U.S. to give additional $120 million to help Venezuelan migrants

BOGOTA, Sept 4 (Reuters) - The United States will give anadditional $120 million in humanitarian assistance to help LatinAmerica cope with the arrival of millions of Venezuelan migrantsfleeing a crushing economic crisis, the State Department said onWednesday.

More than 4 million Venezuelans have fled their home countryin recent years amid political upheaval and widespread shortagesof food and medicine.

Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan and United StatesAgency for International Development (USAID) head Mark Greenmade the announcement during a visit to the border city ofCucuta, Colombia, an epicenter of arriving migrants, the StateDepartment said in a statement.

Ivanka Trump, White House adviser and daughter of U.S.President Donald Trump, is also on the visit. Colombia is thefirst stop on a Latin American tour that will also take her,Sullivan and Green to Argentina and Paraguay.

"This additional funding provides vital support, includingemergency food and health assistance, to vulnerable Venezuelansin Colombia, Ecuador, Brazil, and throughout the region," thestatement said. "This assistance brings the U.S. contribution tothe Venezuelan regional crisis response to more than $376million."

"We salute Colombia and neighboring countries for theircontinued support as well, and we call upon other donors to makeor increase contributions to help address the crisis," thestatement added.

Colombia has received more Venezuelan migrants than anyother country - it is now home to more than 1.4 million.Hundreds of thousands of others reside in Ecuador, Peru, Chile,Brazil and other countries.

Colombia has repeatedly lamented the lack of funding to helpmigrants, saying other humanitarian crises in Syria, South Sudanand Myanmar have received many times more in donations from theinternational community.

The United States said last week it will provide 12,000doses of antiretroviral HIV medication to Venezuelan migrants inColombia, part of efforts to better manage healthcare formigrants and prevent the spread of the disease.

Unlike its neighbors, Colombia has not imposed stringentimmigration requirements, instead encouraging migrants whoentered the country informally to register with authorities sothey can access social services.

The government of Colombia frequently spars with VenezuelanPresident Nicolas Maduro over security and the migration crisis.

The two countries do not maintain diplomatic relations andColombia, along with the United States, numbers among the morethan 50 countries that do not recognize Maduro as Venezuela'spresident, instead backing opposition leader Juan Guaido.

(Reporting by Julia Symmes Cobb in BogotaEditing by Matthew Lewis)