Goya CEO donates food to Venezuelan refugees, gets threatened
Millions of Venezuelans continue to suffer rights violations, including dozens of possible extrajudicial killings carried out by a special police force, according to the United Nations’ chief human rights official.
An estimated 4 million Venezuelans have fled their country, as it's plagued with hyperinflation under the government of President Nicolás Maduro, prompting world leaders to call it a human rights crisis.
Goya Foods CEO Bob Unanue is taking action to help those refugees by donating an enormous quantity of food to those in need. But his company's kind act has met resistance from the Venezuelan military, he said.
"We've actually been threatened," Unanue told FOX Business' Stuart Varney on "Varney & Co." "We went to the White House to see how we can get food in there, and it's been going in, drip-by-drip, drop-by-drop."
"We're sneaking it in."
Unanue said the system in Venezuela is corrupt, so they had to find a way around that corruption. So far, they've been able to deliver 180,000 pounds of food to the troubled area.
"Actually, we wanted to deliver more, but that's what we've been able to deliver up to date," Unanue said.
Unanue said the Venezuelan government doesn't want the help, though.
"They want to keep oppressing the people," Unanue said.
Unanue noted that when people flee a country, they typically take their capital with them, leaving the country behind in financial shambles and also putting a burden on the countries accepting the influx of refugees.
"We give back as much as we can, and we're very thankful for what we have. It's a way of giving back."
On Monday, more than a dozen Latin American countries, as well as the United States, met to consider multilateral sanctions against Venezuela.
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Many of those countries recognize opposition leader Juan Guaidó as Venezuela's legitimate leader after Guaidó declared himself interim president in January, pointing to the so-called fraudulent re-election of Maduro in 2018.