1.3 million need urgent aid in Venezuela: UN Humanitarian Chief

And joining me now live from Caracas in Venezuela is Tom Fletcher. He is the UN Under Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator. Thank you so much, sir, for joining us here on Al Jazeera. Can you describe what you've been seeing there on the ground in Venezuela and the scale of the destruction? Well, the devastation is very, very hard to witness. The sights, I'm afraid the smells of, you know, so many bodies out there decomposing in the heat and the humidity and the evidence of so many lives destroyed in, you know, in a matter of minutes, of course, just two weeks ago. And people are in shock and despair. We've seen today a number of bodies being taken from the rubble. I've sat with grandmothers and mothers who go out every day in the hope that perhaps, against all hope, their child or grandchild will be pulled from the rubble. It's very rough. When you meet these mothers who come out every day hoping to get their kid out alive from the rubble, what do you tell them? I mean, can you say anything to comfort them? Yeah, you can. And obviously, you know, we're here to provide that humanitarian support, food, water and shelter. We had over 50 search and rescue teams here, many still here, of course, from over 30 countries. And so there was this massive mobilisation alongside the government of resources to try and save as many lives as we could. What's happening now is we're transitioning into that next phase of the response, the wider humanitarian response, but also trying to create the conditions for people to start to be able to rebuild their lives, their livelihoods, their homes, and to start to imagine a world where they can start to get back on their feet. Tom, you've just done a virtual briefing to representatives from several countries, including the European Union. What was your message to them on what help that the UN is currently providing there in Venezuela? So I said we need to see the massive outpouring of solidarity that this challenge deserves and that the people of Venezuela deserve. You know, the front lines of this response are those local communities, its neighbours who are going out and digging through the rubble through the night, the people who almost immediately after the earthquake were heading in this direction from Caracas and elsewhere to support local populations. And we've got to be there by their side. We've had that massive mobilisation of search and rescue. We now need the world to back the plan that I set out today at that global ministerial conference, a plan that will see us reach 1.3 million people in the next six months with urgent life-saving support. It's a coordinated plan. It's in line with the humanitarian reset. It's based on a prioritised, data-driven, innovative, effective, principled response. And we need to see the world get behind it. You know, there's been a lot of criticism of the government in Venezuela that they were slow, that they've not done enough, too little, too late have been some of the words that we've been hearing. What are you able to do to help the government at this point, managing this crisis, given that experience that you have at the UN? Let's be clear. These were two earthquakes, 7.3, 7.5. This is a massive crisis to hit any government, any authorities, anywhere in the world. And from the first hour, we've been coordinating with the local authorities. We set up a coordination cell in Caracas, alongside of COSAC, coordination cells on the ground. And I met last night with the acting president, Delsia Rodriguez, and other members of her government, in order to work together on this joint plan. That number of 1.3 million people in socioeconomic need is the number that we're seeking to reach alongside the government. And they've been working in partnership with us. They've been giving us the visas to bring in the teams we need to bring in. We've been working together to prioritise where the response is most needed. And so there is that partnership there. We need the international community to hold the course. And we need to recognise that no response to a disaster on this scale will ever be perfect. But we must all focus, laser-like, on saving as many lives as we can. Are you able to do that? Can you still save lives? Absolutely. And we have big teams on the ground, working round the clock to do that. I visited a lot of displacement sites today, where across the UN humanitarian family, across the NGO community, across local organisations, we're working in a coordinated, targeted way to reach as many survivors as possible with humanitarian support. You know, many of those who die in a crisis like this, die long after the initial impact of the earthquakes. They die because they're not getting the medical support that they need, or the shelter that they need. And so that's the priority right now. Tom Fletcher from the UN, thank you so much for your time and for all the hard work that you're doing there in Venezuela.