Earthquake aid continues to flow from Florida to Venezuela, as volunteers unite to help with recovery

After her grandmother’s house in Caracas narrowly escaped devastating earthquakes that struck the country last month, Alessandra Izaguirre was in desperate need of Venezuela’s help.

“Seeing my grandmother and all these people affected made me feel like I had to do something, even if it was from the United States,” said the 18-year-old, who has spent the past two weeks preparing food for volunteers at the headquarters of the nonprofit Global Empowerment Mission in Doral, Florida.

Izaguirre is one of thousands of people who participated in an exceptionally large grassroots humanitarian effort based at GEM, supported by donations from across the United States and abroad, that is still going strong nearly three weeks after the disaster struck.

Hundreds of volunteers still come every day to the GEM warehouses in Doral, where about half the population is of Venezuelan descent. They sort donated supplies – which are curated to meet the latest needs – and prepare them for transportation to Caracas on daily trips.

The GEM system, facilitated by the US State Department, has given members of the Venezuelan diaspora and others an outlet for support in the ongoing crisis, and a reliable mechanism to send aid amid widespread concerns about theft and corruption on the part of Venezuelan officials.

“Everything we can communicate to the Venezuelan people is what matters,” Izaguirre said.

These efforts also highlight the stunning dynamic shift between the United States and Venezuela since President Trump ordered the arrest of then-Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in an early morning raid on January 3. With military personnel once again on the ground, the United States has assumed a response role that would have been unimaginable before January, when Trump said the United States would “run” the country and control its oil exports.

“This is a completely different animal,” said the movement’s founder and head, Michael Capone, who was banned from entering Venezuela while trying to deliver aid under Maduro, who has long rejected humanitarian aid, linking it to foreign interference. “We landed in a private plane, it was unloaded by American soldiers, and then it was transported in a truck that we paid for to a warehouse that we completely control. It is not in the hands of the Venezuelan government.”

GEM quickly revitalized the supply chain

The 7.2 and 7.5 magnitude earthquakes struck 39 seconds apart on June 24, killing at least 4,500 people and leaving thousands more still missing. Venezuelan officials said they destroyed 190 buildings and damaged more than 850, displacing 17,000 people and destroying vital infrastructure that provides electricity, clean water and sanitation.

The GEM headquarters became a fundraising point almost immediately. Some donors were initially skeptical that aid could reach those who needed it without being stolen or abused by a corrupt government, Capone said. After the Global Equality Movement (GEM) made its first successful aid distribution, the movement grew larger than it had seen in decades of global response.

Companies including Goya, Walmart and Amazon are contributing supplies while professional sports teams have donated funds. But a large portion of the aid is still collected from contributions from thousands of individuals.

“They go to Walmart with their credit card, buy 15 boxes of food and bring it in their shopping bag,” Capone said. “It doesn’t sound like a lot, but when it comes to 2,000 people… that’s a tremendous amount of aid.”

Lines for aid deliveries at GEM were sometimes so long that police had to help manage traffic. Supplies arrive from all over North America: two brothers drive a truckload of goods from Canada. Another group arrived from Mexico. Trucks have arrived from Nevada, Texas and California.

Up to 1,000 volunteers in three warehouses are sorting and packing. They fill pallets with essentials like diapers, and assemble individual care packages with enough nutrition and hygiene items for two people for about five days. They also take notes of encouragement: “Te queremos Venezuela,” one reads. “We love you, Venezuela.”

The GEM program aims to deliver at least 100,000 care packages per month for the next three to six months, while also meeting upcoming needs, such as long-term housing.

Billy Richardson, director of U.S. logistics, said volunteers were furloughed from work to work hours in warehouses. Others arrive after work. “We almost have to kick them out at the end of the day,” Richardson said.

Mariela Vela came up because she remembers how affected she was when Hurricane Maria hit her native Puerto Rico in 2017. “The Latino community in general has come together to help Puerto Rico, and that made me feel really good,” said Villa, 25, who has worked full-day shifts at GEM since the effort began. “So I felt the need to help Venezuela.”

The United States plays a complex role

To date, nearly 1 million pounds of supplies have been deployed from GEM headquarters to its recently leased warehouses in Caracas. GEM partners with local nonprofits and trusted community members to organize distributions in the hardest-hit areas, often twice daily.

But it is the US State Department that facilitates the shipments with the Venezuelan government, allowing GEM to operate in the country, and even receive assistance from the US military. On Saturday, US Marines landed an amphibious vehicle on a Venezuelan beach and unloaded GEM packages that were passed to 2,000 people who were lining up for aid.

A State Department spokesperson told The Associated Press that partnerships with GEM and additional nonprofits allow the United States to leverage existing logistics and donation mechanisms, adding that efforts with GEM tap into “the Venezuelan American diaspora and private sector partners who want to donate.”

Several other U.S.-based humanitarian organizations told the AP that they have also been able to operate without interference from Venezuelan officials. Some rely on collaboration with existing local non-profit organizations.

Despite the American presence, some still question whether the Trump administration is doing enough to help Venezuela, especially since it controls billions of dollars in oil revenues.

“There are a lot of transparency questions that remain about the use of this fund at a time when Venezuelans really need to use this money to protect Venezuelans,” said Laura Cristina Dibb, Venezuela program director at the human rights organization Washington Office for Latin America.

John M. Barrett, the U.S. charge d’affaires in Venezuela, told reporters last week that the interim government was “fully compliant with our requests to bolster this massive humanitarian response” and that revenues from Venezuelan oil production, currently controlled by the U.S. Treasury, are being provided for relief efforts.

Asked for more details, a State Department spokesperson said, “State and Treasury support the interim Venezuelan government’s budget operations, improving Venezuela’s liquidity and access to capital during the recovery period,” adding that the United States contributed more than $386 million to the earthquake response independent of oil revenues.

Venezuela’s recovery has only just begun

In the coastal city of Maiquetia last week, Yunel Reyes sat inside a tent, examining the contents of a GEM package he had just received during an aid distribution, which had been packed and sealed 1,300 miles away in Doral. There were instant meals, bottled water, canned food, hydration powder, and toiletries.

“I never imagined that I would receive aid from the United States,” Reyes said. “We Venezuelans are grateful, very thankful.”

Anguera writes for The Associated Press. AP video journalist Juan Pablo Arez contributed to this report from Maiquetia, Venezuela.

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