People wait to be given empty water containers and water purification pills during the Red Cross’ first aid shipment in Caracas, Venezuela, Tuesday, April 16, 2019. In late March, the Red Cross federation announced it would soon begin delivering assistance to an estimated 650,000 people and vowed that it would not accept interference from either side of the polarized country. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) – Red Cross volunteers distributed the first shipment of badly needed emergency supplies in Venezuela on Tuesday after months of feuding between the government, which has denied the existence of a humanitarian crisis, and opponents who have been seeking to use the delivery of aid to force President Nicolás Maduro from power.
In the working class neighborhood of Catia near downtown Caracas, government supporters fired a half dozen gunshots in the air as a van arrived to distribute water purification tablets and empty plastic jugs, creating a small commotion on a major avenue during rush hour.
“We’re very happy,” Sergio Guerra, a motorcycle taxi driver, said nonchalantly as the sound of the shots cracked overhead. “With these tablets we can defend ourselves a little better by drinking cleaner water.”
Empty water containers to be handed out with purification pills are lined up during the Red Cross’ first aid shipment in Caracas, Venezuela, Tuesday, April 16, 2019. In late March, the Red Cross federation announced it would soon begin delivering assistance to an estimated 650,000 people and vowed that it would not accept interference from either side of the polarized country. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)
A small contingent of police showed up to restore order, and volunteers in blue vests agreed to close the van doors from which they were running the slow-moving distribution operation. Elsewhere, trucks carrying the aid snaked through a Caracas highway, the drivers of several vehicles jubilantly honking in support.
The delivery of international humanitarian aid has become a focal point in Venezuela’s power struggle, now in its third month, after opposition leader Juan Guaidó declared himself interim president. Both the opposition and the government have been accused of politicizing the aid issue as hospitals struggle to provide even basic care.