.
Over the past two weeks, the U.S. government has been massing tons of non-perishable food and emergency medical kits in warehouses near the Colombian border city of Cúcuta and American officials are promising much more.
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Read more: https://www.npr.org/2019/02/16/695154567/u-s-masses-aid-along-venezuelan-border-as-some-humanitarian-groups-warn-of-risks?ft=nprml&f=1001
malaise
(269,328 posts)We've lived this history before in this hemisphere.
Physician heal thyself and stop trying to steal Venezuela's oil.
The US and other Western Powers have fucked up this hemisphere enough.