DORAL, Fla. — After they stopped accepting donations on Monday afternoon in Doral, dozens of Global Empowerment Mission volunteers clapped because more help was on the way to the devastated coastal towns of Venezuela.
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In northern Venezuela’s state of La Guaira, there was also applause after search-and-rescue teams pulled someone out alive from the rubble five days after the 7.2- and 7.5-magnitude earthquakes.
The displaced from Caracas to Catia La Mar, Macuto, and Caraballeda were in fear after a 4.6-magnitude aftershock on Monday morning. In Doral, the GEM team had them in mind with every victory.
“GEM will be the distribution center and coordinator throughout Venezuela,” said Michael Kesti, a lobbyist with the Government Relations Group who leads GEM’s government relations efforts.
Michael Capponi, a former nightlife entrepreneur who founded GEM to send aid to Haiti after the 2010 earthquake, shared updates from a warehouse in Valencia, the third-largest city in Venezuela.
From the cars at a drop-off drive-thru area outside the GEM warehouse, at 1850 NW 84th Ave., in Doral, to the sorting and packing areas inside, groups of GEM donors and volunteers kept the aid flowing.
“All of these supplies are getting directly to families in Venezuela without any interference of the Venezuelan government,” said Doral Mayor Christi Fraga, who partnered with GEM to run drop-off locations that feed the warehouse in Doral.
The U.S. State Department and the U.S. Southern Command were working with the administration of Delcy Rodríguez, Venezuela’s acting president since Jan. 5, to keep the aid from the U.S. flowing.
“It’s really that leadership role in coordinating flights with the humanitarian supplies, making sure they can get in, they can get unloaded, and on the ground,” said Mignon Houston, a spokeswoman for the U.S. State Department.
The USS Fort Lauderdale was delivering aid in La Guaira. NASA released a map showing a satellite view of the estimated 58,870 buildings that the earthquakes either damaged or destroyed. Rescue teams were still asking for silence as they searched.
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“With every hour that passes, we feel our hopes fading. Many tell us that we’re searching in places where there are no longer any possibilities of finding people alive. However, many Venezuelans have asked us not to give up, and we haven’t,” Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele wrote in a statement on Monday night.
Gianluca Rampolla, a United Nations coordinator, reported the UN had agreed to procure 10,000 body bags for the Venezuelan government.
“I have my sister over there,” said NFL star Andrés Borregales, a GEM volunteer in Doral. “Thank God, she is OK, but a lot of families aren’t.”
To keep the community effort going in South Florida, Borregales had a message for anyone who hasn’t been able to help: “If all you can donate is a box of soap, that is enough. Do what you can.”
The Trump administration committed $300 million in aid to Venezuela. The Miami Marlins announced a $100,000 donation to GEM on Monday.
Miami-Dade Mayor Daniela Levine Cava, who has volunteered at GEM in Doral, released a statement on Monday to thank LATAM Airlines and GEM after she and Kesti witnessed the departure of a cargo plane.
“Tonight, I was at Miami International Airport as one of the first major humanitarian aid shipments departed for Venezuela,” Levine Cava said in a statement. “Our community has shown extraordinary generosity and humanity in response to this tragedy.”
Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado, the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize-winner, released a video on Monday saying that she was in Panama City working on her return to Venezuela. “I am willing to do whatever it takes, speak to whoever I need to speak to, in order to coordinate and serve our people,” Machado said in Spanish. “I am ready and close to Venezuela, and I will do what needs to be done so we meet up there.”
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Helpful list: Aid drop-off locations in South Florida
- NFL star joins Global Empowerment Mission’s team; his message to South Floridians, ‘Do what you can’
- More than 100 Venezuelans who were deported from the US hours before the earthquakes are missing
More HELPING VENEZUELA coverage
- Food for the Poor welcomes investments in reconstruction
- Physicians in Miami-Dade collect donations of medical supplies near Doral
- Meet Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Capt. German Leal
- Pembroke Pines police officers announce collection drive
- Airbnb partners with nonprofit CADENA for emergency housing
- Hogar Bambi aims to protect vulnerable children
- Grey Bull Rescue Foundation team arrives at Caracas
- Officials close La Guaira, require volunteers to register in Caracas
- Amazon donates to Airlink to help charities with logistics
- Miami search-and-rescue team prepares to deploy
- Centro Comunitario AFE hosts collection drive in Miami-Dade
- Weston-based charity partners with local pharmacy
- Veteran-led Project DYNAMO delivers 20,000 pounds of aid in 1st 48 hours
- Altruism at El Arepazo feeds Global Empowerment Mission’s team effort
- Salvadoran rescuers work to free 15-year-old survivor in Caraballeda
- Food For The Poor packs disaster relief kits with ‘hopeful’ hand-written notes
- U.S. Southern Command focuses on airport damage
- State Department deploys Miami-Dade search-and-rescue team
- Miami Beach opens 4 new aid drop-off locations
- Miramar to keep 6 aid drop-off locations open 24/7
- Miami-Dade’s tax collector opens 11 drop-off locations
- Doral opens 4 aid drop-off locations
- Aid drop-off location opens in Homestead
- Starlink offers free service through July 25, but a kit is $470
- International Medical Corps deploys staff, needs donations
- Save The Children asks for emergency fund donations
- Samaritan’s Purse focuses on ‘emergency field hospital’
- Red Cross asks for Disaster Response Emergency Fund donations
- UN asks for donations for ‘underfunded’ program for kids
- World Vision asks for ‘disaster relief fund’ donations
- World Central Kitchen asks for donations for fresh meals
- United Way Miami launches ‘Operation Helping Hands’
