Central Florida’s Venezuelan community is seeking help in the wake of last month’s rare twin earthquakes that devastated their homeland.
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On June 24, 7.5 and 7.2 magnitude earthquakes struck the South American country and have caused more than 2,200 deaths so far, officials said this week, with thousands more still missing in the rubble.
Casa De Venezuela Orlando, a nonprofit that helps the Venezuelan community, is looking for donations of non perishable foods, medical supplies and personal hygiene products, said founder William Diaz.
The group has partnered with Bravo Supermarkets, at which Central Floridians can drop off any food supplies at any of the chain’s 11 stores. Residents can also leave medical supplies, first aid kits, canned food, hygiene and sanitation products inside cardboard boxes located inside the stores.
It’s also seeking donations online to fund the construction tools and equipment needed for repair and rescue, Diaz said. As of Thursday the organization has raised over $22,600 on their way to their goal of $75,000.
An Amazon wish list where residents can buy items that will ship directly to the country can be found at www.cdvorlando.org/earthquake-venezuela#bravo
“After 27 years of dictatorship, those poor guys had no equipment,” Diaz said of his native Venezuela. “They even had their shoes, clothes and uniforms in poor condition, so we are organizing to help collect them.”
Venezuela had been led by former President Nicolás Maduro from 2013 until his ouster in January, when the United States captured him during a midnight raid and transferred him to New York to face federal indictments on narco-terrorism and drug trafficking charges. He was replaced by acting president Delcy Rodríguez.
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Before Maduro’s ouster, the country had been struggling after decades of hyperinflation, corruption scandals and food crisis.
But the earthquakes leave Venezuelan immigrants — already in limbo after they were stripped of their protections against deportation, in further turmoil — Diaz said.
The Trump administration ended the temporary protected status, or TPS, for over 600,000 Venezuelans in the U.S. last year, the majority of whom live in Florida, The move leaves them vulnerable to deportation back to a country in chaos after a natural disaster.
Already, more than 100 Venezuelan deportees are missing after their hotel collapsed in the quake just hours after arriving from the U.S.
The TPS program was created in the 1990s specifically to protect migrants whose home nations were unsafe due to armed conflict and natural disasters.
Diaz along with other advocates across the country are asking for the Trump administration to reinstate TPS for Venezuelans or give them a deferred deportation program.
“We know it’s not going to be easy but we need to fight for it,” Diaz said. “Do they really want to help our people or are they going to abandon us?”
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