US ready to send supplies to Venezuela, if allowed

By Michael Hernandez

WASHINGTON (AA) - The U.S. is ready to supply the people of Venezuela with direly needed aid it has positioned in the region if Caracas will consent to the deliveries, the State Department said Friday.

"These provisions could be made available immediately, if only the government of Venezuela would accept international humanitarian assistance," spokesperson Heather Nauert said in a statement.

"We repeat our call on the Maduro regime to stop denying the needs of its people and to allow aid from the international community to reach them," she added.

The aid includes food and other nutrition commodities, Nauert said.

“U.S. sanctions allow U.S. persons to provide food, medicine, and other humanitarian assistance to the Venezuelan people. U.S. sanctions are not directed at the people of Venezuela,” she added.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro decided in July to go ahead with a controversial Constituent Assembly with the power to rewrite Constitution. The move sparked a wave of economic sanctions that have touched not only officials, but the country's critically important oil sector.

Maduro has been subject to U.S. blacklisting in the form of financial sanctions.

Venezuela is in the midst of a major economic crisis prompted by a precipitous decline in the price of oil and worsened by the U.S. sanctions. The country is now wracked by shortages of basic supplies including food, medicine and medical supplies.

Maduro was handpicked by popular former President Hugo Chavez who died of cancer in 2013. He blames the country’s economic and political woes on interference by the U.S. and its regional allies.