Showdown Over Aid for Venezuela: New York Times
Venezuelans have suffered for years from shortages of food and other necessities due to economic mismanagement by the regime led by Nicolás Maduro since 2013. More than 10 percent of the country’s population has already fled, the violence exacerbating a refugee crisis International aid supplies are waiting near the border in Brazil and Colombia. Opposition leader and head of the country’s National Assembly, Juan Guaidó, is trying to distribute the aid against Maduro’s orders. Security forces fired on protesters near the border with Brazil, killing two and wounding others. Indigenous protesters took two national guardsman as captives. “The bloodshed came as the presidents of Chile, Colombia and Paraguay flew to the Colombian border town of Cúcuta in a display of anti-Maduro resolve – and were joined by Mr. Guaidó, who defied a travel ban,” reports the New York Times. Protesters, aid organizers, political groups, and concert organizers and goers have descended on the town of 750,000. “The opposition sees a chance to break through Mr. Maduro’s blockade of the shipments, establishing Mr. Guaidó, who they and more than 50 other countries call Venezuela’s legitimate president, as the one who can provide the country food.” Analysts express concern about violence and civil war. Or, Maduro could simply relinquish power. – YaleGlobal
Showdown Over Aid for Venezuela: New York Times
Inept regime clinging to power in Venezuela blocks delivery of international aid; protesters and region’s political leaders support Juan Guaidó taking control
Saturday, February 23, 2019
Read the article from The New York Times about the crisis in Venezuela.
Nicholas Casey has been the Andes bureau chief at The Times since January 2016, and joined The Times the year before. In this role, he covers most of the countries in South America including Venezuela, Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia and the Guyanas. Ernesto Londoño has been The Times’s Brazil bureau chief since July 2017. Based in Rio de Janeiro, he oversees coverage of the southern cone of South America.
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