Venezuela: the opposition prepares an "army of 800,000 civilians" to enter the humanitarian aid – 21/02/2019

While the government of Nicolás Maduro is prepared with thousands of armies and missiles to defend Venezuela from what it imagines to be a foreign intervention, from the opposition, a different army is organized, in which doctors, nurses, lawyers, students and even housewives are willing to fight for their country. Troops of civilians, estimated at tens of thousands of people, are preparing to meet in the coming days one of the most ambitious challenges of the opposition: to achieve the entry of tons of foodstuffs. and open-label drugs for Maduro, who dismissed the international humanitarian aid entry claiming it was a pretext for conducting a military intervention.

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In order to prevent the entry of aid, authorities blocked two weeks ago one of the border bridges connecting Venezuela to the Colombian city of Cucuta. This week, the air and sea borders were closed with the Caribbean islands of Aruba, Curacao and Bonaire. which are in front of Venezuelan coasts.

The possibility that the opposition will arrive at the entrance of the international aid and exceed the controls that the army maintains at the borders and on the main roads of the country seems distant, but that does not discourage the volunteers or the organizers of the initiative.

Opposition leader Roberto Patiño, organizer of the volunteer movement, said The badociated press that 23 February, the date set for the start of the entry of support, is only a "starting point" and that the opposition will continue to insist on the following days, until the opening of the humanitarian chain .

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The adverse scenario does not disappoint either Danny Golindano, a medical hematologist who joined the movement of volunteers who, according to the organizers, already reached more than 800,000 registered on the volunteersxvenezuela.com website, a figure that could not be verified independently.

Volunteers include doctors, nurses, caregivers, lawyers, engineers, psychologists, biobadysts, paramedics, university students, retirees and housewives, among others.

From a rudimentary place in the north of Caracas, with earthen soil gardens and huge tropical trees hit by drought, Golindano gives the latest instructions in humanitarian aid to dozens of volunteers, mostly elderly.

After being expelled from a public hospital in the capital where he worked for years after reporting the deaths of eight cancer patients, due to contamination from lack of water in the Health Center, the 32-year-old doctor, said that he had been given a mission to prevent them from dying. more Venezuelans for lack of medicines and supplies.

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That is why Golindano, national coordinator of the NGO Medicos por la Salud, joined the opposition initiative to organize the medical support of the movement, whose mission will include receiving humanitarian aid through which different NGOs and the Church will enter the country. distribute it among the most vulnerable hospitals and communities.

In the first phase, it is expected to send international supplies to four major hospitals, which will serve as collection centers and distribute resources to the rest of the country's health centers.

Alesia Santacroce, a 30-year-old university lawyer and teacher, listens to one of the corners of the square, sitting on one of the brick walls of the gardens, listening to the volunteer organizers while She is watching the Venezuelan capital collapse.

Santacroce gratefully acknowledges that he decided to join the volunteer movement animated by "great hope" that ensures that many Venezuelans have been intoxicated in the last few weeks after the Deputy Juan Guaidó, 35, badumed leadership of the opposition-controlled National Assembly and declared himself acting president of Venezuela on 23 January.

Regarding the role that the lawyer will play in the movement that, along with his mother, maintains a soup kitchen in the east of the city, which provides free food to 500 poor people every week. end, she said that she was not sure how she would behave, but he said that if necessary "I'll go to the border or I'll go where I have to go to help get humanitarian help."

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To date, the opposition has not described in detail the actions it will undertake to overcome the restrictions imposed by the government and allow aid to cross borders. In this regard, Patiño only revealed that some of the "humanitarian brigades", composed of women, parents of patients and religious, had already left the border.

The police chief ruled out the brigades using force to force aid to enter, and said that "it is a matter of appealing to the conscience of the armed forces and officials who are the border ".

"We are doing everything we can to minimize the possibility of repression," he added.

In the Colombian population of Cúcuta, in the Brazilian state of Roraima, in the Caribbean island of Curaçao, and in the city of Miami, Florida, collection centers have been established with the support of the United States, Colombia, Brazil and other countries.

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In the midst of the fight for humanitarian aid, a concert was held on 22 February in Cúcuta to support the initiative of the opposition, while the government took up the idea by calling for concerts on a bridge on February 22, 23 and 24. Venezuelan near the Colombian border in favor of Maduro, highlighting the uncertainty surrounding the process.

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Source: AP