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🇻🇪 Venezuela /Disasters & Emergencies

Transparencia Venezuela seeks to make 'people afraid to steal humanitarian aid money'

From El Nacional · () Spanish

Translated from Spanish, summarized and contextualized by DistantNews.

At a glance

News Named sources Context piece
  • Transparencia Venezuela has launched a digital platform to monitor international aid intended for earthquake victims.
  • The platform aims to deter corruption by enabling citizen reporting and tracking aid shipments.
  • The organization criticizes Venezuela's state institutions, citing a history of corruption and opacity in resource management.

An organization in Venezuela is taking a stand against corruption with a new digital platform designed to ensure that international humanitarian aid reaches its intended recipients. Mercedes de Freitas, executive director of Transparencia Venezuela, explained the platform's purpose: to instill fear in those who might consider misappropriating funds meant for earthquake victims.

We try to make people afraid to steal the money from humanitarian aid.

— Mercedes de FreitasExplaining the goal of the new digital platform.

"We try to make people afraid to steal the money from humanitarian aid," de Freitas stated during an interview. The platform centralizes citizen complaints and provides logistical tracking for incoming assistance. This initiative seeks to create independent social oversight and discourage illicit practices within official distribution chains, addressing a critical need for accountability in aid delivery.

Transparencia Venezuela also voiced strong criticism of Venezuelan state institutions, pointing to a long-standing pattern of corruption and a lack of transparency. De Freitas asserted that "anyone who knows the regime of Venezuela for the last 27 years knows that the practice is corruption, opacity." She added that public resources, including humanitarian aid, are often targeted by corruption networks directed by the regime.

Anyone who knows the regime of Venezuela for the last 27 years knows that the practice is corruption, opacity.

— Mercedes de FreitasCriticizing the historical administrative practices of Venezuelan state institutions.

Given this context, the organization emphasizes that external audits and civil sector participation are essential to validate the destination of international donations. They argue that the current emergency demands transparent channels, free from governmental opacity. De Freitas further linked the recovery from the structural crisis to profound changes in the country's governance model, calling for a transition toward democracy to truly rebuild the nation.

The practice is to use public resources, whether humanitarian aid, because everything is susceptible to being a target of the corruption network directed by the regime.

— Mercedes de FreitasElaborating on how public resources are exploited.
DistantNews Editorial

Originally published by El Nacional in Spanish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized by our editorial team with added local perspective. Read our editorial standards.

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