U.S. Aid Piles Up on Venezuela’s Border as Crisis Over its Delivery Looms by Carol Morello – Washington Post
Food and medicine for Venezuela’s sick and famished citizens lie just beyond their reach in warehouses across the country’s borders and on islands off its coast, as a showdown approaches for getting the aid into their hands.
The United States has promised $20 million in humanitarian relief for Venezuelans. But so far, 191 metric tons of supplies that have been flown to the region since Feb. 4 are stockpiled in border towns as delivery routes by land, air and sea are blocked on the orders of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
Juan Guaidó, the opposition leader recognized by some 50 countries as the legitimate interim president, says he has lined up hundreds of thousands of volunteers to bring the material across the border on Saturday. Guaidó arrived in Colombia late Friday to participate in the convoy, defying a travel ban placed on him.
The potential for violence over boxes filled with basics such as bandages, biscuits, hand sanitizer and toothpaste grew on Friday, when the Venezuelan military fired on civilians trying to keep a road open on a stretch of the southern border with Brazil. Two civilians were reported killed…