Caracas – Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa arrived here Tuesday with 11.2 tons of humanitarian aid for Venezuelans forced from their homes by weeks of heavy rains that have left dozens dead.
Correa and Venezuelan head of state Hugo Chavez had been scheduled to meet this week in Salinas, Ecuador, to review progress on joint projects, but the emergency in Venezuela forced a change of plan.
More than 130,000 Venezuelans are holed up at nearly 1,000 shelters after being forced from their homes by torrential rains, flooding and mudslides.
"We have brought cooking oil, lentils, rice, red beans, powdered milk," Correa said at Caracas's international airport. "It's our grain of sand because the main thing is to tell the Venezuelan people they can count on Ecuador."
Chavez then took his guest to the capital's main military base, Ft. Tiuna, where the two presidents spent time with some of the 269 people being lodged in a temporary shelter at the installation.
"We are in a very big crisis," the Venezuelan said, thanking Correa for the "invaluable" aid.
The Ecuadorian leader recalled that his own country saw 40 percent of its territory flooded during a spell of record rains in 2008.
Venezuela has suffered as much as $10 billion in damage from the current wave of downpours, Chavez said, citing extensive damage to highways, crops, bridges and dams.
After the stop at Ft. Tiuna, Chavez and Correa went to the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry, which - like the presidential palace - is also serving as a temporary shelter.
The Ecuadorian leader will leave Venezuela on Wednesday for neighboring Colombia, suffering through its worst rainy season since records have been kept.
Correa's visit will mark the culmination of a long process of rebuilding bilateral ties that were severed by Quito in March 2008 after Bogota launched a military strike on a clandestine Colombian rebel camp just inside Ecuadorian territory.
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