Overview
- Two powerful earthquakes struck Venezuela on Wednesday, causing widespread destruction, hundreds of confirmed deaths and thousands of injured people as buildings collapsed in hard-hit areas such as La Guaira.
- The U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control issued a temporary general license on June 26 that allows transactions related to earthquake relief through October 23 and authorizes third-country processing and transfers to support authorized aid operations.
- The U.S. announced a $150 million assistance package split between $100 million for the U.N. OCHA pooled fund and $50 million in bilateral grants and said it will deploy a Disaster Assistance Response Team that includes urban search-and-rescue units.
- International search-and-rescue teams from several countries have arrived to assist local efforts while many Venezuelans have voiced frustration over what they describe as a slow and uneven domestic rescue response.
- The OFAC license does not unfreeze property blocked under the Venezuela sanctions regulations and does not override other sanctions, which means legal and logistical hurdles will remain for aid delivery and coordination on the ground.