THE HAGUE - The US praises the Netherlands for making Curaçao available as a humanitarian hub for Venezuela. During a debate organized by the Dutch UvA students on Wednesday, US ambassador Pete Hoekstra said that this shows that The Hague and Washington are "big friends". "Venezuela is currently one of the biggest crises, and who are pulling together? The Americans and Dutch do that. "
Recently Hoekstra was mainly in the news with strong criticism on the Netherlands. He also repeated this in Amsterdam: that the Netherlands does not make the investment in defense promised in NATO. That it is becoming too dependent on Russian gas because of wrong policy choices. But nothing but good about the cooperation in Curaçao.
The government is happy to do so. Venezuela is an important neighbor because of the proximity of Curaçao and the humanitarian crisis is enormous according to the World Food Program: between 12 and 20 million Venezuelans need food aid. Currently, a treaty is being negotiated on the use of the hub. The first aid goods from USAID can then be flown in. The US pays the full bill according to insiders.
The Netherlands also recognizes the self-appointed interim president Juan Guaidó. But while Washington is no longer talking to incumbent President Nicolás Maduro, The Hague is still willing to do so. The Netherlands believes that the emergency aid cannot go from Curaçao to Venezuela without permission from Maduro. The Netherlands also emphasizes that the hub may be used by everyone, including, if they so request, the United Nations and the Red Cross.
In the Dutch House of Representatives, there are concerns that the Netherlands is being rummaged into a military adventure. President Trump says so far that "all options" are on the table, including military intervention. Hoekstra repeated that, but he also said that the US has no good experiences in Iraq, Syria and Libya. "The overthrow of some of these governments is not that difficult, but building a country requires an enormous effort." In any case, the treaty on the hub explicitly states that it is only intended for civilian purposes.
