Press Release

December 20, 2017
Cardin Asks Haley to Convene Emergency UN Session on Venezuela
In floor speech, Senator laments crisis Maduro has unleashed on Venezuelan people, calls for regional, international resolve

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, spoke on the Senate floor Wednesday about the dire state of affairs facing the Venezuelan people and wrote to the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, urging her to convene an emergency session of the UN Security Council to explore ways to alleviate human suffering in Venezuela.

“With Venezuela’s humanitarian crisis growing daily, conditions facing Venezuelan children are particularly dire. The Catholic relief organization Caritas has determined that over 50 percent of children are suffering nutritional deficiencies, [projecting that] 280,000 Venezuelan children could eventually die of hunger without an urgently needed humanitarian response,” Senator Cardin said. “As Venezuelans increasingly suffer the ravages of hunger, the country’s hospital system is collapsing. Essential medicines are in short supply and more than half of the nation’s operating facilities no longer function or have sufficient supplies. Disturbingly, international relief organizations have found that over 60 percent of Venezuelan hospitals don’t even have potable water.”

“The United States and our partners in the hemisphere now confront a situation in which the Maduro regime would rather see its people go hungry than accept the assistance that Venezuelans desperately need,” Senator Cardin continued. “This man-made tragedy is absolutely unacceptable and today I have written to Ambassador Nikki Haley to urge her to call for an emergency special session of the United Nations Security Council to evaluate which UN mechanisms, including UN Security Council Resolutions, should be pursued to alleviate humanitarian suffering inside Venezuela.”

The Senator’s letter to Ambassador Haley can be found at this link.

The Senator’s floor speech as prepared for delivery can be found at this link.

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