The IFRC is aware of the Supreme Court decision regarding the reorganization of the Venezuelan Red Cross’ leadership and board, and related actions. The IFRC was dispatching senior officials to Caracas this week to join its permanent delegation in the country to deal with the ongoing developments; this will continue with the goal to better understand the scope of risks and ability to continue providing principle-based humanitarian services, and the level of government involvement, if any, going forward.

Our priority is to protect the critical role of the Venezuelan Red Cross and its volunteers and staff in the country: their neutral, impartial, and independent humanitarian action has been essential in saving lives.

We are currently closely monitoring the situation, assessing the best way forward, and we will inform on our next steps based on that analysis.

Any State intervention in our National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies raises serious concerns regarding their independence and principle-based humanitarian work of National Societies and will be treated with the utmost importance. IFRC has its own mechanisms to address situations when a member National Society might be considered breaching our fundamental principles and we encourage governments to facilitate the IFRC’s own internal mechanism to address such situations.