Speeches Shim
U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Administrator Mark Green visited Curaçao from February 18 to 19, where he met with Prime Minister Eugene Rhuggenaath to discuss the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Venezuela. Separately, the Administrator met with representatives of the Venezuelan expatriate community in Curaçao to hear their personal stories and learn more about the local non-governmental organization they have set up, VENEX, to channel private donations of assistance to their countrymen. The Administrator commended the generosity of the Venezuelan residents of Curaçao, and both sides expressed hope that the dark days of despair in Venezuela are coming to an end.
Today what we did was bring in a new shipment of humanitarian assistance, about 66 metric tons. As I made clear, this was not the first, nor will it be the last, there will be other shipments coming in, other materials coming in from countries like Indonesia, they'll be coming in from a variety of sources and it really is (inaudible) what President Guaido asked of President Trump. President Guaido, who we officially recognize as interim president of Venezuela, had a specific request for emergency medical care and nutrition, and so we've been responding. We've been mobilizing assistance getting here, prepositioning here in Colombia, obviously Cucuta primarily, which is what President Guaido and his representatives have asked for.
Several weeks ago, the United States officially recognized Juan Guaidó as the Interim President of Venezuela. At that time, he made specific requests of President Donald Trump for assistance. The following day, at USAID, we met with his representatives, and they made specific requests for assistance that they needed. Working closely with the Government of Colombia, that is what has brought us to this day.
Thank you very much. As we just saw, the latest shipment of U.S. humanitarian aid has now arrived here on the Colombian border with Venezuela. To be very clear, this is not the first shipment, nor will it be the last shipment, not only from the United States, but we know that many other countries are joining as well.
The United States is airlifting and pre-positioning additional humanitarian commodities to provide relief to tens of thousands of Venezuelans who are suffering from severe shortages of food and medicine caused by the mismanagement of the illegitimate Maduro regime. The relief supplies include hygiene kits and nutrition products from the warehouse maintained by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in Miami, Florida. U.S. military C-17 cargo planes departing from Homestead Air Reserve Base are transporting the supplies to Cúcuta, Colombia as part of the Trump Administration's whole-of-government response to the Venezuela regional crisis.
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