As politicians fight for help, patients in Venezuela die without help

SAN CRISTÓBAL, Venezuela – One day the Casique family went to school on a motorcycle: the mother, a son and Nora, the 8-year-old girl. In the blink of an eye, a truck is overturned.

The accident sent the family to the hospital … and sentenced the father, Israel Cacique, to search all pharmacies and the black market, or to go to Colombia, in the constant search for drugs and supplies necessary to their survival. in his country, the health care system is collapsing and hospitals lack essential items, such as soap and alcohol.

The arrival of US donations of food and medical supplies on the border between Colombia and Venezuela early February promised to be a lifeline for the Casique family and dozens of other patients in Critical conditions or severe chronic diseases that were interviewed last week. by The New York Times.

However, the provision of aid has been at the center of a growing political confrontation between the president Nicolás Maduro and the country's opposition, and the current stalemate, has blocked supplies at a customs warehouse in the border town of Cucuta, Colombia, for nearly two weeks.

Patients suffering from chronic diseases in Venezuela claim that political theater around aid has overshadowed their needs with catastrophic consequences.

Samuel Hernandez, 10, had his arm amputated after being electrocuted while he was trying to repair the electrical wires of his house during a power outage. Doctors can not do this because they do not have all the necessary medicines or supplies: "[El gobierno] He tries to cover the sun with a finger, claiming that we do not need this help, "said Marycarmen Ochoa, Samuel's mother.

In the pediatric wing of Central Hospital of San Cristóbal, Desperate mothers walk down the aisles with a list of the exhausted drugs they need for their children's operations. Others are sitting in helpless lethargy near the ICU, where their babies are in the resuscitation phase and are battling preventable bacterial diseases.

Irianny Baute Marin, a 2-month-old baby with bronchitis, receives a respiratory treatment from a device stuck with tape. His parents had to send someone to Colombia to get the antibiotics they need because they are not available in Venezuela.

"I feel a lot of anguish and despair," said her mother, 21-year-old Irene Marín. "I see her so innocent."

Many other families who do not have access to money to buy imported supplies consider that secure humanitarian aid is their last chance to save their children.

"Please, let her go, we really need her," said Yuritza Montero, the grandmother of a month-old boy who suffers from 39; a bacterial infection while she held back her tears. "I know this help can save lives."

On the wall, a handwritten sign reads, "Health has no political affiliation."

Maduro denied the existence of a humanitarian crisis in Venezuela. On February 19, he badured that the country was able to export drugs. He described American aid as a Trojan horse whose goal is to overthrow his government and maintains the blockade of the bridge between Venezuela and Cucuta with barricades and soldiers.

On the other side of the bridge, Venezuelan opposition leaders, as well as their Colombian hosts, have described the provision of this aid as part of a plan to bring Maduro out. They seek to eliminate Maduro's control over the distribution of medicines and food, one of the tools he has used to ensure his loyalty. Opponents also hope that the Venezuelan armed forces, essential pillar of support for Maduro, will turn against them if they are forced to interfere between the people and the emergency relief.

For that, they have the strong support of the United States. On February 19, the country's president, Donald Trump, warned the Venezuelan military that if they continued to prevent help from entering Venezuela, they would "lose everything".

Stefanny Villamizar was 2 years old when she received a kidney transplant that saved her life, but the organ failed because of a lack of access to the drugs she needed. to stay in good health. At 17, Stefanny needs a hemodialysis to survive, but it is difficult to find supplies for treatment. "I was so excited when I heard about the help," he said.

Juan Guaidó, leader of the opposition who was sworn in as US President and recognized by the United States and some 50 governments, promised that the convoys would pbad this Saturday and have already gone to the border with Cúcuta to monitor the situation.

Latin pop artists, including Maluma and Juanes, will be presented this Friday in Cúcuta for a concert, Venezuela Live Aid, organized with some haste. The Venezuelan government will hold its own show on the other side of the border.

Faced with the escalation of political theater on the border, some opposition leaders acknowledged that nothing was done to guarantee the pbadage of supplies and that these reached the hands of the people in the country. need.

"The challenge is to keep human needs in mind as this political struggle continues," said Feliciano Reyes, director of Acción Solidaria, a nonprofit organization that imports small amounts of donated drugs and drugs. distributes directly to patients and physicians.

Aurelio Galán, an education officer from San Cristóbal, traveled to Cúcuta on 16 February, in an exhaustive journey through winding roads and mountainous terrain, to participate in a demonstration demanding the pbadage of medical supplies. Luz Marina, Aurelio's wife, was at her side, clinging to a plastic bag containing a dialysis solution; He had to buy the bag in Colombia because the government clinic he attended stopped providing it in January.

The offer of a week equals a full month of Aurelio's salary. He badured that he could soon no longer buy them.

"It's a political show where you can see it," said Aurelio, 53. "If they had wanted, they would have let go of the help."

Like many other dialysis patients and their families, Galán learned through social networks and local television that Cúcuta's help containers contain dialysis equipment, as well as medications for the treatment. 39, hypertension and diabetes, which patients also need. kidney disease.

At the Cucuta meeting on February 16, opposition spokesmen raised expectations.

"We will bring drugs to Venezuela, medical equipment and freedom," said Gonzalo Ruiz, a Venezuelan doctor and organizer of the militant group Coalición Ayuda y Libertad Venezuela.

The aid depot in Cúcuta gave a very different picture.

Since February 7, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has shipped about 190 tons of aid to Cucuta. Most are foods.

The initial amount of drugs in the store is too small to have a significant impact, said Manuel Olivares, opposition chief in charge of the organization of medical aid. Hemodialysis kits should not arrive in the near future.

"We can not pretend that it will solve all the problems at the same time," he said.

International humanitarian organizations such as the Red Cross, as well as dozens of smaller medical badistance groups working in Venezuela, fear that political confrontation will jeopardize their work in the country. Although the Catholic Socialist group Caritas announced on February 21 that it would support the opposition in its efforts to bring help to Venezuela.

Romel Emmanuel Delgado Contreras, 6, tries to take a few steps with the help of his father. Romel has a brain tumor that needs to be operated on, but the hospital does not have antibiotics, surgical clothing, intravenous fluids or even disinfectants. The tumor and the pressure it generates do not allow Romel to focus enough on sight to maintain balance and walk. He spends most of the day in bed.

On February 15, police raided and confiscated medicines from the Mavid Foundation, a small civilian organization that has been distributing HIV drugs in the Venezuelan city of Valencia for years.

Opponers of the opposition 's aid strategy have asked why themselves and their Colombian allies have not once distributed the supplies stored to the thousands of Venezuelans in trouble who' re unaware. were refugees in Cúcuta or what prevented them from allowing Venezuelans to cross directly to Colombia to collect help.

Some aid workers fear that the desire of the opposition to overthrow Maduro exceeds the need for help.

"One party is trying to gain political points while the other is trying not to lose them," said Deixol Saavedra, a Venezuelan migrant who had asked for food at the aid warehouse of Cúcuta in January. "What matters to them is power."

Although Saavedra, like most Venezuelans in the area and chronic patients interviewed by the Times, largely blames Maduro for the blockade of aid. They denounced the fact that denying that there is a crisis condemns thousands of them to death.

Steffany Villamizar, 17, was sitting with a catheter in her neck during a dialysis session in February, surrounded by inflamed and dying patients. On television, on a public channel, President Maduro appeared while he was visiting a pharmaceutical factory and laughing with the ministers.

"Everything was very normal for them, he said, he made me angry."

Lorena Bornacelli contributed to the report.

* Copyright: c.2019 New York Times News Service