CARACAS: Twenty-five countries have pledged $100 million in aid to Venezuela, a top US official said Thursday, as the crisis-hit country's Supreme Court took aim at oil executives appointed by the opposition.

Venezuela is plagued by hyperinflation and major shortages of basic goods, and two men -- opposition leader Juan Guaido and President Nicolas Maduro -- are vying for control of the country.

The United States is among more than 50 countries that have recognized Guaido as interim president, but Maduro -- backed by the country's military as well as Russia, China and dozens of other states -- has so far refused to relinquish his office.

US national security advisor John Bolton made the announcement on the aid pledged to Venezuela following an Organization of American States conference on assisting the country.

"Today, 25 countries, united at the OAS-hosted Conference on Humanitarian Assistance in Support of Venezuela pledged $100 million in humanitarian assistance," Bolton tweeted.

According to David Smolanksy, coordinator of an OAS working group on migration and refugees from Venezuela, the money will go directly to aid collection centers set up on the borders with Colombia and Brazil and on the Caribbean island of Curacao.

At the opening of the conference in Washington, Guaido's representative in the United States, Carlos Vecchio, said the priority is to get aid into Venezuela on February 23 -- a month after Guaido declared himself Venezuela's interim president.

Guaido and Maduro have been locked in a battle over allowing aid into the country, and the military reinforced a blockade on Thursday at the border with Colombia, where the opposition leader has vowed to bring in desperately-needed goods.

AFP journalists saw several new freight containers blocking the road that connects the town of Urena in Venezuela to Cucuta in Colombia, where tons of US aid has been piling up for a week.

Venezuela is enduring the biggest economic crisis in its modern history, with hyperinflation predicted to hit 10 million percent this year, according to the International Monetary Fund.

On Wednesday, the opposition-controlled National Assembly -- which is headed by Guaido -- appointed executives to form new boards for Venezuelan state oil firm PDVSA and its US-based affiliate Citgo.

Venezuela's Supreme Court took aim at the move the following day, ordering that the new appointees face criminal prosecution.

The high court -- which is packed with Maduro loyalists -- ruled that the executives were named by a legislature whose decisions are "null," and that the appointees should face prosecution for crimes including "usurpation," "corruption," "organized crime" and "terrorism."

The Supreme Court decision set in motion the process of extraditing the accused, most of whom are in the United States, and freezing their accounts.

Guaido celebrated the appointments as a "step forward in the reconstruction of PDVSA," but Maduro had warned that those accepting "illegal" appointments would face justice.

A company executive insisted nothing has changed at PDVSA.

"The oil company is operating as it always does and we are aware of the imperialist attacks to which we are being submitted," said PDVSA's director for overseas operations, Yurbis Gomez.

The United States, which is leading the push to topple Maduro, has sanctioned key regime financial assets including the Citgo subsidiary, and President Donald Trump has refused to rule out military action against the leftist leader.</s>"You have built a mountain of lies, all sorts of manipulations, accusations, [and] a fantasy world to confuse millions of people [about] what occurs today in Venezuela. Today, I am here to stay in touch with reality and tell our truth to the world", Moncada told the OAS members on Friday. "We have to remove the fog of lies from the eyes of the majority of people and the international public opinion. Each state has a sovereign right to recognize whomever they want. To chase us from here, you need to respect the [OAS] Charter".

During the same meeting on Friday, the United States and its allies within the OAS, including Colombia, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Peru, and Guatemala, among others, demanded new elections be held in Venezuela.

READ MORE: US Officials to Join Military Flight Delivering Aid to Venezuela — Statement

"As head of the transitional government, interim president Juan Guaido has clearly stated his plans to call new elections at the earliest possible date", US Ambassador to the OAS Carlos Trujillo said. "We support interim president Guaido’s plan, at the same time, we should remember that elections alone do not make a democracy".

The OAS member-states also proposed the formation of a group of experts to rebuild electoral institutions in Venezuela.

The US bloc also called for an immediate delivery of humanitarian aid to Venezuela, which drew criticism from the Venezuelan Ambassador who stressed that US allies use a humanitarian aid narrative to justify military action and to hide "cruel ambition".

