Two of Ten Containers of Portuguese Aid Have Docked at La Guaira, Carrying the First of 240 Tonnes Raised After June's Earthquakes

Two of the ten containers carrying humanitarian aid collected in Portugal have reached the Venezuelan state of La Guaira, and their pallets were handed over on Sunday to the local associations that will distribute them. The arrival was confirmed to the Lusa news agency by Jesus Testa, spokesman for Venexos, during the handover at the premises of the logistics company Almacenadora X7 in Maiquetía.

The full consignment runs to about 240 tonnes of food, medicines and personal hygiene articles. "We expect to receive approximately 240 tonnes between food, medicines and personal hygiene articles, to be delivered and distributed, for the most part, in the state of La Guaira, which is the area where the epicentre of the earthquake in Venezuela occurred and where we have the greatest number of people affected," Testa said.

Collected in Portugal, shipped by sea

The aid was gathered on the Portuguese mainland and in Madeira by a group of non-governmental organisations that began work as soon as the June earthquakes struck. Seven of the ten containers sailed from Lisbon and three from the Port of Leixões, at Matosinhos.

Moisés Rodrigues, president of the Associação Amigos da Diáspora e dos Emigrantes Madeirenses (Association of Friends of the Diaspora and Madeiran Emigrants), described the cargo when the shipment was announced earlier this month: food, medicines, medical supplies from masks and gloves to gowns and surgical material, nappies for babies and adults, and articles for personal use. Sea freight was chosen for reasons of international logistics, he said, and the collection was organised in the knowledge that delivery would take time.

Alongside that association, the operation involved Venexos, the Associação Diáspora no Mundo (Diaspora in the World Association), the Luso-Latin cooperative Huellatina, the Associação Venezuela Amiga (Friendly Venezuela Association), Venecom and the Associação Luso-venezuelana Alusven.

Who receives it

Thirteen local associations have taken delivery so far. They include the Sociedade de Beneficência de Damas Portuguesas (Portuguese Ladies' Benevolent Society), the Lar da Terceira Idade Padre Joaquim Ferreira, the Lar Geriátrico de Maracay, Regala Una Sonrisa, the Peregrinas de El Junquito, Venexos, Consulta Salud and Ajuda-Caritativa. Each receives between 10 and 15 pallets in this first phase, and Rodrigues said it had been important to establish the installed capacity of each organisation before allocating the load.

He was also there to clear the cargo through customs. Contacts have since been made with associations in Los Teques and Valencia, and with Cáritas Valencia and Cáritas Caracas, which are in line for the second consignment.

The scale of the disaster

The double earthquake of 24 June caused serious damage to infrastructure, injuries and deaths across seven Venezuelan states: Caracas, Miranda, Aragua, Carabobo, Lara, Yaracuy and La Guaira, the last the worst hit. According to the most recent official balance, 6,509 people died and 226,696 were treated in Venezuelan hospitals. At least 138 of the dead were Portuguese nationals or of Portuguese descent.

That is the reason a Portuguese civil-society appeal fills ten shipping containers. Venezuela holds one of the larger Portuguese and Madeiran emigrant communities in Latin America, and the response here has run through the diaspora associations rather than the state. Portugal shipped eight tonnes of donated medicine in July, and Madeira mobilised consular help in the days after the quakes. In August, Portugal's ambassador in Caracas ruled out a mass return of Portuguese citizens, on the reasoning that most intend to stay and rebuild where they are.

The remaining eight containers have yet to be delivered.