The Venezuelan government intends to also contribute with specialized rescue teams and medical groups. | Photo: @madeleintlSUR​​

Port-au-Prince, August 16 (RHC)-- The Venezuelan Government opened a humanitarian bridge to Port-au-Prince with the dispatch of a first plane with 30 tons of aid for Haiti after the 7.2 earthquake that occurred Saturday and has left at lesast 720 dead and more than 2,800 injured so far.

It is the Simón Bolívar aircraft, belonging to the state-owned airline Conviasa, which is carrying 30 tons of drinking water, food and medicines to the Caribbean nation, as an immediate response to the disaster and in line with the directives of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

The Venezuelan Minister of the Interior, Carmen Meléndez, indicated that the possibility of sending other flights with supplies is being handled, as well as a ship with specialized equipment and medical rescue groups, for which they are awaiting all the pertinent authorization protocols.

"We have all the capacities created, and the task force activated to continue offering our help to the Haitian people, but this was an urgent and necessary first step", expressed Meléndez.

Previously, President Nicolás Maduro had expressed his solidarity with the Haitian people, "we are going to support with everything we know how to do in Civil Protection and with everything we can. Let's coordinate at all levels", he added.

For its part, the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry expressed through a communiqué "deep regret" for the natural disaster and the losses registered.  "The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela places itself at the disposal of the Haitian people to provide the necessary humanitarian assistance, which will contribute to overcoming this regrettable and painful event," the document highlighted.