Venezuela

The U.S. is providing humanitarian assistance for people fleeing crisis in Venezuela.

AFP PHOTO / GEORGE CASTELLANOS

Key Developments

In January and February, the UN World Food Program (WFP) expanded school feeding activities to four additional Venezuelan states, bringing the number of people reached each month with WFP-provided food assistance in Venezuela to approximately 105,000 people.

An increase in violence between non-state armed groups along the Colombia–Venezuela border in early 2022 generated civilian casualties and displacement, increasing humanitarian needs among Venezuelan migrants.

Relief actors report a significant increase in Venezuelan migrants traversing Panama's Darién Gap between Central and South America in early 2022.

Background

Since 2014, deteriorating economic and political conditions in Venezuela—marked by devastating hyperinflation, shortages of basic medicines, and limited food availability—have contributed to increasing humanitarian needs.  The 2021 UN Humanitarian Response Plan identified food security, health, nutrition, and protection as urgent needs inside Venezuela.  Severe food and medicine shortages have led Venezuelans to flee to Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru, and also to Argentina, Mexico, Panama, and Caribbean and Central American countries. The UN estimates that more than 5.6 million Venezuelans have left their country since 2014, and the migration is straining the capacity of some host communities, particularly in border areas of Brazil and Colombia.