Venezuela Sends 12 Tons of Humanitarian Aid to Storm-Ravaged Guatemala

Mérida, June 10^th 2010 (Venezuelanalysis.com) – Venezuela sent 12 tons of food, rescue supplies, and other humanitarian aid to Guatemala on Tuesday to help the Central American nation recover from a recent tropical storm and volcano eruption that left 104,639 people homeless. 

A military boat departed from Venezuela’s Puerto Cabello “to bring the Guatemalan people a modest, but very deeply felt helping hand from the Venezuelan people,” said Venezuelan Foreign Relations Minister Nicolas Maduro.

“Solidarity is one of the fundamental elements of the Bolivarian Revolution and of the values that we are constructing for Latin American solidarity and unity,” the minister said.  

Maduro said the aid package included 100 meters of portable military bridges to help Guatemalan authorities reach the communities affected by the disasters.

Guatemalan Ambassador to Venezuela Erick Roberto Molina expressed his nation’s appreciation for the aid, saying, “Right now, Guatemala needs everything.”

The tropical storm named Agatha struck Guatemala in the end of May, leaving 174 dead, 153 injured, 113 missing, and 27,823 refugee camps around the country, according to the latest report by Guatemala’s National Disaster Reduction Coordinator. The report also detailed nearly 40,000 points of damage to the nation’s roads.

Guatemalan President Álvaro Cólom told Telesur that “there are at least 300 important bridges destroyed.”

Also in the end of May, the eruption of the Pacaya Volcano caused two deaths and left 900 families homeless, according to Guatemalan government reports.

So far, Guatemalan state agencies have sent 649,760 tons of food by air and land to the communities affected by the back-to-back natural disasters.