U.S. aid to Venezuela was not aligned with humanitarian principles, audit finds

FILE PHOTO: A man walks past aid at a warehouse where international humanitarian aid for Venezuela is being stored, during a visit by U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Colombia’s President Ivan Duque, near the La Unidad cross-border bridge between Colombia and Venezuela in Cucuta, Colombia April 14, 2019. REUTERS/Luisa Gonzalez/File Photo

CARACAS (Reuters) -A U.S.-backed effort to send aid to Venezuela in 2019 that ended in a violent standoff on the Colombian border was not planned in alignment with humanitarian principles, according to an audit by the Washington-based aid agency involved in the operation.

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) sent aid material to the Colombian border region in February 2019 amid chronic shortages of food and medicine and rising malnutrition in Venezuela.