Earthquake in Venezuela | Direct: Deaths increase to more than 2,600

The Queen bids farewell to the AECID medical team that travels to Venezuela: “You accompany with professionalism and a lot of affection”

The ‘Start’ deployment includes the mobilization of a team of 90 volunteer professionals, 44 in their first rotation

MADRID, 1 (EUROPA PRESS)

This Wednesday, Queen Letizia said goodbye to the team from the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID) that is leaving for Venezuela to address the urgent health needs after last week’s earthquakes, highlighting that Spanish humanitarian aid “accompanies” with “professionalism, rigor” and “with great affection.”

This is how the queen spoke in a speech she addressed to the first 44 health professionals, logisticians and volunteer cooks from the ‘Start’ field hospital before they left on a flight from the Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas airport, in a farewell event that was also attended by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation, José Manuel Albares.

Mrs. Letizia has wished “the best” to the team heading to Venezuela, especially in a context of “hardness” and with “expected difficulties” due to the consequences of the earthquakes, which to date have left more than 1,900 people dead and 10,500 injured.

The queen has highlighted the importance of the work of the AECID, which will be “accompanied” and “reinforced” by civil society, through various NGOs and companies. “This demonstrates the effective response that Spain has to Venezuela’s request for international aid,” he stressed.

In this context, Doña Letizia has highlighted “the professionalism, rigor” and “a lot of affection” with which Spanish cooperation and humanitarian aid “reaches out” to all the people who “are having a hard time.”

ADDITIONAL HELP OF 300,000 EUROS

Albares, who also thanked Queen Letizia for her support in accompanying the AECID team in the farewell, indicated that the ‘Start’ field hospital has a “multidisciplinary team” that has already acted with “good results” in similar circumstances such as the earthquake in Turkey (2023), the hurricane in Jamaica (2025), or Cyclone Idai in Mozambique (2019).

As the minister explained, it will offer hospital care with “90 people in two different rotations”, who “will be able to offer the brother people of Venezuela all types of assistance”, especially psychological support, nursing, traumatology and surgical capabilities “when necessary.”

“The Spanish people are at the side of the brother people of Venezuela and will be there for as long as necessary,” emphasized the head of Spanish diplomacy, recalling that Spain sent rescuers at the beginning of the catastrophe and now does so with the ‘Start’ team, which represents “the best” of Spanish health and solidarity.

In addition, it has confirmed the sending of a new additional aid package for 300,000 euros “to be able to transport shelter material” for “people who have lost their homes.” AECID has already mobilized one million euros of urgent aid for the country’s population, channeled through the International Red Cross Movement. Likewise, it worked closely with Civil Protection to send 63 troops and 9 rescue dogs, along with its own team dedicated to the evaluation and identification on the ground of the most urgent health needs.

“The international community, through the United Nations system, the European Union and all humanitarian actors, has activated emergency mechanisms that only confirm the importance of effective multilateralism, cooperation between States, and humanitarian action guided by the principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality and independence,” Albares defended.

DEPLOYMENT IN 36 HOURS

Once the deployment of personnel and equipment is completed, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has explained that the field hospital will be operational in approximately 36 hours. On this occasion, the ‘Start’ will be deployed in the ‘EMT1’ format, which corresponds to emergency medical teams with ambulatory capacity to provide basic and emergency health care without hospitalization, especially adapted to contexts where primary care needs to be reinforced.

The ‘Start’ is designed to function completely self-sufficient, with its own capacity for electricity generation, water supply, logistics and pharmacy, thus avoiding overloading local services that, in the first phases of an emergency, are usually seriously affected.

The 44 health professionals, logisticians and cooks who will provide support in Venezuela come from different autonomous communities, local entities and collaborating NGOs, such as CESAL and Médicos del Mundo.

TWO FLIGHTS CHARTERED BY REPSOL AND OPERATED BY IBERIA

The two flights that have left for Venezuela for the deployment of ‘Start’ have been chartered by the company Repsol. In the first of them, operated by the Iberia company, 44 health professionals and logistics, cooks from the NGO CESAL, staff from Tragsa and AECID, including its director, Antón Leis, travel; as well as NGO representatives working on the ground.

On a second flight that will depart this Wednesday from Torrejón, where the AECID hangar is located, the ‘Start’ infrastructure will be transported, along with more than 150 pallets with humanitarian material and urgent aid.