Venezuela’s socialist regime is preventing civilians from organizing on their own to collect and deliver humanitarian assistance to people in need in the aftermath of the two deadly earthquakes that struck the nation, NTN 24 reported on Thursday.
Venezuela suffered a magnitude 7.2 earthquake followed by a magnitude 7.5 one seconds later on Wednesday evening, causing widespread devastation and the collapse of numerous buildings in the capital city of Caracas, the northern state of La Guaira and its epicenter, Morón, Carabobo, as well as in other states.
At press time Friday morning, the Venezuelan regime’s official death toll has risen to 235 dead and over 4,300 injured. Certified statistics on the number of missing persons are unavailable at press time, with unconfirmed reports collected by independent, civilian-run online platforms reportedly listing over 50,000 missing persons reports.
Life-saving rescue teams and humanitarian assistance from the United States, El Salvador, Spain, the Dominican Republic, and other nations has begun to arrive over the past hours as the nation’s ill-equipped rescue teams continue to desperately search for survivors.
NTN 24 reported that members of the Venezuelan socialist regime are preventing citizens from carrying out humanitarian aid collection and distribution efforts on their own. It identified Brullerby Suarez, mayor of the municipality Mario Briceño Iragorry in the state of Aragua, as a regime official reportedly preventing the civilian aid efforts.
At the same time, NTN 24 denounced that the Venezuelan regime is ordering the dismantling of collection centers organized by the center-right Vente Venezuela party led by Nobel Peace Prize Laureate María Corina Machado.
Footage published by NTN24 and shared on social media by Breitbart News Contributor Emmanuel Rincón show a group of Venezuelans confronting a Valencia city police officer who demanded the takedown of a reception tent. The officer is heard saying that only the mayor’s office and the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) are authorized to receive aid — leading to the instant outrage and condemnation from the individuals gathered.
Similarly, María Oropeza, local coordinator of Vente Venezuela in the state of Portugesa and a former political prisoner — published a video showing Civil Protection officials in the Portuguesa town of Guanarito demanding the handover of collected aid supplies, claiming they are the only ones with the “right to be a collection center.”
In a separate video, Oropeza detailed that Civil Protection and Portuguesa state police officers are demanding that Vente Venezuela’s team in the state stop using the term “collection center” and instead use “supply collection.” Oropeza reiterated that the officials are demanding that the collected supplies cannot be delivered by people but by “these security agencies.”
“Enough of them following orders regarding the tragedy facing Venezuelans,” Oropeza said. “It is time for us to come together and put the hearts and will of the people first to help those who need it most.”
The socialist regime’s demands that Vente Venezuela abstain from organizing the collection of humanitarian aid appears to be widespread across other states in Venezuela. The party’s coordinator in the state of Barinas, Emill Brandt, denounced on Thursday that members of the Bolivarian National Police (PNB) ordered the closure of a Vente Venezuela reception center in the Barinas town of Obispos.
“Humanitarian aid belongs to all of us citizens who are committed to working proactively for this noble cause. We call on and urge everyone to recognize that the donations our people bring do not belong to a governor or to the police chief,” Brandt said. “And Mr. Casiopo, the police chief, closed down the collection center here in the municipality of Obispo.”
Despite the harassment and efforts of the Venezuelan regime against Vente Venezuela-run centers, the party has reportedly established a humanitarian aid collection center at its main headquarters in the Caracas’ Altamira neighborhood.
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.