READ MORE: Possible US Military Action Toward Venezuela Gravely Violates Intl Law — Analyst

Moncada added that in order to end the humanitarian crisis in Venezuela, the United States, as well as its allies, should stop the economic blockade against Venezuela and lift the sanctions imposed.

On Tuesday, Guaido told his supporters that US humanitarian aid would be delivered on 23 February. However, Christoph Harnisch, the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Columbia, has said his organization would not assist in delivering the goods to Venezuela because the ICRC does not consider the US assistance to be humanitarian aid. Earlier this month, the ICRC warned US officials against politicizing humanitarian assistance and delivering aid without the consent of local authorities.

READ MORE: Russia Suspects Venezuela Coup by Military Means Becoming US Priority

The United States and several allies, who have backed self-proclaimed interim president Juan Guaido, have been urging President Nicolas Maduro to step down and calling for new elections in Venezuela. Constitutionally elected Maduro has repeatedly accused Washington of orchestrating a coup and stressed the humanitarian aid is part of the ploy to topple his government.

Russia, China, Mexico, Turkey, Uruguay, and several other states have said that they supported Maduro as the country’s only legitimate president.</s>The U.S. effort to distribute tons of food and medicine to needy Venezuelans is more than just a humanitarian mission. The operation is also designed to foment regime change in Venezuela — which is why much of the international aid community wants nothing to do with it.

Humanitarian operations are supposed to be neutral. That's why the International Committee of the Red Cross, United Nations agencies and other relief organizations have refused to collaborate with the U.S. and its allies in the Venezuelan opposition who are trying to force President Nicolás Maduro from power.

"Humanitarian action needs to be independent of political, military or any other objectives," Stéphane Dujarric, the U.N. spokesman, told a press briefing last week in New York. "The needs of the people should lead in terms of when and how humanitarian assistance is used."

Venezuela needs all the help it can get. Hyperinflation and shortages of food and medicine have prompted more than 3 million Venezuelans to flee the country. Many of those who remain suffer from malnutrition and weight loss. Hospital patients sometimes die due to a lack of antibiotics and other basic drugs.

Over the past two weeks, the U.S. government has been massing tons of non-perishable food and emergency medical kits in warehouses near the Colombian border city of Cúcuta — and American officials are promising much more.

But the increasingly authoritarian Maduro refuses to let the aid across the frontier. His government has blocked the main border bridge with a tanker truck and shipping containers. Maduro denies the existence of a humanitarian crisis and claims the aid is a Trojan horse for an eventual U.S. invasion.

"Humanitarian aid has been turned into a spectacle to justify a military intervention of our country," Maduro told a news conference in Caracas last week.

Other critics have drawn parallels between the U.S. operation and Russia's intervention in eastern Ukraine in 2014, when it sent more than 250 aid trucks into the country without Red Cross escorts or customs clearance.

U.S. officials acknowledge that positioning the aid on the border is, in part, designed to provoke. The idea is to convince Venezuelan military officers to defy Maduro's orders and allow the aid into the country.

"Members of the army are Venezuelan citizens. ... Our hope is that they will be able to persuade Maduro, or they will simply disobey orders to continue the starvation of the people of Venezuela," Elliott Abrams, the U.S. special envoy for Venezuela, said at a State Department briefing earlier this month.

Such a rebellion could lead to Maduro's ouster — an outcome that would do more than anything else to improve living conditions inside the country, says Kevin Whitaker, the U.S. ambassador to Colombia.

Maduro "needs to leave so his people's needs can be attended to, so the Venezuelan economy can be put back on its feet, and so that Venezuela can once again be a normal country," Whitaker told NPR in a telephone interview.

But the risks of linking humanitarian assistance to regime change are already coming into focus, with some Venezuelan aid workers being denounced by the Maduro government as opposition activists, says Daniel Almeida of CARE International, which partners with aid groups in Venezuela.

"Local NGOs have received some ... warnings because of their engagement with international aid. The whole environment is becoming more aggressive," Almeida said.

Another danger, experts say, is that Maduro — who currently allows in some humanitarian assistance from various international agencies — could close the door on aid altogether.

