US 'aid' to Venezuela is not humanitarian, says Red Cross.
The Red Cross had already announced that it did not intend to participate in the distribution of "aid" from the United States in Venezuela; according to the organization, the shipments sent by Washington come from a government and, for that reason, cannot be considered "humanitarian aid."
World Opera The Red Cross had already announced that it did not intend to participate in the distribution of "aid" from the United States in Venezuela. According to the organization, the shipments sent by Washington come from a government and, for that reason, cannot be considered "humanitarian aid."
Back on February 10th, the Red Cross Committee had already taken a position on the situation in Venezuela. The head of the organization's delegation in Colombia, Christoph Harnisch, stated that he did not intend to participate in the US initiative to send shipments to the Latin American country.
"For us, this is not humanitarian aid, but rather aid decided upon by a government," he declared, noting that his institution must respect principles of independence, impartiality, and neutrality.
On Monday (February 25th), in an interview published on the Colombian magazine's website WeekHarnisch reinforced his statements. For him, "unfortunately, the first victim of what is happening is the word 'humanitarian,' because there is a debate, there is a public controversy, there is a manipulation of this term by all sides." According to the Red Cross representative, "'humanitarian' is something that should not be controversial, it should be in the interest of the people."
Harnisch also preferred not to take a position in the event of a possible military intervention in Venezuela. "That's pure speculation," he stated, arguing that even if something of that nature were to occur, humanitarian NGOs need a period of observation of the situation before acting.
The head of the local Red Cross said he considers the migration of Venezuelans due to the economic crisis to be one of the “most serious” in the world. “There is a migration of Syrians that was much larger in terms of the number of people. But in that case, there were many more receiving countries. Here, the concentration is in a few countries, two or three.” Furthermore, he points out that the nations receiving these migrants “are not countries with the highest level of industrial development. In Europe, in some cases, yes, but that cannot be said of Colombia, Ecuador, or Peru.”
The Venezuelan government says the crisis the country is going through, which is fueling immigration, is a result of what it calls an "economic war" and the blockades imposed on Caracas by the United States and other Western nations.