U.S. Department of State Fiscal Year 2019 Agency Financial Report

Special Representative for Venezuela Elliott Abrams, with Secretary Pompeo, delivers remarks on Venezuela in Washington, D.C., January 25, 2019. Department of State One Team, One Mission, One Future Ethos Supports Democracy in Venezuela T he corrupt and brutal Maduro regime has plunged the country and region into a complex humanitarian crisis, causing the largest displacement of individuals in the history of the Western Hemisphere. Maduro and those who support him have system- atically destroyed the economy, caused devastating damage to the environment, threatened the livelihoods of indigenous populations, and perpetrated egregious human rights abuses, including torture and thousands of extrajudicial killings. There are more than 4.5 million Venezuelans outside of Venezuela, including 1.4 million in Colombia, nearly 861,000 in Peru, and more than 330,000 in Ecuador. In 2019, the security environment collapsed, and Embassy Caracas suspended operations in Venezuela on March 14th. The Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs (WHA) has leveraged the One Team, One Mission, One Future Ethos to address this man-made economic and political crisis. We officially established the Venezuela Affairs Unit (VAU) on August 5, 2019 to engage with interim President Juan Guaidó and the National Assembly. The VAU, led by Chargé d’Affaires James Story, is the interim diplomatic office of the U.S. Government to Venezuela, located at the U.S. Embassy in Bogota, Colombia. The VAU is continuing the work of the U.S. mission to the legitimate Government of Venezuela and the Venezuelan people. The Unit works for the restoration of democracy and the constitutional order in Venezuela, and the security and well-being of the Venezuelan people. The One Team, One Mission, One Future Ethos helped the WHA Bureau coordinate a U.S. Government-wide effort to increase the diplomatic pressure on the Maduro regime. Thanks to a global diplomatic push, the United States and more than fifty other countries have officially recognized the interim Guaidó government. In addition, signatory countries invoked the Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance (Rio Treaty) to increase pressure on the Maduro regime. The last time Rio Treaty signatories did so was in response to the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. The Bureau further demonstrated the power of the One Team, One Mission, One Future Ethos through partnerships with other Department of State bureaus and with USAID. The U.S. Government has provided nearly $644 million in foreign assistance, including nearly $473 million in humanitarian aid and over $171 million in development assistance to the people of Venezuela. The humanitarian assistance is supporting people in Venezuela, Venezuelans who have fled the country due to the crisis, and the governments of the region that are supporting displaced Venezuelans. We also work shoulder-to-shoulder with interagency partners to leverage their expertise and assets to aid the Venezuelan people and support interim President Guaidó and the National Assembly as they work to return democracy to Venezuela. 16 | U nited S tates D epartment of S tate 2019 A gency F inancial R eport