In his State of the Union address Tuesday night, President Donald Trump said the United States supports the people of Venezuela during their current crisis.
Venezuelans have been in a state of uncertainty since Juan Guaido, the leader of the democratically elected National Assembly, declared himself the interim president in a move against the current leader, Nicolas Maduro.
“We stand with the Venezuelan people in their noble quest for freedom and we condemn the brutality of the Maduro regime whose socialist policies have turned that nation from being the wealthiest in South America into a state of abject poverty and despair,” said Trump.
Both political parties in Venezuela are calling for elections in congress in the struggle for power in the country.
However, as the political crisis intensifies, the people are suffering from severe shortages of food and medicine. And prices are soaring for what little is available, with inflation running at 80,000 percent last year.
“In Venezuela there is nothing,” said a Venezuelan mother named Crisbelis Perez. “One cannot find medicine. Nothing, nothing, nothing – not even the vaccines for the baby and since the girls were sick. I came for help here at the Red Cross because they give the medicines all at once.”
The US has sent aid to the Venezuelan people; food and medicine to Columbia’s border with Venezuela. But President Nicolas Maduro has blocked such help in the past.
Opposition leader Guaido, who recently declared himself interim president, has been setting up the aid.
Rev. Franklin Graham told Reuters that the aid is likely to stay outside country and that the Venezuelan government has to open its borders so aid can get in.
In a Facebook post, he said his humanitarian relief group Samaritan’s Purse is prepared and ready to help.
And through a network of partners, the Christian group World Help is secretly getting assistance into the country.
Christians in Venezuela are taking up the fight for the country’s future in prayer.
Meanwhile, Venezuela’s humanitarian crisis is likely to get even worse as the public wants Maduro gone. Nevertheless, he’s stubbornly hanging onto power.