Originally Posted December, 2016
We can discuss Venezuela’s economics all day but we forget about the medical catastrophe happening.
Whether this is a FAKE NEWS site – it appears to be factual: medicalxpress.com
The 2016 National Hospital Survey found that 76 percent of the medicines and 81 percent of the medical and surgical supplies that doctors need had run out or were hit by severe shortages in the country’s public hospitals.
The opposition-held legislature passed a law in April requiring President Nicolas Maduro’s leftist government to accept humanitarian aid for the food and medicine shortages.
But the Supreme Court, which the opposition says Maduro controls, ruled the measure unconstitutional.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has called the situation in Venezuela a “humanitarian crisis.” But Maduro’s government rejects the term.
Another article from medicalxpress.com states:
A patient after a motorbike accident has had 13 surgeries. Not to reconstruct bones, but to take care of recurrent infections. Some equipment has no spare parts. A traumatologist discusses not having blood, morphine or general saline IV bags for treatment. With no economy, there is no money to buy supplies. Hospitals smell like rotting flesh smells and breeding flies are everywhere. Socialist government spent $250 million on healthcare over 13 years. 13,000 physicians have left Venezuela since Hugo Chavez took control.
As of 10/19/2016, the Hillary Clinton campaign had spent about $609 million and still had $78 million on hand or should we say in pocket. She could in one donation literally save thousands of lives. This would be her Jimmy Carter moment, in relation Carter’s giving to Habitat for Humanity. In Venezuala, where are the stars. Where is Sean Penn and Michael Moore’s fund raising.
Per New York Post:
In 2007, Naomi Campbell interviewed Chávez for British GQ, calling him a “rebel angel” and praising Venezuela’s social programs.
“I am amazed by what I have seen here in only 24 hours,” Campbell was quoted as saying after visiting the new Children’s Heart Hospital in Caracas. “It’s marvelous to know and see what is being implemented here in Venezuela.”
Though David Sirota’s 2013 article has some points unrelated to Venezuela which are on track, the comments on Hugo Chavez’s Economic Miracle is ignorant.
When a country goes socialist and it craters, it is laughed off as a harmless and forgettable cautionary tale about the perils of command economics. When, by contrast, a country goes socialist and its economy does what Venezuela’s did, it is not perceived to be a laughing matter – and it is not so easy to write off or to ignore. It suddenly looks like a threat to the corporate capitalism, especially when said country has valuable oil resources that global powerhouses like the United States rely on.
From the Wall Street Journal’s “by the numbers” in 2013:
Mr. Maduro has vowed to maintain the “revolutionary” policies of Mr. Chávez. Given the many economic and social challenges facing Venezuela’s poor, it remains to be seen whether populism alone will, from now on, be enough.
Obviously the Wall Street Journal saw something others missed. I am waiting for Mr. Sirota’s follow up piece. Since he is the senior editor for investigations at the International Business Times he should recognize economic disaster.
I think Capitalism and truly free markets have nothing to worry about from Venezuela. Sad thing is, the people of Venezuela have everything to worry about. Do they Know Liberty? They must learn or perish.
