US Diverts $40Mln In Central America Humanitarian Aid To Venezuelan Opposition - Reports

US President Donald Trump's administration intends to divert over $40 million in humanitarian aid for poverty-stricken Central America, frozen over the nations' failure to curb the inflow of migrants to the United States

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 17th July, 2019) US President Donald Trump's administration intends to divert over $40 million in humanitarian aid for poverty-stricken Central America, frozen over the nations' failure to curb the inflow of migrants to the United States, to the Venezuelan opposition, the Los Angeles Times newspaper reported, citing government internal memos.

According to a notification to the Congress from the US Agency for International Development, cited by the media outlet on Tuesday, the decision was made in response to an "exigent" crisis directly affecting US national interests.

The funds, the memo says, will be used to cover expenses for salaries, airfare, "good governance" training, information campaigns and other "democracy-building" projects of Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido and his team.

Citing an unnamed official, the newspaper specified that last year's US threat to stop providing financial assistance to Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador concerned a total of $370 million in aid allocated in 2018.

The $41.9 million in question is the first tranche of the funds to be redirected.

"What they are doing is essentially taking the money that would help poor Central American children and giving it to pay the salaries of Guaido and his officials and employees," the congressional aide with the knowledge of the situation told the newspaper.

Venezuela has been suffering from an acute political crisis since January, when US-backed opposition leader and head of National Assembly Guaido proclaimed himself interim president in a bid to oust incumbent leader Nicolas Maduro.

The United States and its allies, including a number of EU nations, have swiftly recognized Guaido, while Russia, China, Cuba, Bolivia, Turkey among others voiced their support for Maduro as the country's only legitimate president. Maduro, in turn, has called Guaido a US puppet and accused Washington of orchestrating a coup to push through a change of government and take over Venezuelan natural resources.