Meanwhile, aid groups are bracing for a new round of U.S. sanctions that effectively block the sale of Venezuelan oil to the U.S. These proceeds make up the bulk of Venezuela's cash income, which is used to import food and medical supplies.

That means rice, milk, antibiotics and other vital products could become even more scarce, says Phil Gunson, who is based in Caracas for the International Crisis Group. He says the situation could soon resemble a "medieval siege where you prevent your adversary from obtaining resources from outside the city walls."

What's more, the sanctions could worsen the current shortages of gasoline and auto parts.

"If we can't move around due to a lack of gasoline, that means humanitarian aid cannot be mobilized," warns Feliciano Reyna, the founder of Acción Solidaria, a health and human rights group that distributes medicine to 14,000 Venezuelans.

Even so, many Venezuelans strongly back the U.S. approach. They include José Manuel Olivares, a doctor and congressman who, like numerous opposition politicians, has fled Venezuela because he feared he would be arrested.

"I'm convinced that there won't be enough time for the sanctions to have an impact because the ouster of Maduro will take place before then," Olivares said during a recent visit to Cúcuta, Colombia.

Whitaker, the U.S. ambassador, insists that the U.S. aid effort is "moral and ethical." By contrast, he points out that Maduro has for years funneled state food handouts to hungry Venezuelans in exchange for their support.

"Our focus is on making humanitarian assistance available to the needy people of Venezuela," Whitaker said. "If anyone is politicizing this, it's Maduro."

To bring more attention to the aid logjam on the border, Richard Branson, the British billionaire and philanthropist, is organizing a benefit concert in Cúcuta next Friday, Feb. 22. Branson said he hopes to raise $100 million for humanitarian aid and is taking action in response to a request from Juan Guaidó, who is recognized by the U.S. and dozens of other countries as Venezuela's interim president.

The day after the concert, the Venezuelan opposition hopes to mobilize an army of volunteers to break the blockade and move the aid across the border. It's unclear how this would happen and the action could provoke a violent confrontation with Venezuelan troops. But thousands of Venezuelans have signed up online to help.

Among them is Jorge Valenzuela, a retired lawyer who attended a recent anti-Maduro protest in Cúcuta. "The aid is legitimate," he says, "and we need it."</s>CARACAS, Venezuela >> The Trump administration is sending another large shipment of humanitarian aid to the Venezuelan border in Colombia, for the first time using U.S. military aircraft as it increases pressure on Nicolas Maduro to give up power, according to a State Department email sent to Congress.

CARACAS, Venezuela >> The Trump administration is sending another large shipment of humanitarian aid to the Venezuelan border in Colombia, for the first time using U.S. military aircraft as it increases pressure on Nicolas Maduro to give up power, according to a State Department email sent to Congress.

The announcement of additional aid comes as the Trump administration today added Venezuela’s oil boss and key intelligence officers to a long list of Maduro loyalists under U.S. financial sanctions.

The 250 tons of food supplies, hygiene kits and nutritional supplements will begin arriving Saturday to the border city of Cucuta, where tons of boxes of emergency aid stamped with the U.S. flag are already warehoused awaiting delivery into Venezuela.

The email sent today was provided to The Associated Press by a congressional aide who wasn’t authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

The aid came at the request of opposition leader Juan Guaido, who the U.S. and dozens of other countries have recognized as Venezuela’s rightful leader after President Nicolas Maduro last month was sworn in for a second term widely seen as illegitimate.

Guaido has vowed to deliver the aid over the objections of Maduro, who in an exclusive interview Thursday with the AP said that the offer of U.S. assistance represents mere “crumbs” compared to hostile efforts to block the country’s oil exports and restrict its access to foreign funding.

While the U.S. military has long supported civilian-led humanitarian assistance missions around the world, this is the first time they are being used to deploy aid for Venezuela. Last year, the U.S. government sent more than $100 million in aid to Cucuta to help Colombian authorities absorb some of the estimated 3 million of Venezuelans fleeing hyperinflation and food shortages.

In slapping new sanctions on Maj. Gen. Manuel Quevedo, the president of the Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA, U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said the oil executive had been instrumental in propping up what he called Maduro’s illegitimate regime.

