Pompeo Says US to Provide $348 Million in Aid to Venezuelan Refugees

By M.G. Alison. Sep 19 2020, 12:33 PM EDT

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has announced that the United States will be giving $348 million aid to Venezuelan refugees.

During his visit to Brazil on Friday, Pompeo said the aid includes $30 million for the 250,000 Venezuelan refugees who are now in Brazil.

Pompeo's trip to Brazil included a visit to a Venezuelan refugee processing center with Brazilian Foreign Minister Ernesto Araújo. Pompeo called for democracy and urged Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro to step down.

Before the border was closed due to the COVID-19, about 600 refugees from Venezuela arrives daily in Brazil.

According to a VOA News report, Pompeo, who joined Araujo in a press conference, said that what Venezuelan refugees want is the same as what all the other human beings want.

He said they want dignity, and they want a sovereign Venezuela. A Venezuela that is peaceful and democratic, a home where they and their children can get jobs and live with that dignity.

Pompeo noted that the U.S. and Brazil support what they want. The state secretary added that no one can exactly tell when Maduro will step down but that the day will eventually come.

Araujo said that Brazil is coordinating with the U.S. to be able to give the Venezuelan refugees better lives.

Brazil is Pompeo's third stop in his Latin American Tour to show the U.S. support for South American nations democracies, promote regional security and highlight their response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Many Latin American countries have high COVID-19 positive cases, with Brazil at third next to the U.S. and India.

Aside from Brazil, Pompeo's tour included visits to Paramaribo, Suriname; Georgetown, Guyana; Boa Vista, Brazil; and Bogotá, Colombia, according to the Wall Street Journal. Mike Pompeo's last stop will be in Plano, Texas.

Pompeo is making history as the first U.S. secretary of state to visit Suriname and Guyana and highlighted the oil boom in these countries, as stated in a France 24 news.

Council of Americas Vice President Eric Farnsworth said that getting a U.S. secretary of state to travel anywhere in Latin America and the Caribbean is extraordinary and shows that something big is about to happen.

Farnsworth used to work at the state department. And Pompeo's visit also coincides with Guyana reviewing its arrangement with ExxonMobil.

In 2015, ExxonMobil revealed that they found one of the world's largest oil reserves in Guyana. At that time, the American multinational oil and gas corporation worked with Suriname, where they also found a large oil reserve.

With the discovery, Guyana has been forecasted to have an 85 percent growth this year, the highest in any country worldwide.

However, an official of the U.S. State Department said Mike Pompeo is not visiting Guyana to bolster ExxonMobil's lobby but rather encourage Guyana and Suriname to be responsible for their financial windfall.