U.S. State Department announces more than $170 million in aid for Venezuela crisis

By Patrick Hilsman

The U.S. State Department has announced more than $170 million in aid to confront the humanitarian crisis in Venezuela. Secretary of State Antony Blinken says safeguards are in place to prevent the aid from being diverted by the regime of of Nicholas Maduro (pictured giving a speech in Caracas in December 2020). File Photo by Rayner Pena/EPA-EFE

March 17 (UPI) -- The U.S. State Department announced an additional $140 million in humanitarian assistance and $31 million in development funds for Venezuelans in their home country and in the diaspora.

"The assistance makes good on the Los Angeles Declaration commitment to support countries hosting large populations of displaced migrants and refugees. Our assistance supports most vulnerable Venezuelans with their critical needs," Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a press release Friday.

The Los Angeles Declaration on Migration and Protection is a 2022 agreement to help promote safe and human immigration conditions.

Of the funding, $56 million will come from the State Department's Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration, and $115 million will come from U.S. Agency for International Development.

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"The United States is the largest single donor for the response to the Venezuela regional crisis," Blinken said, adding that "this brings total U.S. assistance to more than $2.8 billion since 2017, including more than $2.5 billion in humanitarian assistance and $387 million in development assistance."

Blinken emphasized that safeguards are in place to prevent aid being hijacked by the far-left Venezuelan government of President Nicolás Maduro.

"The United States works trusted organizations to deliver assistance to ensure it is not diverted to the Maduro regime," he said.

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Human Rights Watch accuses the Maduro regime of extrajudicial killings, torture, political repression, and the use of excessive force against protestors.

In 2022, a U.N. fact-finding mission found that the Maduro regime was carrying out "crimes against humanity," in its repression of political dissent.

The U.S. government eased sanctions against the Venezuelan government in 2022 in an effort to control oil prices after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.