In the AP interview Maduro said Quevedo had been in India this week looking to drum up new business for PDVSA after the company was itself hit with sanctions aimed at cutting off an estimated $11 billion in profits.

The new sanctions also target four high-ranking intelligence officials, including the head of the feared SEBIN intelligence police and an elite commando unit known as FAES that is accused of several targeted killings.

In a statement, Mnuchin accused the officials of corruption and helping Maduro repress democracy in Venezuela — which includes using “torture and other brutal use of force.”

“We are intent on going after those facilitating Maduro’s corruption and predation,” Mnuchin said, adding that Quevedo and others have syphoned off funds that “rightfully belong to the people of Venezuela.”

The U.S. sanctions block access to any property the individuals own in the United States and bans U.S. citizens from doing business with them.

As U.S. pressure mounts, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told reporters today in Reykjavik, Iceland, that he sees clear signs that Maduro is starting to understand Venezuelans reject him as their leader.

In the AP interview, Maduro said he was willing to meet President Donald Trump at any time or place to resolve the crisis over U.S. recognition of Guaido.

Pompeo said Maduro’s request wasn’t new, but it reflects that he’s realizing his crisis-riddled nation rejects his “model of governance.”

Pompeo wouldn’t say whether he would send envoy Elliott Abrams to meet Maduro in Caracas.

Maduro told the AP that his foreign minister has met Abrams twice recently in New York for secret talks.</s>The U.S. effort to distribute tons of food and medicine to needy Venezuelans is more than just a humanitarian mission. The operation is also designed to foment regime change in Venezuela — which is why much of the international aid community wants nothing to do with it.

Humanitarian operations are supposed to be neutral. That's why the International Committee of the Red Cross, United Nations agencies and other relief organizations have refused to collaborate with the U.S. and its allies in the Venezuelan opposition who are trying to force President Nicolás Maduro from power.

"Humanitarian action needs to be independent of political, military or any other objectives," Stéphane Dujarric, the U.N. spokesman, told a press briefing last week in New York. "The needs of the people should lead in terms of when and how humanitarian assistance is used."

Venezuela needs all the help it can get. Hyperinflation and shortages of food and medicine have prompted more than 3 million Venezuelans to flee the country. Many of those who remain suffer from malnutrition and weight loss. Hospital patients sometimes die due to a lack of antibiotics and other basic drugs.

Over the past two weeks, the U.S. government has been massing tons of non-perishable food and emergency medical kits in warehouses near the Colombian border city of Cúcuta — and American officials are promising much more.

But the increasingly authoritarian Maduro refuses to let the aid across the frontier. His government has blocked the main border bridge with a tanker truck and shipping containers. Maduro denies the existence of a humanitarian crisis and claims the aid is a Trojan horse for an eventual U.S. invasion.

"Humanitarian aid has been turned into a spectacle to justify a military intervention of our country," Maduro told a news conference in Caracas last week.

Other critics have drawn parallels between the U.S. operation and Russia's intervention in eastern Ukraine in 2014, when it sent more than 250 aid trucks into the country without Red Cross escorts or customs clearance.

U.S. officials acknowledge that positioning the aid on the border is, in part, designed to provoke. The idea is to convince Venezuelan military officers to defy Maduro's orders and allow the aid into the country.

"Members of the army are Venezuelan citizens. ... Our hope is that they will be able to persuade Maduro, or they will simply disobey orders to continue the starvation of the people of Venezuela," Elliott Abrams, the U.S. special envoy for Venezuela, said at a State Department briefing earlier this month.

Such a rebellion could lead to Maduro's ouster — an outcome that would do more than anything else to improve living conditions inside the country, says Kevin Whitaker, the U.S. ambassador to Colombia.

Maduro "needs to leave so his people's needs can be attended to, so the Venezuelan economy can be put back on its feet, and so that Venezuela can once again be a normal country," Whitaker told NPR in a telephone interview.

But the risks of linking humanitarian assistance to regime change are already coming into focus, with some Venezuelan aid workers being denounced by the Maduro government as opposition activists, says Daniel Almeida of CARE International, which partners with aid groups in Venezuela.

