The United States will send humanitarian aid to Venezuela in military planes

The measure was announced after the leak of an email. The plane would take away 250 tons of food, hygiene items and nutritional supplements.

While President Nicolás Maduro is increasingly in a hurry to resign, the US government is preparing to send a new cargo of humanitarian aid to the border between Venezuela and Colombia, but will for the first time by military aircraft. according to a leaked e-mail from the State Department to Congress of this country.

The announcement of this additional aid arrived the same day that the administration of President Donald Trump announced new sanctions to the President of Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) and to other key officials of the sector. Maduro's intelligence.

Trump admitted that "all options" were being evaluated to deal with the crisis in Venezuela, but he clarified that he had never spoken of sending troops into the region: "I always have a plan B, a plan C, a plan D, a plan E. I have more flexibility than any other American president."

US authorities plan to send 250 tons of food, hygiene items and nutritional supplements to Cucuta, Colombia, where other supplies awaiting entry into Venezuela are already in storage.

The email sent to Congress on Friday on new aid was handed to the Associated Press by a US congressional adviser who was not allowed to publicly discuss the issue.

The United States has decided to send a help at the request of the opposition, Juan Guaidó, that the Trump government and several other countries have recognized as the true leader of Venezuela. It was after Maduro took his second term, in an act qualified illegitimate by some.

Guaidó, who is also the speaker of the opposition-controlled National Assembly, has promised to hand over aid to Venezuelans despite the rejection of Maduro, who in an interview with AP Thursday called the # 39; American badistance of "crumbs".

Although the US armed forces have long supported civilian-led humanitarian badistance missions, it is the first time that they have directly delivered aid to Venezuela. Last year, the US government sent aid worth over $ 100 million to Cucuta to help Colombia cope with the presence of more than one million Venezuelans from around the world. on their territory after fleeing the food shortage. hyperinflation.

New sanctions

US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Friday that the PDVSA chairman, Major General Manuel Quevedo, was an instrument to reinforce what he called the illegitimate regime of Maduro.

In his interview with AP, Maduro said Quevedo was in India this week to discuss PDVSA's new business, after the company was targeted for sanctions to reduce its profits, estimated at around $ 11,000 million.

The new US Treasury sanctions were also sent to four senior officials of the Bolivian National Intelligence Service (SEBIN) and to the director of the Venezuelan National Police Special Action Forces (FAES).

Mnuchin said in a statement that it was corrupt officials who helped Maduro attack democracy in Venezuela by means such as the use of torture and brutal force.

The sanctions prevent these officials from having access to all their badets in the United States and prevent American citizens from doing business with them.

(Source: TN)