Venezuela's Coronavirus Response Might Surprise You
- Leonardo Flores -
Venezuelan doctors conduct a COVID-19 house visit.
Within a few hours of being launched, over 800
Venezuelans in the U.S. registered for an
emergency flight from Miami to Caracas through a
website run by the Venezuelan government. This
flight, offered at no cost, was proposed by
President Nicolás Maduro when he learned that 200
Venezuelans were stuck in the United States
following his government's decision to stop
commercial flights as a preventative coronavirus
measure. The promise of one flight expanded to two
or more flights, as it became clear that many
Venezuelans in the U.S. wanted to go back to
Venezuela, yet the situation remains unresolved
due to the U.S. ban on flights to and from the
country.
Those who rely solely on the mainstream media
might wonder who in their right mind would want to
leave the United States for Venezuela. Numerous
outlets -- including TIME Magazine, the Washington Post,
The Hill,
the Miami
Herald, and others -- published opinions
in the past week describing Venezuela as a chaotic
nightmare. These media outlets painted a picture
of a coronavirus disaster, of government
incompetence and of a nation teetering on the
brink of collapse. The reality of Venezuela's
coronavirus response is not covered by the
mainstream media at all.
Furthermore, what each of these articles
shortchanges is the damage caused by the Trump
administration's sanctions, which devastated the
economy and healthcare system long before the
coronavirus pandemic. These sanctions have
impoverished millions of Venezuelans and
negatively impact vital infrastructure, such as
electricity generation. Venezuela is impeded from
importing spare parts for its power plants and the
resulting blackouts interrupt water services that
rely on electric pumps. These, along with dozens
of other implications from the hybrid war on
Venezuela, have caused a decline in health
indicators across the board, leading to 100,000
deaths as a consequence of the sanctions.
Regarding coronavirus specifically, the sanctions
raise the costs of testing kits and medical
supplies, and ban Venezuela's government from
purchasing medical equipment from the U.S. (and
from many European countries). These obstacles
would seemingly place Venezuela on the path to a
worst-case scenario, similar to Iran (also
battered by sanctions) or Italy (battered by
austerity and neo-liberalism). In contrast to
those two countries, Venezuela took decisive steps
early on to face the pandemic.
As a result of these steps and other factors,
Venezuela is currently in its best-case scenario.
As of this writing, 11 days after the first
confirmed case of coronavirus, the country has 86
infected people, with 0 deaths. Its neighbors have
not fared as well: Brazil has 1,924 cases with 34
deaths; Ecuador 981 and 18; Chile 746 and 2; Peru
395 and 5; Mexico 367 and 4; Colombia 306 and 3.
(With the exception of Mexico, those governments
have all actively participated and contributed to
the U.S.-led regime change efforts in Venezuela.)
Why is Venezuela doing so much better than others
in the region?
Skeptics will claim that the Maduro government is
hiding figures and deaths, that there's not enough
testing, not enough medicine, not enough talent to
adequately deal with a pandemic. But here are the
facts:
First, international
solidarity has played a priceless role in enabling
the government to rise to the challenge. China
sent coronavirus diagnostic kits that will allow
320,000 Venezuelans to be tested, in addition to a
team of experts and tons of supplies. Cuba sent
130 doctors and 10,000 doses of interferon
alfa-2b, a drug with an established record of
helping COVID-19 patients recover. Russia has sent
the first of several shipments of medical
equipment and kits. These three countries,
routinely characterized by the U.S. foreign policy
establishment as evil, offer solidarity and
material support. The United States offers more
sanctions and the IMF, widely known to be under
U.S. control, denied a Venezuelan request for $5
billion in emergency funding that even the
European Union supports.
Second, the government
quickly carried out a plan to contain the spread
of the disease. On March 12, a day before the
first confirmed cases, President Maduro decreed a
health emergency, prohibited crowds from
gathering, and cancelled flights from Europe and
Colombia. On March 13, Day 1, two Venezuelans
tested positive; the government cancelled classes,
began requiring facemasks on subways and on the
border, closed theaters, bars and nightclubs, and
limited restaurants to take-out or delivery. It
bears repeating that this was on Day 1 of having a
confirmed case; many U.S. states have yet to take
these steps. By Day 4, a national quarantine was
put into effect (equivalent to shelter-in-place
orders) and an online portal called the Homeland
System (Sistema Patria) was repurposed to survey
potential COVID-19 cases. By Day 8, 42 people were
infected and approximately 90% of the population
was heeding the quarantine. By Day 11, over 12.2
million people had filled out the survey, over
20,000 people who reported being sick were visited
in their homes by medical professionals and 145
people were referred for coronavirus testing. The
government estimates that without these measures,
Venezuela would have 3,000 infected people and a
high number of deaths.
Third, the Venezuelan
people were positioned to handle a crisis. Over
the past 7 years, Venezuela has lived through the
death of a wildly popular leader, violent
right-wing protests, an economic war characterized
by shortages and hyperinflation, sanctions that
have destroyed the economy, an ongoing coup,
attempted military insurrections, attacks on
public utilities, blackouts, mass migration and
threats of U.S. military action. The coronavirus
is a different sort of challenge, but previous
crises have instilled a resiliency among the
Venezuelan people and strengthened solidarity
within communities. There is no panic on the
streets; instead, people are calm and following
health protocols.
Fourth, mass
organizing and prioritizing people above all else.
Communes and organized communities have taken the
lead, producing facemasks, keeping the CLAP food
supply system running (this monthly food package
reaches 7 million families), facilitating
house-by-house visits of doctors and encouraging
the use of facemasks in public. Over 12,000
medical school students in their last or
second-to-last year of study applied to be trained
for house visits. For its part, the Maduro
administration suspended rent payments, instituted
a nationwide firing freeze, gave bonuses to
workers, prohibited telecoms from cutting off
people's phones or internet, reached an agreement
with hotel chains to provide 4,000 beds in case
the crisis escalates, and pledged to pay the
salaries of employees of small and medium
businesses. Amid a public health crisis -
compounded by an economic crisis and sanctions -
Venezuela's response has been to guarantee food,
provide free healthcare and widespread testing,
and alleviate further economic pressure on the
working class.
The U.S. government has not responded to the
Maduro administration's request to make an
exception for Conviasa Airlines, the national
airline under sanctions, to fly the Venezuelans
stranded in the United States back to Caracas.
Given everything happening in the United States,
where COVID-19 treatment can cost nearly $35,000
and the government is weighing the option of
prioritizing the economy over the lives of people,
perhaps these Venezuelans waiting to go home
understand that their chances of surviving the
coronavirus -- both physically and economically --
are much better in a country that values health
over profits.
Supplies arriving from China to assist Venezuela
in dealing with COVID-19.
Leonardo Flores is a
Latin American policy expert and campaigner with
CodePink.
This article was published in
Volume 50 Number 10 - March 28, 2020
Article Link:
Venezuela's Coronavirus Response Might Surprise You - Leonardo Flores
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
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