"Local NGOs have received some ... warnings because of their engagement with international aid. The whole environment is becoming more aggressive," Almeida said.

Another danger, experts say, is that Maduro — who currently allows in some humanitarian assistance from various international agencies — could close the door on aid altogether.

Meanwhile, aid groups are bracing for a new round of U.S. sanctions that effectively block the sale of Venezuelan oil to the U.S. These proceeds make up the bulk of Venezuela's cash income, which is used to import food and medical supplies.

That means rice, milk, antibiotics and other vital products could become even more scarce, says Phil Gunson, who is based in Caracas for the International Crisis Group. He says the situation could soon resemble a "medieval siege where you prevent your adversary from obtaining resources from outside the city walls."

What's more, the sanctions could worsen the current shortages of gasoline and auto parts.

"If we can't move around due to a lack of gasoline, that means humanitarian aid cannot be mobilized," warns Feliciano Reyna, the founder of Acción Solidaria, a health and human rights group that distributes medicine to 14,000 Venezuelans.

Even so, many Venezuelans strongly back the U.S. approach. They include José Manuel Olivares, a doctor and congressman who, like numerous opposition politicians, has fled Venezuela because he feared he would be arrested.

"I'm convinced that there won't be enough time for the sanctions to have an impact because the ouster of Maduro will take place before then," Olivares said during a recent visit to Cúcuta, Colombia.

Whitaker, the U.S. ambassador, insists that the U.S. aid effort is "moral and ethical." By contrast, he points out that Maduro has for years funneled state food handouts to hungry Venezuelans in exchange for their support.

"Our focus is on making humanitarian assistance available to the needy people of Venezuela," Whitaker said. "If anyone is politicizing this, it's Maduro."

To bring more attention to the aid logjam on the border, Richard Branson, the British billionaire and philanthropist, is organizing a benefit concert in Cúcuta next Friday, Feb. 22. Branson said he hopes to raise $100 million for humanitarian aid and is taking action in response to a request from Juan Guaidó, who is recognized by the U.S. and dozens of other countries as Venezuela's interim president.

The day after the concert, the Venezuelan opposition hopes to mobilize an army of volunteers to break the blockade and move the aid across the border. It's unclear how this would happen and the action could provoke a violent confrontation with Venezuelan troops. But thousands of Venezuelans have signed up online to help.

Among them is Jorge Valenzuela, a retired lawyer who attended a recent anti-Maduro protest in Cúcuta. "The aid is legitimate," he says, "and we need it."</s>CUCUTA, Colombia (AP) — The U.S. Air Force began flying tons of aid to a Colombian town on the Venezuelan border on Saturday as part of an effort meant to undermine socialist President Nicolas Maduro and back his rival to leadership of the South American nation.

The first of three C-17 cargo planes took off from Homestead Air Reserve Base in Florida and landed in the Cucuta. That border city, swollen by a flood of migrants from Venezuela, is a collection point for aid that’s supposed to be distributed by backers of Juan Guaido, the congressional leader who is recognized by the U.S. and many other nations as Venezuela’s legitimate president.

Commercial planes had been used for earlier shipments of aid, which is aimed at dramatizing the economic crisis — including hyperinflation and shortages of food and medicine — gripping Venezuela under Maduro. Critics say last year’s re-election was fraudulent, making Maduro’s second term illegal.

Maduro has been using the military, which remains loyal, to help him block the aid from entering Venezuela, describing it as “crumbs” from a U.S. government whose restrictions have stripped his administration of control over many of its most valuable assets.

“They hang us, steal our money and then say `here, grab these crumbs’ and make a global show out of it,” Maduro told The Associated Press on Thursday. “With dignity we say `No to the global show.’ Whoever wants to help Venezuela is welcome, but we have enough capacity to pay for everything that we need.”

Members of his administration have alleged, without evidence, that the aid packages are contaminated.

Saturday’s 180-ton shipment includes high-energy food products or hygiene kids of soap, toothpaste and other goods for more than 25,000 people.

