During Nicolas Maduro‘s tenure as “president” of Venezuela, the government has steamrolled over democracy, destroyed the economy, and prompted hundreds of thousands to flee the country. Now, Venezuelans face a serious crisis as malaria is ravaging the country.
In 2016, 240,000 cases were reported. When Health Minister Antonieta Caporale issued the report, she was fired. Maduro and his corrupt regime insist that everything is fine, and proudly claim that Venezuela has the best healthcare in Latin America. The reality is that thousands of Venezuelans are at risk of death from the disease.
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In Venezuela food and medicine is imported and distributed by the military: close allies of Maduro. Private military hospitals are well-stocked with medical supplies, and ready to attend and treat government supporters. If you go to a public hospital, however, you are out of luck.
Former Health Minister and government critic Dr. Jose Felix Oletta has predicted that the year 2017 will see over half a million cases of malaria. The disease is particularly lethal for children, the elderly, and pregnant women. Of course, these are the groups that the socialist regime claims to champion. They apparently do not see the irony in the situation.
The disease has been spread by illegal gold-mining in Venezuela’s southeastern Bolivar state, where miners dig watery pits that provide fertile breeding grounds for the mosquitoes that spread the tropical menace.
Hospitals and clinics lack access to dollars needed to important urgent medicines and medical supplies; this is entirely controlled by the government. Maduro and his cronies are content to let ordinary Venezuelans die while they amass fortunes and squander the nation’s oil wealth through corruption, mismanagement and theft. Indeed, it has been estimated that 30% to 40% of Venezeual’s revenues are siphoned off by the corruption of the Maduro regime.
Maduro and his key allies Diosdado Cabello and Tareck el-Aissami will never relinquish power through democratic means. They know that numerous criminal charges and lengthy prison sentences await if they ever lose power.
Venezuelans will thus continue to die of malaria, until there is regime change.