A comment by Melanny Campos
The increasingly chaotic situation in the area causes the risk posted to Venezuelan lives to worsen; the shortage of quality drinking water, food, medicine and hygiene products, among other things, continue to claim the lives of Venezuela’s social strata, as conditions and diseases such as scabies, malaria, dengue, diarrhea, hepatitis, and salmonella flourish.
On July 17, 2016, at the Military Hospital in Caracas, Aníbal Chávez, the younger brother of the late president of Venezuela, Hugo Chávez, died. The possible cause of death of Aníbal Chávez, the Mayor of Alberto Arvelo Torrealba in Barinas State, is said to have been bacterial salmonellosis, which manifests itself as an intestinal infection.
This case adds to a long list of occurrences happening due to the current crisis in Venezuela. The mother of the deceased, Mrs. Elena Chavez, demanded an explanation from the Ministers of Defense and Health for not having addressed the circumstances with the urgency that the situation demanded. She said: “the Ministers are responsible for such negligence,” and also said that the Minister of Health was “incompetent”.
This revolutionary leader was taken by the Venezuelan crisis, and left his parents who will suffer the irreparable loss. We stand in solidarity with them because we are all human beings. In Venezuela, pregnant women, newborn children, youths, adults, the elderly, people with lifelong conditions like hypertension, diabetes, etc, die almost daily. Those who have died in the long queues purchasing food die at the hands of unscrupulous political, military and civilian groups that have the power to save them.
Melanny Campos lives in Caracas, Venezuela
