So sad. So preventable. And yet there are far too many people in our own nation who would vote this catastrophe on ourselves.
Even as Venezuela disintegrates, state media continue to paint a rosy picture of the country’s health service. Officials take to the airwaves each day to wax lyrical about Socialist party support schemes for expectant mothers and the poor.
One recent propaganda video boasted: “If there is one area where you feel and live the achievements of the Bolivarian revolution, it’s precisely in the field of healthcare, from which Venezuelan men and women were excluded for so many decades.”
President Nicolás Maduro claimed earlier this year: “The people’s health is our priority.”
A visit to the hospital where Victoria Martínez spent her final days suggests otherwise.
The burns unit is filled with bandaged toddlers who have stumbled into wood fires or been burned by kerosene lamps – increasingly common sources of fuel and light.
In the paediatric ward upstairs, mothers nurse emaciated babies – socks dangling from their tiny ankles, bones protruding through their flesh – who cannot be hydrated because the hospital cannot even provide a catheter.
One doctor asked: “What blame do these children have for having been born into the wrong era?”
[…]
Another recent report noted that 53% of Venezuelan operating theatres were now closed, 71% of emergency rooms could not provide regular services and 79% of hospitals lacked a reliable water supply.
Meanwhile, medical professionals were joining a historic exodusoverseas: at least 22,000 Venezuelan doctors – 55% of the total – reportedly abandoned the country between 2012 and 2017.
Lesbia Cortez, a healthcare worker at the Catholic charity Cáritas, said: “There are virtually no specialists left.” She estimated that 70% of those she studied with at medical school now practised in Colombia, Argentina or Chile.
She said: “You can’t find a endocrinologist because they’ve gone; a dermatologist because they’ve gone; an oncologist because they’ve gone. The people who work in the dialysis units aren’t there because they’ve left the country too.
This is what happens when you elect Democrats. But we note that Chisholm has a plan: legalize drugs, so nobody knows what hit them.
Where is liberal outrage?
Where are the ordinances?
This is what happens when liberal policy is carried out…we are all back in the stome ages.
Children die.
I want liberals to apologize, both for the children, and their policy stupidity.
79% of hospitals without proper water supply?
Wow, is that not an indictment, conviction, and execution of single payor health care right there!
Venezuela is a poor country. It has always been a poor country. Hugo Chavez came to power when people were looting stores for bread. He said take the bread but do not break anything. Later he ran for office and became president. He negotiated with OPEC Countries and raised the price of oil on the global market. He nationalized Venezuela’s oil company then used to profits to feed the poor people. He called this socialism.
Madura is not Chavez. He cannot do what Chavez did. Venezuela’s treasury secretary ran off to Florida with billions of dollars. Oil prices are down and things are back to normal in Venezuela.
Socialism/Capitalism has nothing to do with what is going on in Venezuela. People in this country like to point to Venezuela and say that is proof that socialism doesn’t work. It is not. People do not want revolution in this country.
People want less corruption and a functioning health care system.
Huh?
See: http://countrystudies.us/venezuela/21.htm
Land reform was instituted in the ’60’s, so peasants were able to acquire enough land to feed their families. The country DID have debt problems–but the debts were paid off by the late 1980’s.
The problem in Venezuela is Chavez/Maduro governance, which relied on massive giveaways. Maduro added corruption, so the petro industry is now in tatters and the Russians are about to take over that business.
Thanks for playing.
Maxwell,
Step back from the leftist flavor-aide.
That stuff will kill you.
You seem to not have read the link that you sent me.
“…Despite bountiful natural resources and significant advances in some economic areas, Venezuela in 1990 continued to suffer from the debilitating effects of political patronage, corruption, and poor economic management. The country’s political and economic structures often allowed a small elite to benefit at the expense of the masses. As a result, Venezuela’s income distribution was uneven, and its social indicators were lower than the expected level for a country with Venezuela’s level of per capita income. …”
This is a description of the conditions of Venezuela before Hugo Chavez (1999-2013).
In statistics there is a concept called the null hypothesis. The null hypothesis is that the thing being tested has no effect. Whenever you perform a statistical test you want to determine whether or not their is enough evidence to reject the null hypothesis. In order to remain unbiased you should assume the null hypothesis and then attempt to disprove it.
In the case of Venezuela’s economy, the null hypothesis is: The economic system used in Venezuela (capitalism/socialism) has no effect on economic well being of the country. If you take an unbiased look at the evidence before and after there is no reason to reject the null hypothesis.
Here is a picture of some slums in Caracas. 80% of the people live in slums in Caracas. Remember the people didn’t just move into the slums when stuff fell apart in the last few years. These slums have been there for decades. The “homes” are constructed with cardboard walls and corrugated tin roofs. There is no running water in the homes and the inhabitants poop on old news papers which are later discarded.
In short Venezuela is a shit hole and has been for some time. Chavez gave people hope and now that is over.
Thank you for disproving your remark that ‘Venezuela has always been a poor country.’ I’m perfectly willing to accept that the peasants do not have the standard of living of the USA–but when Chavez and Maduro are stealing money from the national treasure, petroleum, there’s not much that can be done.
I don’t care what Chavez/Maduro call their ‘system;’ they are taking wealth from the US shareholders of Citgo, not to mention the fact that they simply stole the GM plant from GM a few years ago, and they are ‘giving’ that money to the citizens. (I suspect that only a few “citizens” actually get that money.) They can call that Doggy Barf Economics; it’s socialism.
Sure they are rotten thieves, like the country’s ex-treasurer. So are a lot of Congress members and former members of the executive branch here in the USA. But in the USA the thieves are not stealing the country’s only asset–yet.
And in the USA, citizens have a lot of guns so the theft has to be quite a bit more sophisticated. Were Maduro’s motorbike thugs to try running through the WOW counties, only about 10% would return to the barracks.
Maxwell,
I told you not to drink it!