CARACAS — The Trump Administration is sending another large shipment of humanitarian aid to the Venezuelan border in Colombia, for the first time using U.S. military aircraft as it increases pressure on Venezuela leader Nicolas Maduro to give up power, according to a State Department email sent to Congress.
The additional aid was announced as the Trump Administration on Friday added Venezuela’s oil boss and key intelligence officers to a long list of Maduro loyalists under U.S. financial sanctions.
The 250 tons of food supplies, hygiene kits, and nutritional supplements will begin arriving Saturday to the border city of Cucuta, where tons of boxes of emergency aid stamped with the U.S. flag are warehoused, awaiting delivery into Venezuela.
The aid has been provided at the request of opposition leader Juan Guaido, who the U.S. and dozens of other countries have recognized as Venezuela’s rightful leader after Mr. Maduro last month was sworn in for a second term widely seen as illegitimate.
Mr. Guaido has vowed to deliver the aid over the objections of Mr. Maduro.
In an exclusive interview Thursday with the Associated Press, Mr. Maduro said the offer of U.S. assistance represents mere “crumbs” compared to hostile efforts to block the country’s oil exports and restrict its access to foreign funding.
While the U.S. military has long supported civilian-led humanitarian assistance missions around the world, this is the first time they are being used to deploy aid for Venezuela.
Last year, the U.S. government sent more than $100 million in aid to Cucuta to help Colombian authorities absorb some of the estimated 3 million Venezuelans fleeing hyperinflation and food shortages.
In placing new sanctions on Maj. Gen. Manuel Quevedo, the president of the Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA, U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said the oil executive had been instrumental in propping up what he called Mr. Maduro’s illegitimate regime.
The new sanctions also target four high-ranking intelligence officials, including the head of the feared SEBIN intelligence police and an elite commando unit known as FAES that is accused of several targeted killings.
Mr. Mnuchin accused the officials of corruption and helping Mr. Maduro repress democracy in Venezuela — which includes using “torture and other brutal use of force.”
The U.S. sanctions block access to any property the individuals own in the United States and bans U.S. citizens from doing business with them.
First Published February 16, 2019, 5:53 a.m.
