Lee Han-sang, Chargé d’Affaires to Venezuela
Venezuela is often associated with being the world’s largest holder of crude oil reserves, or a baseball powerhouse that once won the World Baseball Classic (WBC). Yet the lives of Venezuelans I encounter on the ground today are far from easy. Recently, a powerful earthquake struck the country. The disaster scenes I witnessed with my own eyes recalled a scene from a disaster film — but unlike a film, the suffering was real and did not end. Between the collapsed buildings and cracked walls lingered the anguished cries of those who had lost family members, and the sight of people who had lost their homes overnight weighed heavily on anyone who saw it. The building housing our embassy was also damaged, so we are now using the ambassador’s residence as a temporary office. The scars of this disaster were by no means the affair of a distant country.
I experienced the terror of an earthquake firsthand while serving in Tokyo during the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011. And now, in Venezuela, I have again faced a moment when the ground shook. The lesson these two experiences left me is clear: an earthquake does not discriminate by nationality, skin color, language or culture. In the face of disaster, the boundaries that divide human society lose their meaning, and the values we must hold onto to the end are human dignity and solidarity with one another.
South Korea is a nation that rose again from the ruins. War cost countless Koreans their families and their homes, and the country took its first steps toward reconstruction with the help of the international community. The South Korea of today was built not on our own efforts alone, but on the solidarity of a world that extended its hand to us in our hardest times. That is why we cannot look upon the pain of the Venezuelan people as someone else’s affair. As a nation that has known suffering, we understand how long and difficult the road to reconstruction is.
Our government has provided a total of $8 million in humanitarian aid through the United Nations and donated 500 temporary shelter tents for 500 displaced households. Separately, on the ground, the embassy and the Korean residents’ association have delivered emergency medicine and emergency food supplies to the local community, and have visited the tent camps and shelters where displaced people have gathered to hand out warm boxed meals. The eyes of the displaced people who took a single small lunch box in both hands and offered thanks again and again stayed with me for a long time. I felt that a single meal amid disaster could be not simply food, but comfort and solidarity carried across from the other side of the world. Only about 100 Koreans reside in Venezuela, but their resolve not to turn away from a neighbor’s suffering was by no means small.
The interest of the Korean people in Venezuela is also warm. Various domestic organizations and companies are joining in donations, and volunteers, despite difficult conditions, are visiting Venezuela to bring hope to its people. Each helping hand that came without begrudging the long journey has become a small comfort amid shattered daily life, adding to the belief that people can rise again. Such efforts go beyond mere material aid; they are South Korea’s warm message that “Los venezolanos no están solos” — Venezuelans are not alone.
What matters now is sustained attention that does not stop at one-time aid. The pain of disaster continues even after the news fades, and the time for reconstruction is long and slow. To remember Venezuela’s today is the first step in building a better tomorrow together. I hope the support and solidarity of the Korean people will continue to accompany Venezuela on its path to rising once more.