Venezuela

The U.S. is providing humanitarian assistance for people fleeing crisis in Venezuela.

AFP PHOTO / GEORGE CASTELLANOS

Key Developments

USAID is responding to a complex emergency stemming from an economic and political crisis in Venezuela, and its impact on regional countries, including Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru.

The United States has provided more than $1.4 billion in emergency humanitarian assistance for vulnerable people in Venezuela and for Venezuelan migrants and communities hosting them across the region. The assistance supports international and local non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and public international organizations—including UN agencies—to provide critical food; health; nutrition; protection; and water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) assistance for people inside Venezuela; and Venezuelan migrants and refugees and host communities in Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and other countries in the region.

The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated humanitarian needs, and USAID partners have adjusted programs to prioritize life-saving humanitarian assistance. USAID partners in Venezuela are providing primary health services, improving access to basic medical supplies and medicines, training health care workers, and supporting malaria treatment and prenatal and pediatric consultations. USAID partners are also providing safe drinking water, hygiene kits, hygiene promotion activities, and repairs to handwashing stations, latrines, and incinerators at health centers to help prevent the spread of infection. Additionally, USAID partners are providing hot meals to vulnerable Venezuelans in community kitchens and schools, preventing and treating malnutrition, and implementing protection programs, including creating child-friendly spaces and conducting gender-based violence prevention awareness sessions.

Background

Since 2014, deteriorating economic and political conditions in Venezuela—marked by devastating hyperinflation, shortages of basic medicines, and limited food availability—have contributed to increasing humanitarian needs. The 2021 UN Humanitarian Response Plan identified food security, health, nutrition, and protection as urgent needs inside Venezuela. Severe food and medicine shortages have contributed to Venezuelans fleeing to other countries in the region, primarily to Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru, and also to Argentina, Mexico, Panama, and Caribbean and Central American countries. The UN estimates that more than 5.6 million Venezuelans have left their country since 2014.

The population influx is straining the capacity of public services in some host communities, particularly in border areas of Brazil and Colombia. Recent assessments indicate food, health care services, nutrition assistance, protection, and WASH support are among the most urgent humanitarian needs of Venezuelans and host communities in border regions.