Brazil Considers Humanitarian Aid Route Into Venezuela From South

(Bloomberg) -- Brazil’s government is considering a humanitarian aid facility near the border with crisis-stricken Venezuela, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter.

The aid center would be set up in the state of Roraima, on Venezuela’s southern border, the person said, asking not to be identified because discussions are not public. The facility would stockpile medicine and food and would be handled by Brazil’s foreign and health ministries, as well as the army. The U.S is due to host a conference in Washington on humanitarian aid for Venezuela on Thursday. Requests for information to the foreign minister and the defense ministry were not answered.

Truckloads of food and medicine have been piling up for days just over the Colombian border to the west of Venezuela after President Nicolas Maduro barricaded entry points, saying that the shipments are meant to humiliate and undermine him. Juan Guaido, the National Assembly president who says he’s the rightful leader of Venezuela, has said the opposition will push the aid through the border on February 23 regardless of objections from Maduro or the military. Maduro’s security forces are using shipping containers and a tractor-trailer to close off an international bridge.

Venezuela’s Guaido Says Humanitarian Aid to Enter on Feb. 23

Roraima was the point of entry for almost 200,000 Venezuelans migrants crossing into Brazil between January 2017 and November 2018, according to the latest figures from the federal police.

The state also imports electricity from a Venezuelan power plant as it is not connected to the Brazilian national grid. Last year Caracas threatened to cut the energy supply to the state over an unpaid debt.

--With assistance from David Biller.

To contact the reporter on this story: Samy Adghirni in Brasilia Newsroom at sadghirni@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Raymond Colitt at rcolitt@bloomberg.net, Bruce Douglas

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