Guaido has called for an effort on Jan. 23 to bring the aid into Venezuela, though it’s not yet clear how they might overcome Maduro’s blockade.

Several thousand doctors, nurses and other people gathered at a parking lot in eastern Caracas on Saturday as part of an effort to enlist 600,000 volunteers to distribute or provide aid on the part of the opposition.

Anibrez Peroza, a 40-year-old nurse, said she was ready if necessary to go to Cucuta in a caravan to bring in the aid.

“We have to do something to save so many people who are suffering and dying for lack of medicine,” she said. Peroza wept as she described a dehydrated child dying in her arms for lack of a catheter to rehydrate him.

In addition to Cucuta, aid collection centers have been set up in Miami, the Brazilian town of Roraima and the Dutch Caribbean island of Curacao.

The U.S. and widespread European recognition of Guaido complicates Maduro’s efforts to find funds to keep his government, and its own food programs, running.

The U.S. has placed Venezuela’s U.S. assets, including oil company Citgo, under Guaido’s control and bans financial transactions by Maduro-controlled entities. Scores of Venezuelan officials also face personal financial sanctions in the United States.

Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.</s>The U.S. military will begin delivering relief supplies to Colombia to help Venezuelan migrants crossing the border, the Pentagon said Friday, part of a broader U.S. effort to assist an interim government in Caracas.

The relief includes food, hygiene kits and medical supplies, said a Pentagon spokesman, Army Lt. Col. Jamie Davis.

"We will have more details on additional humanitarian assistance and U.S. military logistical support for these efforts shortly," Davis said.

A U.S. defense official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, said the mission does not indicate that additional American troops will be deploying to Colombia. More than 200 tons of supplies are expected to begin arriving as soon as today. Aircraft will deliver supplies on behalf of the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development to an undisclosed airfield near the border and leave, the official said.

The Associated Press, citing an email from a congressional aide, reported that the aid will be delivered to the city of Cucuta, a border city in northeast Colombia where other supplies have been collected for Venezuelans. It isn't yet clear how they will be distributed, or where.

The deliveries will come as the United States continues to put pressure on the government of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro to step down during an economic and political crisis in which Venezuela's National Assembly declared Maduro's 2018 re-election invalid in January and declared the assembly's president, Juan Guaido, as interim president.

Davis said the assistance is part of an effort by the U.S. government "to respond to the humanitarian impacts of this political and economic crisis." The aid was requested by Guaido, he said.

Maduro has so far blocked any humanitarian aid from entering Venezuela, saying it is part of a U.S.-led coup. Guaido has set a Feb. 23 deadline to allow aid in, but it isn't clear what will happen if it's not met. The United States has repeatedly denied that it has any plans to participate in a coup.

The development agency said in a tweet Friday that the hygiene kits include toilet paper, feminine products, soap, razors, toothpaste, laundry detergent and other items that have become scarce and prohibitively expensive in Venezuela.

The Pentagon's announcement came after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said during a news conference in Iceland that Maduro's recent invitation to Elliot Abrams, the State Department's special envoy for the country, shows that he is desperate.

Pompeo repeated a frequent criticism that Venezuelan's humanitarian crisis is Maduro's fault and said the United States will continue to try to get food and other aid to Venezuela. Maduro's government has blocked the aid delivery.

"This man, Maduro, has created a humanitarian crisis that is unequaled, in a nation where there was no hard conflict," Pompeo said. "And we as citizens, this weekend will continue to deliver massive humanitarian assistance."

Last month, national security adviser John Bolton made headlines by carrying a notepad with the phrase "5,000 troops to Colombia" on it during a briefing about Venezuela, but it would be complicated for the Trump administration to complete such a plan. Congressionally mandated U.S. troop caps in the country state that no more than 800 service members and 600 contractors can be in Colombia at a time.

Information for this article was contributed by Carol Morello of The Washington Post.</s>Twenty-five have pledged USD 100 million in aid to Venezuela, a top US said Thursday, as the crisis-hit country's took aim at appointed by the opposition.

is plagued by hyperinflation and major shortages of basic goods, and two men -- and -- are vying for control of the country.

