ABSTRACT
The case of Venezuela continues to distinguish by the perpetuation of its multiple crises and the political polarisation around humanitarian aid. The government’s official denial to recognise the crises in the country has not prevented the deployment of two ’humanitarian apparatuses’: on the one hand, the ‘humanitarian public action’ organised in a civic-military alliance and represented by the structures of the communal councils, and, on the other hand, the interventions of international humanitarian aid agencies. In this chapter, I explain how articulating both apparatuses is only possible in this context precisely because of the silence. Then, I introduce the notion of aid assemblage to propose a broader reflection of power distribution by reframing repertoires of action that overflow the ’country’s current scope of humanitarian governance mutism. The conclusions of this study encourage collective actions that would make local humanitarian governance more inclusive, autonomous, and dynamic.
