US previously rejected Venezuelan aid after hurricane damage

Many commentators criticize Venezuelan president Maduro for not accepting US aid. However, that he does so is hardly surprising since the US is delivering the aid through the attempted coup leader Juan Guaido whom the US recognizes as interim president.

The US rejected Venezuelan aid after Katrina

In 2005 after Hurricane Katrina's devastation Venezuela offered humanitarian aid to the southern US. An article at the time noted:

"An offer of aid from the Venezuelan president, Hugo Chávez, which included two mobile hospital units, 120 rescue and first aid experts and 50 tonnes of food, has been rejected, according to the civil rights leader, Jesse Jackson. Mr Jackson said the offer from the Venezuelan leader, whom he recently met, included 10 water purification plants, 18 power generation plants and 20 tonnes of bottled water. The offer was made in a letter from the Venezuelan ambassador to the United States, Bernardo Alvarez, to the governor of Louisiana, Kathleen Blanco. Mr Jackson said the rejection of the offer from one of Mr Bush's most outspoken political foes was a sign the federal government was incapable of handling the crisis properly. 'This may be Mr Bush's worst hour of leadership,' said Mr Jackson."

Of course, Chavez did nothing to force the aid upon George W Bush or send it through the opposition or Jesse Jackson. Yet the US insists that its aid offer be accepted by the opposition Guaido whom they recognize as president.

Some Venezuelan aid has been accepted in the past

The US-based Citgo is owned by the Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA. It helped provide heating oil for some US low income families for some years. A February 2013 Digital Journal article reports: "The CITGO-Venezuela Heating Oil Program has helped more than 1.7 million Americans in 25 states and the District of Columbia keep warm since it was launched back in 2005. The program is a partnership between the Venezuelan state oil company Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. (PDVSA), its subsidiary CITGO and Citizens Energy Corporation, a nonprofit organization founded by former US Rep. Joseph P. Kennedy II that provides discounted and free home heating services and supplies to needy households in the United States and abroad. It has been supported from the beginning by Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez."

The program has now been terminated. The US will not allow Citgo to send revenues to Venezuela to the parent company.

Indeed the US has in effect expropriated Citgo on behalf of its attempted coup as a recent Washington Post article explains about Citgo: "President Trump has put it squarely in the center of an economic tug of war over the future of Venezuela. The administration’s new sanctions order the company to divert its payments for Venezuelan crude into a U.S. bank account that Maduro would be unable to access. The State Department said Tuesday that it would allow opposition leader Juan Guaidó, recognized as the interim Venezuelan president by the Trump administration, to draw funds from the account and appoint new directors to Citgo and its parent company, Petróleos de Venezuela."

This is a clear violation of Venezuelan sovereignty. Indeed, the whole US humanitarian aid program is such a violation. It is less humanitarian aid than a bribe of Venezuelans to get them to support Guaido.

International Red Cross and UN avoid US aid program

UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said in New York: "Humanitarian action needs to be independent of political, military or other objectives."

The UN has vowed to increase the budgets of current programs carried out in coordination with the Maduro administration. UN spokespeople have also recently vowed to increase the budgets of current aid programs carried out in coordination with the Maduro administration.

Previously published in Digital Journal