The is among more than 50 that have recognised Guaido as interim president, but Maduro -- backed by the country's military as well as Russia, and dozens of other states -- has so far refused to relinquish his office.

US made the announcement on the aid pledged to following an conference on assisting the country.

"Today, 25 countries, united at the OAS-hosted Conference on Humanitarian Assistance in of pledged $100 million in humanitarian assistance," Bolton tweeted.

According to David Smolanksy, of an OAS working group on migration and refugees from Venezuela, the money will go directly to aid collection centers set up on the borders with and and on the island of

At the opening of the conference in Washington, Guaido's representative in the United States, Carlos Vecchio, said the priority is to get aid into Venezuela on February 23 -- a month after Guaido declared himself Venezuela's interim

Guaido and Maduro have been locked in a battle over allowing aid into the country, and the military reinforced a blockade on Thursday at the border with Colombia, where the has vowed to bring in desperately-needed goods.

AFP journalists saw several new freight containers blocking the road that connects the town of in Venezuela to Cucuta in Colombia, where tons of US aid has been piling up for a week.

Venezuela is enduring the biggest economic crisis in its modern history, with hyperinflation predicted to hit 10 million percent this year according to the

On Wednesday, the opposition-controlled -- which is headed by Guaido -- appointed executives to form new boards for Venezuelan firm and its US-based affiliate

Venezuela's took aim at the move the following day, ordering that the new appointees face criminal prosecution.

The high court -- which is packed with Maduro loyalists -- ruled that the executives were named by a legislature whose decisions are "null," and that the appointees should face prosecution for crimes including "usurpation," "corruption," "organized crime" and "terrorism." The decision set in motion the process of extraditing the accused, most of whom are in the United States, and freezing their accounts.

Guaido celebrated the appointments as a "step forward in the reconstruction of PDVSA," but Maduro had warned that those accepting "illegal" appointments would face justice.

The United States, which is leading the push to topple Maduro, has sanctioned key regime financial assets including the subsidiary, and has refused to rule out military action against the leftist leader.</s>The U.S. effort to distribute tons of food and medicine to needy Venezuelans is more than just a humanitarian mission. The operation is also designed to foment regime change in Venezuela — which is why much of the international aid community wants nothing to do with it.

Humanitarian operations are supposed to be neutral. That's why the International Committee of the Red Cross, United Nations agencies and other relief organizations have refused to collaborate with the U.S. and its allies in the Venezuelan opposition who are trying to force President Nicolás Maduro from power.

"Humanitarian action needs to be independent of political, military or any other objectives," Stéphane Dujarric, the U.N. spokesman, told a press briefing last week in New York. "The needs of the people should lead in terms of when and how humanitarian assistance is used."

Venezuela needs all the help it can get. Hyperinflation and shortages of food and medicine have prompted more than 3 million Venezuelans to flee the country. Many of those who remain suffer from malnutrition and weight loss. Hospital patients sometimes die due to a lack of antibiotics and other basic drugs.

Over the past two weeks, the U.S. government has been massing tons of non-perishable food and emergency medical kits in warehouses near the Colombian border city of Cúcuta — and American officials are promising much more.

But the increasingly authoritarian Maduro refuses to let the aid across the frontier. His government has blocked the main border bridge with a tanker truck and shipping containers. Maduro denies the existence of a humanitarian crisis and claims the aid is a Trojan horse for an eventual U.S. invasion.

"Humanitarian aid has been turned into a spectacle to justify a military intervention of our country," Maduro told a news conference in Caracas last week.

Other critics have drawn parallels between the U.S. operation and Russia's intervention in eastern Ukraine in 2014, when it sent more than 250 aid trucks into the country without Red Cross escorts or customs clearance.

U.S. officials acknowledge that positioning the aid on the border is, in part, designed to provoke. The idea is to convince Venezuelan military officers to defy Maduro's orders and allow the aid into the country.

"Members of the army are Venezuelan citizens. ... Our hope is that they will be able to persuade Maduro, or they will simply disobey orders to continue the starvation of the people of Venezuela," Elliott Abrams, the U.S. special envoy for Venezuela, said at a State Department briefing earlier this month.

