{"id":15216,"date":"2019-02-25T13:54:00","date_gmt":"2019-02-25T18:54:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/?p=15216"},"modified":"2019-10-10T02:10:00","modified_gmt":"2019-10-10T06:10:00","slug":"red-cross-un-slam-politicised-usaid-humanitarian-assistance-to-venezuela","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/?p=15216","title":{"rendered":"Red Cross, UN Slam \u2018Politicised\u2019 USAID Humanitarian Assistance to Venezuela"},"content":{"rendered":"
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FREE FLOW OF INFORMATION<\/p>\n

An article from Venezuelanalysis<\/a><\/p>\n

The International Red Cross has declined to participate in the Washington\u2019s controversial humanitarian aid plan to Venezuela, it was announced this weekend.<\/p>\n

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\nThe firearms were confiscated on a cargo plane arriving at Valencia airport from Miami last Tuesday (lechuguinos.com)<\/center><\/p>\n

\u201cWe will not be participating in what is, for us, not humanitarian aid,\u201d stated Colombia\u2019s International Red Cross (ICRC) spokesperson, Christoph Harnisch.<\/p>\n

The assistance, which is being coordinated by Venezuela\u2019s self-proclaimed president, Juan Guaido, and the US Agency for International Development (USAID), is reportedly comprised of US $20 million worth of medical, food, and personal hygiene supplies which are currently being warehoused in the Colombian border city of Cucuta. <\/p>\n

The Venezuelan government has denied USAID personnel entry into the country, claiming that the aid is being used as cover for a foreign intervention to install Guaido in Miraflores presidential palace.<\/p>\n

Harnisch also raised concerns about the aid being instrumentalized for political ends, calling on parties to have \u201crespect for the term \u2018humanitarian.\u2019\u201d Last week, ICRC Director of Global Operations Domink Stillhart had likewise told reporters that he considered the aid to have a \u201cpolitical tone\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Red Cross currently provides medical assistance to a number of Venezuelan hospitals under pre-existing and recently expanded international agreements with Maduro\u2019s government.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, ICRC President Peter Maurer told reporters that the body will be doubling its budget to assist the Venezuelan government in countering the effects of the deep economic crisis.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur focus is really to, on the one side increase our response to Venezuelans, and on the other hand to keep away from the political controversy and political divisions which are characteristic to the crisis in Venezuela,\u201d Maurer told press in Geneva.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the United Nations has likewise raised objections to Washington\u2019s \u201cpoliticised\u201d aid plan.<\/p>\n

“Humanitarian action needs to be independent of political, military or other objectives,” UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters in New York last Wednesday.<\/p>\n

(Article continued in the right column.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Question(s) related to this article:<\/div>\n
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Free flow of information, How is it important for a culture of peace?<\/a><\/p>\n

What is really happening in Venezuela?<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

(Article continued from left column)<\/p>\n

UN spokespeople have also recently vowed to increase the budgets of current aid programs carried out in coordination with the Maduro administration.<\/p>\n

President Maduro has staunchly rejected US aid, claiming that while Venezuela has problems, it is not \u201ca beggar country.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also pointed out that the reported $20 million in US aid pales in comparison to the estimated US $30 million per day the new US oil embargo will cost Venezuela this year. <\/p>\n

On January 28, US National Security Advisor John Bolton unveiled the latest round of economic sanctions prohibiting corporations under US jurisdiction from purchasing oil from Venezuela\u2019s PDVSA state oil company, which he said will deny the company US $11 billion in revenues in 2019. Bolton also announced a freezing of Houston-based PDVSA subsidiary CITGO\u2019s assets, which are valued at US $7 billion.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf [the US] wants to help, then lift the sanctions,\u201d Maduro urged at a recent press conference. He also qualified the plan as a media \u201cshow\u201d and a \u201ctrap\u201d which looks to \u201cjustify [foreign] intervention in the country.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fears of a direct military intervention in Venezuela have grown in recent weeks after both US President Donald Trump and opposition leader Juan Guaido refused to rule it out.<\/p>\n

Adding to these concerns, Venezuelan authorities announced that they confiscated a cache of illegal firearms they say were smuggled into the country from Miami last Tuesday. The 19 assault rifles, 118 explosive charges, 90 radio antennas and six latest generation smartphones arrived on a Boeing 767 cargo flight from the 21 Air company to Valencia airport.<\/p>\n

Maduro has ordered a reinforcement of border security in response to the increased threats, with the armed forces loyally executing his order not to let the USAID personnel enter the country.<\/p>\n

He has also been under attack this week following the circulation of a picture of the Tienditas bridge connecting Venezuela and Colombia blocked by tankers, with international commentators accusing him of closing the bridge this week. The bridge was culminated in 2015 but was never opened due to border tensions between Venezuela and Colombia that flared up later that year.<\/p>\n

US establishment figures from both sides of the political aisle, including Vice President Mike Pence, former Vice President Joe Biden, and Democrat House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, have lined up to back the aid plan, denouncing Maduro for refusing to open Venezuelan borders and urging him to step aside as Venezuela\u2019s leader.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

FREE FLOW OF INFORMATION An article from Venezuelanalysis The International Red Cross has declined to participate in the Washington\u2019s controversial humanitarian aid plan to Venezuela, it was announced this weekend. The firearms were confiscated on a cargo plane arriving at Valencia airport from Miami last Tuesday (lechuguinos.com) \u201cWe will not be participating in what is, … Continue reading Red Cross, UN Slam \u2018Politicised\u2019 USAID Humanitarian Assistance to Venezuela<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,77],"tags":[20],"class_list":["post-15216","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-information","category-latin-america","tag-latin-america"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15216","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15216"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15216\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}