The EU announces 50 million more humanitarian aid for Venezuela

At the end of January, the EU launched the group with European and Latin American countries with the aim of facilitating a “peaceful and democratic” solution in Venezuela, helping to create the “minimum” conditions for holding free presidential elections with international guarantees. and, also, to facilitate urgent access of humanitarian aid and a period of 90 days was given to achieve progress. The group, in which Spain, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Sweden, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom participate, for The European party, as well as Ecuador, Costa Rica, Uruguay and Bolivia on the Latin American side, was formally constituted on February 7 during its first ministerial meeting in the Uruguayan capital.Since then, several missions of senior officials of the group have met with representatives of the The government of Nicolás Maduro and the opposition, as well as representatives of civil society and the Church, to try to advance on both fronts. The EU is exploring given the possibility of establishing “an international mechanism” to coordinate and deliver humanitarian aid “within Venezuela” in cooperation with the UN, something that would also contribute to curbing attempts to politicize humanitarian aid, as the Development Commissioner advanced weeks ago, Neven Mimica, in the European Parliament «We are working to strengthen international cooperation to ensure that humanitarian aid, including this new commitment, reaches the people who need it, inside and outside Venezuela, impartially and through independent channels, without any attempt to politicize the delivery of aid ”, stressed this Wednesday the head of European diplomacy, Federica Mogherini.The new 50 million – with which the EU increases to 117.6 million its assistance to tackle the humanitarian and refugee crisis in Venezuela and the region since 2018 – will cover “emergency accommodation, medical care, food assistance, access to water and health services, as well as the education of minors “, both in Venezuela, which is experiencing” a critical moment “, and in neighboring countries, explained the Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid, Christos Stylianides, who visited the Colombian border last year with Venezuela. A senior EU official admits that, on the political level, things are “wrong” and there is no progress towards a solution that allows new elections to be held in Venezuela and has considered it “logical” to advance the presidential and presidential elections at the same time. The EU has insisted on the need to hold new presidential elections in Venezuela, something that the Maduro government rejects, which has instead offered to advance parliamentary elections. Ogherini admitted “frustration” on March 18 over the situation and the “absence of movement” in Venezuela but insisted that the contact group is the only initiative “that gives some hope that things can evolve for the better.” Caracas has criticized the lack of “balance” in the contact group since most of its members have recognized the president of the National Assembly, Juan Guaidó, as the interim president in charge of holding new elections, although so far the EU it has tried unsuccessfully to integrate more countries in the region such as Mexico, Chile and Peru.