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US Air Force freighter aircraft C-17 departed the base of the Homestead Air Reserve in Miami and landed in Cucuta, Colombia, according to a statement from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). ). The relief supplies provided included hygiene kits that could help about 25,000 people and nutritional products that USAID says could feed about 3,500 children.
The first wave of help arrived on February 8th and included locally purchased food kits, hygiene kits, medical supplies, ready-to-use food supplements and energy biscuits, said l & # 39; USAID.
Venezuela's self-proclaimed interim president, Juan Guaido, on Saturday called hundreds of thousands of registered volunteers to help bring aid to the country.
Speaking at a gathering of volunteers in Caracas, Guaido said that "the end of poverty will come, the humanitarian emergency will cease," asking that help be left and that " humanitarian corridors are open. "
Guaido said Saturday in a tweet that at least 600,000 people had registered as volunteers.
CNN has not been able to check the number independently.
Guaido also reiterated his direct call to the Armed Forces to support him in his efforts to get help.
Guaido has identified two other collection points: the Brazil-Venezuela border and an unidentified Caribbean island.
Maduro rejected international aid saying, "We are not beggars."
Guaido declared himself acting president on January 23, but Maduro – who was inaugurated for a second term that the United States, dozens of other countries and Venezuelan opposition have decried as illegitimate – never resigned as president, nor listened to calls to hold another election.
A senior administration official said that the United States would be willing to meet Maduro to negotiate its exit.
Maduro would have issued an invitation to meet the US special envoy for Venezuela, Elliott Abrams. The State Department and the Secretary of State did not want to comment on the prospect of such a meeting, but Mike Pompeo said Friday that the opening revealed "growing understanding of Maduro that the Venezuelan people rejects it ".
Mike Pence, US Vice President, told the Security Conference in Munich, Germany, on Saturday that the situation in Venezuela is a "tragedy that requires a response from around the world".
Pence added that the United States was "proud" to be the first country to recognize Guaido and "to date, 52 countries, including 30 of our European allies, have followed the example of the United States ".
Pence said it was time for the rest of the world to recognize Guaido.
"It is time for the rest of the world to move forward," he said. "Once again, the Old World can take a stand for freedom in the New World, we must all stand with the Venezuelan people until freedom and democracy are fully restored."
Artemis Moshtaghian, Jennifer Deaton, Shawn Nottingham and Zahra Ullah from CNN contributed to this story.
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