The United States Announces Additional Humanitarian Funding In Response To The Venezuela Regional Crisis

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Statement by USAID Acting Administrator John Barsa

For Immediate Release

Saturday, September 19, 2020

New Funding Brings the Total U.S. Assistance to the Venezuelan People to More Than $1.2 Billion

 
During a visit to Boa Vista, Brazil, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced nearly $348 million in additional U.S. humanitarian assistance to respond to the consequences of the ongoing, regime-driven political and economic crisis in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, including $205 million from the U.S. Agency for International Development. This new funding now brings the total amount of U.S. humanitarian and development assistance toward the regional effort to deal with the Venezuela crisis to more than $1.2 billion, excluding our response to COVID-19.

Inside Venezuela, seven million people need immediate assistance. This additional funding will help these Venezuelans, as well provide additional support to communities across the region that are generously hosting the more than five million people who have fled the chaos in their country caused by the illegitimate Maduro regime. This new U.S. humanitarian assistance will include urgently needed food; direct cash assistance and assistance with livelihoods; support for water, sanitation, and hygiene; emergency health care and medical supplies; and protection for vulnerable groups.

This funding will save lives by protecting hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan children against polio, measles, mumps, rubella, and diphtheria. The United States recognizes the critical need to prioritize immunizations, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The new funding brings the United States' total humanitarian and development assistance for the Venezuela regional crisis to more than $1.2 billion since Fiscal Year 2017.

The United States remains committed to the people of Venezuela, and will continue to support them during this man-made crisis. We ask other nations to do the same, and we call upon the illegitimate Maduro regime to cease its repressive activities that are making the pandemic worse.