After her grandmother鈥檚 house in Caracas narrowly survived last month鈥檚 , Alessandra Izaguirre was desperate to help Venezuela.
鈥淪eeing my grandma and all these people affected made me feel like I had to do something, even if it was from the U.S.,” said the 18-year-old, who has spent the last couple weeks preparing food for volunteers at the Doral, Florida headquarters of the nonprofit .
Izaguirre is one of thousands of people who have participated in an exceptionally large grassroots humanitarian effort based at GEM, supported by donations from across the U.S. and beyond and still going strong nearly three weeks after the catastrophe.
Hundreds of volunteers still show up each day at GEM’s warehouses in Doral, where about . They sort donated supplies 鈥撯�� curated to address the latest needs 鈥撯�� and prepare them for transport to Caracas on daily flights.
GEM’s system, facilitated by the U.S. State Department, has given members of the Venezuelan diaspora and others an outlet to support the ongoing crisis, and a trusted mechanism to send aid amid widespread concern about theft and corruption on the part of Venezuelan officials.
鈥淲hatever we can get to the Venezuelan public is what counts,鈥� said Izaguirre.
The effort also underscores the stunning dynamic shift between the U.S. and Venezuela since President Donald Trump ordered then-Venezuelan president . With military personnel again on the ground, the U.S. has assumed a response role that would have been unimaginable before January, when Trump said the and .
鈥淭his is a whole different animal,鈥� said GEM founder and president Michael Capponi, who was while trying to deliver aid during the reign of Maduro, who long rejected humanitarian help, equating it to foreign intervention. 鈥淲e land a private plane, it gets unloaded by U.S. soldiers, it goes in a truck we pay for and to a warehouse that we completely control. It doesn鈥檛 touch the hands of the Venezuelan government.鈥�
GEM quickly activated a supply chain
The 7.2- and 7.5-magnitude earthquakes struck 39 seconds apart on June 24, killing at least 4,500 people with . They destroyed and damaged over 850 buildings, leaving 17,000 displaced and ravaging critical infrastructure providing electricity, clean water and sanitation.
GEM’s headquarters became a donation collection point almost immediately. Some donors were initially skeptical that aid could reach those who needed it without being stolen or misused by a , Capponi said. After GEM made its first successful aid distribution, the movement grew bigger than he’d seen in decades of global response.
Companies like Goya, Walmart and Amazon contribute supplies while professional have donated funds. But much of the aid is still amassed from thousands of individuals’ contributions.
鈥淭hey鈥檙e going to Walmart with their credit card, buying 15 cans of food and bringing it in a shopping bag,鈥� said Capponi. 鈥淚t doesn鈥檛 sound like a lot, but when it鈥檚 2,000 people… it鈥檚 an enormous amount of aid.鈥�
Lines to drop off aid at GEM have at times been so long police had to help manage traffic. Supplies arrive from across North America: Two brothers drove a U-Haul of goods from Canada. Another group arrived from Mexico. Trucks have rolled in from Nevada, Texas and California.
As many as 1,000 volunteers across three warehouses sort and pack. They fill pallets with essentials like diapers, and assemble individual care packages with enough sustenance and hygiene items to last two people about five days. They also tuck in notes of encouragement: 鈥淭e queremos Venezuela,鈥� one reads. 鈥淲e love you, Venezuela.鈥�
GEM aims to deliver at least 100,000 care packages monthly for the next three-to-six months, while also addressing upcoming needs, like longer term housing.
Volunteers have taken vacations from work to put in hours at the warehouses, said Billy Richardson, director of U.S. logistics. Others arrive after work. 鈥淲e almost have to kick them out at the end of the day,鈥� Richardson said.
Mariela Vila showed up because she remembers how affected she was when Hurricane Maria pummeled her homeland of Puerto Rico in 2017. 鈥淭he Latino community in general gathered together to help Puerto Rico, and that made me feel really well,鈥� said Vila, 25, who has worked full-day shifts at GEM since the effort began. 鈥淪o I felt the need to help Venezuela.鈥�
U.S. assumes a complicated role
Nearly one million pounds (454,000 kilograms) of supplies have been deployed so far from GEM headquarters to its recently leased Caracas warehouses. GEM collaborates with local nonprofits and trusted community members to organize distributions in the hardest hit areas, often twice daily.
But it is the U.S. State Department that facilitates the shipments with the Venezuelan government, making it possible for GEM to operate in the country, even getting help from the U.S. military. On Saturday, U.S. Marines landed an amphibious landing craft on a Venezuelan beach and unloaded GEM packages that were then passed to 2,000 people lined up for aid.
Partnerships with GEM and additional nonprofits allow the U.S. to tap into existing logistics and donation mechanisms, a State Department spokesperson told The Associated Press, adding that the effort with GEM leverages “the Venezuelan American diaspora and private partners who want to donate.鈥�
Several other U.S.-based told The Associated Press they also have been able to operate without interference from Venezuelan officials. Some depend on collaborations with established local nonprofits.
Despite the U.S. presence, some still question whether the Trump administration is doing enough to help Venezuela, especially since it controls billions of dollars in oil revenue.
鈥淭here are a lot of transparency questions that linger on the use of that fund in a moment in which Venezuelans really need that money to be used for the protection of Venezuelans,鈥� said Laura Cristina Dib, Venezuela program director at the human rights organization Washington Office on Latin America.
John M. Barrett, U.S. charge d鈥檃ffairs for Venezuela, told reporters last week that the interim government has been 鈥渇ully compliant in terms of our requests to advance this massive humanitarian response” and that revenue from Venezuelan oil production, currently controlled by the U.S. Treasury, is being made available for relief efforts.
Asked for further details, the State Department spokesperson said 鈥淪tate and Treasury are supporting the Venezuelan interim government鈥檚 budgetary operations, improving Venezuela鈥檚 liquidity and access to capital during the recovery,” adding that the U.S. has contributed over $386 million to earthquake response independent of the oil revenue.
Venezuela’s recovery is only beginning
In the coastal city of Maiquet铆a last week, Yoniel Reyes sat inside a tent, examining the contents of a GEM package during an aid distribution, packed and sealed 1,300 miles away in Doral. There were instant meals, bottles of water, canned food, hydration powder and hygiene kits.
鈥淚 never imagined I would be receiving aid from the U.S.,鈥� said Reyes. 鈥淲e Venezuelans are thankful, very thankful.鈥�
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Associated Press videojournalist Juan Pablo Arraez contributed to this report from Maiquet铆a, Venezuela.
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