Disaster Relief for Venezuela.

• Author: Conaway, Janelle
• Position: Brief Article

FOLLOWING THE devastating floods and mudslides along Venezuela's northern coast in mid-December, the newly created Inter-American Committee on Natural Disaster Reduction began coordinating immediate and long-term responses to the situation.

Venezuela's Ambassador to the OAS, Virginia Contreras, met with representatives of the OAS, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), and the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), among other regional entities, to discuss how best to provide assistance in the face of what she called an "incalculable tragedy."

The OAS Permanent Council held a special session on December 23 to hear a report about the disaster, which left a death toll estimated in the tens of thousands, and to express its "deep sorrow and solidarity with the government and people of Venezuela." Secretary General Cesar Gaviria visited Venezuela at the end of December to get a firsthand look at the most affected areas.

Speaking to the Permanent Council in January, Ambassador Contreras thanked the OAS member countries for the emergency assistance many of their governments had provided, as well as for the support of the inter-American system. "You demonstrated, by your attitude, that there are no borders, that we are all brothers and sisters," she said.

In the first days after the disaster, PAHO set up an emergency task force to work with Venezuelan authorities on health-related activities, including epidemiological surveys, safe water, and sanitation. The regional health organization...