15.02.19: Talking it Out

Citing a leaked e-mail from the United States Department of State, The Associated Press reported today that the White House is planning to send as many as 250 tons of humanitarian aid destined for Venezuela to Colombia aboard military aircraft.

The Associated Press received the e-mail from a congressional aid who was not authorized to discuss the issue.

According to the e-mail, the aid is in the form of “food supplies, hygiene kits and nutritional supplements”, and is already warehoused somewhere in the United States awaiting deliver tomorrow. The aid will be taken to Cucuta, Colombia.

The Associated Press wrote:

The aid came at the request of opposition leader Juan Guaido, who the U.S. and dozens of other countries have recognized as Venezuela’s rightful leader after President Nicolas Maduro last month was sworn in for a second term widely seen as illegitimate.

International aid has been arriving in Cucuta over the past several weeks. The Maduro regime has rejected the aid, with Maduro himself stressing on numerous occassions that accepting it would be humiliating.

News of the new aid from the mainland United States comes on the same day as Puerto Rican aid arrived in Cucuta. Below, a short clip of that aid arriving at a warehouse in Cucuta:

Maduro: Aid is “Rotten”, “Crumbs”

Maduro continued to belittle the efforts of the international community today, saying that the aid being collected to help Venezuelans is “crumbs” and “rotten”.

Speaking from an event in Ciudad Bolivar earlier today, Maduro said:

It’s a trick. They’re making a show with this rotten and contaminated food.

Paradoxically, Maduro then bragged about paying for 933 tonnes of aid from China, Cuba and Russia, saying:

We paid for it with our own money because we’re not beggars.

Maduro called interim president Juan Guaido “a puppet” of the United States, and accused him of committing treason.

White House Official: US Willing to Meet Maduro to Negotiate Exit

CNN reported today that a “high ranking” White House official has said that the Trump administration is “willing to meet” with Maduro regime officials, “including Maduro himself”, to negotiate their exit from power.

In the same article, CNN claims that “reports have suggested” that Washington’s head for Venezuelan affairs, Elliot Abrams, “was invited to meet with Maduro officials to discuss the situation there”.

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