Such a rebellion could lead to Maduro's ouster — an outcome that would do more than anything else to improve living conditions inside the country, says Kevin Whitaker, the U.S. ambassador to Colombia.

Maduro "needs to leave so his people's needs can be attended to, so the Venezuelan economy can be put back on its feet, and so that Venezuela can once again be a normal country," Whitaker told NPR in a telephone interview.

But the risks of linking humanitarian assistance to regime change are already coming into focus, with some Venezuelan aid workers being denounced by the Maduro government as opposition activists, says Daniel Almeida of CARE International, which partners with aid groups in Venezuela.

"Local NGOs have received some ... warnings because of their engagement with international aid. The whole environment is becoming more aggressive," Almeida said.

Another danger, experts say, is that Maduro — who currently allows in some humanitarian assistance from various international agencies — could close the door on aid altogether.

Meanwhile, aid groups are bracing for a new round of U.S. sanctions that effectively block the sale of Venezuelan oil to the U.S. These proceeds make up the bulk of Venezuela's cash income, which is used to import food and medical supplies.

That means rice, milk, antibiotics and other vital products could become even more scarce, says Phil Gunson, who is based in Caracas for the International Crisis Group. He says the situation could soon resemble a "medieval siege where you prevent your adversary from obtaining resources from outside the city walls."

What's more, the sanctions could worsen the current shortages of gasoline and auto parts.

"If we can't move around due to a lack of gasoline, that means humanitarian aid cannot be mobilized," warns Feliciano Reyna, the founder of Acción Solidaria, a health and human rights group that distributes medicine to 14,000 Venezuelans.

Even so, many Venezuelans strongly back the U.S. approach. They include José Manuel Olivares, a doctor and congressman who, like numerous opposition politicians, has fled Venezuela because he feared he would be arrested.

"I'm convinced that there won't be enough time for the sanctions to have an impact because the ouster of Maduro will take place before then," Olivares said during a recent visit to Cúcuta, Colombia.

Whitaker, the U.S. ambassador, insists that the U.S. aid effort is "moral and ethical." By contrast, he points out that Maduro has for years funneled state food handouts to hungry Venezuelans in exchange for their support.

"Our focus is on making humanitarian assistance available to the needy people of Venezuela," Whitaker said. "If anyone is politicizing this, it's Maduro."

To bring more attention to the aid logjam on the border, Richard Branson, the British billionaire and philanthropist, is organizing a benefit concert in Cúcuta next Friday, Feb. 22. Branson said he hopes to raise $100 million for humanitarian aid and is taking action in response to a request from Juan Guaidó, who is recognized by the U.S. and dozens of other countries as Venezuela's interim president.

The day after the concert, the Venezuelan opposition hopes to mobilize an army of volunteers to break the blockade and move the aid across the border. It's unclear how this would happen and the action could provoke a violent confrontation with Venezuelan troops. But thousands of Venezuelans have signed up online to help.

Among them is Jorge Valenzuela, a retired lawyer who attended a recent anti-Maduro protest in Cúcuta. "The aid is legitimate," he says, "and we need it."</s>The US military will transport some 200 tons of humanitarian aid to Colombia to help relieve the crisis in neighboring Venezuela, a US defense official said Friday.

Speaking on condition of anonymity ahead of a formal announcement, the official said the aid would be sent in the coming days, most likely aboard a C-17 transport plane.

In a statement, the Pentagon said the US "remains deeply concerned about the crisis in Venezuela that has consequences for the entire region."

Venezuela is plagued by hyperinflation and major shortages of basic goods, with opposition leader Juan Guaido and President Nicolas Maduro vying for control of the country.

Tensions have risen since the US first sent humanitarian aid to Colombia, only for the Venezuelan authorities to block a bridge to prevent its entry into Venezuela.

President Donald Trump warned Venezuela this week that "all options" are on the table, and demanded that Maduro unblock US aid shipments to the country.

The defense official stressed that any Pentagon involvement in the crisis was purely logistical assistance in bringing aid.
United States Air Force C-17s land at Cúcuta near the Colombia–Venezuela border, the aircraft are loaded with humanitarian aid intended for Venezuela.