Facts and Figures that Dismantle the “Humanitarian Crisis” in Venezuela

Misión Verdad
The announcement of the entry of “humanitarian aid” by the U.S. through the borders of Colombia and Brazil, valued at 20 million dollars and negligible in contrast to the damage caused by the financial siege, estimated at 30 billion dollars, fails to sway public opinion, primarily because of the threats of military intervention that have come from the White House, but also because the real data on the Venezuelan political and economic situation clash with those of nations that suffer deep social ravages.

The humanitarian crisis is a category of International Humanitarian Law, that refers to both natural disasters and high-density armed conflicts and gives transnational aid operated by governments and international organizations a reason to intervene in decisions that affect states, violating their sovereignty. Haiti, Somalia and Southern Sudan are the precedents behind Venezuela, the current target of the humanitarian crusades.

The United Nations defines that in order for an emergency of this nature to exist, the levels of violence, hunger and disease must affect millions of people without the State in charge being able to exercise effective control of the problems.

Yemen, Libya, Iraq, Syria, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ukraine, are some of the principal countries that the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) considers to be the most critical in 2018 because they are immersed in a social crisis of a complex and prolonged nature. The wars they are going through increase food crises, disease epidemics, internal displacement and forced migration.

In this sense, the particular characteristics that are repeated in these regions of Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe, are not the case in Venezuela or they are much less pronounced.

Induced Food Insecurity and the CLAP Counteroffensive

Since 2016, the “humanitarian crisis” narrative began to emerge from the National Assembly, the platform of the opposition and within the forums of the Organization of American States (OAS) with Luis Almagro at the head of the operation, foreseeing that the effects of the Obama Decree and its ratification by President Donald Trump would impact the daily life of the population.

The deterioration of economic conditions in the Venezuelan population resulting from violent economic aggressions, which have encouraged the proliferation of a parallel economy and speculation, is undeniable, but there is still no point of comparison with true structural collapses in Asian and African regions.

The Wars They Are Undergoing

The latest FAO reports estimate that between 2016 and 2018 there was an 11% increase in undernourishment, which is insufficient to be included in food emergencies in sub-Saharan countries, where the proportion of undernourished people is 30% of the total population.

The intentional boycott of private industry to exert economic pressure, together with the attack on the currency from the exchange mafias, deteriorated the ordinary citizen’s access to essential products of the basic supply basket.

Simultaneously, the financial sanctions applied to the Venezuelan Central Bank and the state-owned PDVSA limited the Venezuelan government’s ability to maneuver in response to the precariousness of food.

But the policy of distributing food at subsidized prices, which the Venezuelan state implements through CLAPs, has largely limited the effects of these aggressions aimed directly at the population. The international assault and discrediting of a structure that currently guarantees basic food to more than 6 million families, reaffirms the intentions to exploit the narrative of famine as an element of the supposed “humanitarian crisis” in Venezuela, by which an intervention is justified.

It should not be forgotten that last year the government of Colombia, under the tutelage of the U.S. State Department, prevented the entry of more than 25,000 boxes of CLAP food, while international banks blocked the payment of another 18 million, forcing the country to triangulate with allied countries to avoid the blockade.

Consequences of Financial Aggressions on the Public Health Sector

More critical has been the sabotage in procuring medical supplies to disrupt hospital emergency services. The deteriorated conditions of the care centers also have as their main trigger the executive order signed by Donald Trump in August 2017.

In addition to the national phenomena of hoarding medicines, rising prices and smuggling networks that divert resources, there are international barriers to importing medical products, such as Citibank’s refusal to receive payment for the purchase of 300,000 doses of insulin, the obstruction in Colombia of a shipment of anti-malarial medicines after a resurgence of this disease that had been eradicated, or Spain’s recent blockade of a shipment of 200,000 units of medicines for chronic illnesses purchased in Qatar by the Iberia airline. Now, the Venezuelan counteroffensive again serves as compensation for the serious consequences of these multidimensional attacks.

The activation of the free national vaccination plan 2018, with the support of the World Health Organization and representatives of Cuban doctors, is an example of this. During the months of April and May a vaccination process was developed with more than 11 million doses, covering a total of 9 million beneficiaries. Among the diseases covered were diphtheria, tuberculosis, malaria, hepatitis B, polio, measles and tetanus.

The arrival of the Chinese hospital ship “Ark of Peace” in September 2018 is another element to consider when accusing the government of being responsible for the health situation. This ship arrived in Venezuelan port, with 120 medical professionals, 8 operating rooms, 300 hospital beds and some 2,666 medical devices to provide specialized care to the country. The activity was a coordinated action between China and Venezuela.

Unlike states that have lost the ability to exercise control over their territories and are unable to manage solutions to the health crises that result in cases of war or natural disasters, Venezuela has been able to establish cooperative alliances with countries and international organizations to mitigate damage to the health of the population.

Internal Displacement and Refugees: Comparable Figures

An elemental feature of countries with humanitarian crises is the forced displacement within and to other countries, in search of shelter from violent confrontations. In the 2018 annual report, UNHCR specified that two-thirds of the 68 million people displaced by war and conflict come from five countries: Syria, Afghanistan, Southern Sudan, Myanmar and Somalia. On the other hand, Colombia has 7.7 million victims of the conflict fleeing through its national territory, making it the most severely internally displaced country in Latin America.

On the other hand, in Venezuela there is no record of forced displacements within the country, but the decontextualized use of figures on migrations and refugees by the international media is well documented, it has called for a migratory crisis to be addressed, although it does not correspond to displacements caused by a military confrontation.

The data published by different initiatives to characterize the “Venezuelan exodus” as a problem that threatens international security vary in numbers and place migrants and refugees in the same category. The truth is that the reasons for Venezuelan migration are fundamentally economic (exacerbated by media campaigns) and they soared in 2017, the year in which the financial blockade against the country was intensified.

Currently, a total of 12,750 people who have travelled to other countries to improve their economic condition have returned through the Plan Vuelta a la Patria, a program implemented to repatriate Venezuelans who are victims of labour exploitation, xenophobic attacks and human trafficking.

Actors and Current Elements that Dismantle the Humanitarian Crisis

The Venezuelan state maintains coordination with state and non-state actors with the aim of shielding social programs, as long as the provision of support is not made conditional.

At the meeting held with FAO and UNICEF in mid-January, in the framework of the invitation of the Presidency attended by the UN, agreements were signed on school feeding programmes, comprehensive education and urban agriculture.

Likewise, members of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), together with the Vice Presidency and the Ministry of Health, participate in the evaluation of cooperation mechanisms to strengthen the medical sector, following an earlier warning by Red Cross President Christoph Harnisch of the political nature of the operation to be activated on the border with Colombia, who said he would not participate in what they do not consider to be humanitarian aid.

The health minister Carlos Alvarado, has also announced the entry of 18 million in medical supplies, mostly coming from the agreements established with Cuba and China, some of direct purchase with companies in the international market that do not hinder payments and others through of the revolving fund and the Pan American Health Organization.

This direct management of the Venezuelan institutions prevents coordinated actions from Washington resulting in a real humanitarian crisis that promotes the imminent fall of the structures that maintain the political order within the country. That is to say: the State and Chavez.

By recognizing parallel bodies as legitimate and providing them with funding, the US denies the political authority of the National Government to act as the country’s highest representative in solving the problems.

Thus, they denounce that Venezuela does not accept “humanitarian aid”, while they ignore the multilateral efforts made by the state in order to guarantee social stability. Because a diplomatic solution threatens the variables that they have manufactured to justify military access to the territory under the supposed “humanitarian aid”.

Translation by Internationalist 360°

Share:

Related