Tag: Miguel Pizarro

For Anahis Alvarado, whose battle with kidney failure has become more desperate as Venezuela sinks deeper into crisis, the prospect of bringing in emergency medical and food supplies can't come soon enough. Only a quarter of the dialysis machines where she receives treatment at a government-run clinic in Caracas still work. And last week she had to spend almost a third of her family's monthly income buying basic supplies like surgical gloves and syringes that President Nicolas Maduro's bankrupt government is no longer able to provide. "We're losing time," the 32-year-old Alvorado said. Some 620 miles (1,000 kilometers) away, in the Colombian border city of Cucuta, opponents of Maduro are hastily putting together plans with U.S. officials to open a "humanitarian corridor" to deliver badly needed food and medicine. The standoff has troubled international relief organizations, many who say the issue of humanitarian aid is being used as a political weapon by both sides. "But for the person who really needs the assistance, they don't care where it comes from." The Trump administration has pledged $20 million in humanitarian assistance to Guaido's government in addition to the more than $140 million it has already made available to South American countries absorbing the exodus of Venezuelan migrants. "All of us are victims and all of us need to work hard so Venezuela can resurge." "If the transition doesn't take place soon, we're not going to receive the real humanitarian aid we need."