Starving, sold to paedophiles or simply abandoned: How Venezuela's children are paying a terrible price for their country's failed socialist experiment
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6664121/How-Venezuelas-children-paying-terrible-price-countrys-failed-socialist-experiment.html
Pity the children. Starving to death, dying of curable diseases, sold to sexual predators or simply abandoned, youngsters are payingStarving, sold to paedophiles or simply abandoned
.
More than one in seven children are currently suffering from malnutrition as their hard-working parents' salaries no longer cover the soaring cost of everyday living.
Common curable diseases – measles, diphtheria, and rotavirus diarrhea – which had been almost eradicated from the oil-rich state are now killing children in huge numbers. Pneumonia is picking off those too weak to fight.
Desperate mothers are selling their daughters' young bodies for sex to buy food. Other poverty-stricken parents abandoned their children in the street to fight for themselves.
'Venezuela was once the richest country in Latin America,' Dr Huniades Urbina, a director of Caracas' main children's hospital, told MailOnline.
'Patients would come to Caracas because we could provide the best care in the region. Now we can't even feed the patients.'
Starved of resources and riddled with interference from President Maduro's socialist regime the Hospital de Niños José Manuel de los Ríos has been robbed of the much of the equipment a modern hospital needs.
There is no x-ray machine or CT scan. Nine of the twelve operating theatres have been closed and 310 of the 400 beds are no longer in use.
The hospital can no longer afford the medicines needed to treat their young patients. If their parents don't buy them the patient dies.
'Venezuela had a nationwide comprehensive vaccination programme against common childhood diseases – diphtheria, measles and rotavirus diarrhea.
'The government said the country could no longer afford to buy these vaccinations and now we have epidemics of diphtheria and measles.
'Children are dying from diarrhea caused by the rotavirus which could be easily prevented. Others are so weak that they are dying from pneumonia.
'But malnutrition is the biggest killer.
'Some 15 per cent of Venezuela's children have malnutrition. This is the biggest cause of child mortality.'
There are no statistics on how many children died last year – the socialist regime refused to publish them. But 2017 figures showed the death rate had almost doubled in less than ten years from 16.6 per thousand to 30.9 per thousand.
High in the hills overlooking the sprawling city of Caracas a small country house hides another tragedy for Venezuela's pitiful children.
Inside the Fundacion la Casa de Ana orphanage live 27 children who would otherwise be on the street.
Aged between three and 17 years old the youngsters each have a sad and sorry reason to be here.
One boy suffered life-changing injury when his mother cracked his head open.
Many of the girls have been the victims of sexual violence. Some of the girls were sold for sex by their parents.
'Extreme poverty is the main reason the children are here,' volunteer carer Carolina Santander told MailOnline.
'Some have been sexually abused, some have been given to men for money but all of them have been abandoned.
'Their parents could not afford to keep them.'
Among the smiling group of youngsters is Angelica, a bright faced 11-year-old with dimples.
'I love it here,' she told MailOnline. 'I get something to eat five times-a-day.'
She is too grateful to reveal none of the orphans can remember the last time they ate meat or eggs.Angelica and her five brothers and sisters were rescued just over a year ago from a slum on the outskirts of Caracas.
Starving, dirty and riddled with disease they had been abandoned by their mother and step-father.
Scavenging from rubbish bins Angelica's stomach was bloated by parasites, her fingers were covered with warts. All of the children had lice.
My step-father mistreated me,' she added simply.
Now she wants to train to be a doctor, 'to help people', she says, or maybe a teacher.
Abandoned by the state the Fundacion la Casa de Ana relies on the charity of volunteer carers, doctors and donations to keep going.
But the orphanage is almost out of cooking gas and their sack of rice is nearly empty.
List of Presidents of Venezuela
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Presidents_of_Venezuela
Nicolás Maduro
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicolás_Maduro
Nicolás Maduro Moros (/məˈdʊəroʊ/; Spanish: [nikoˈlas maˈduɾo ˈmoɾos]; born 23 November 1962) is a Venezuelan politician serving as the 46th President of Venezuela since 2013 and previously served as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2006 to 2013 and as Vice President of Venezuela from 2012 to 2013 under President Hugo Chávez
Marriages and family
Maduro has been married twice. His first marriage was to Adriana Guerra Angulo, with whom he had his only son, Nicolás Maduro Guerra. Maduro Guerra, also known as "Nicolasito", was appointed to several senior government posts: Chief of the Presidency's Special Inspectors Body, head of the National Film School, and a seat in the National Assembly.
He later married Cilia Flores, a lawyer and politician who replaced Maduro as President of the National Assembly in August 2006, when he resigned to become Minister of Foreign Affairs, becoming the first woman to serve as President of the National Assembly. The two had been in a romantic relationship since the 1990s when Flores was Hugo Chávez's lawyer following the 1992 Venezuelan coup d'état attempts and were married in July 2013 months after Maduro became president. While they have no children together, Maduro has three step-children from his wife's first marriage to Walter Ramón Gavidia; Walter Jacob, Yoswel, and Yosse
Juan Guaidó
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juan_Guaidó
Juan Gerardo Guaidó Márquez (Spanish: [hwaŋ heˈɾaɾðo ɣwai̯ˈðo ˈmaɾ.kes]; born 28 July 1983)is a Venezuelan engineer and politician serving as the President of the National Assembly of Venezuela since 5 January 2019. A member of the centrist social-democratic Popular Will party, he also serves as a federal deputy to the National Assembly, representing the state of Vargas.
On 23 January 2019, Guaidó took a public oath to serve as interim President of Venezuela. The inauguration of Nicolás Maduro as President of Venezuela earlier that month was contested and the National Assembly considered the position vacant; under the Constitution of Venezuela, if the office of President of the Republic becomes vacant, the President of the National Assembly may serve as interim president until elections can be held. Guaidó's claim to the interim presidency has been recognized by many governments across the Americas and the world, with some calls for dialogue to resolve the dispute. The pro-Maduro Supreme Tribunal of Justice rejected the National Assembly decisions, while the Supreme Tribunal of Justice of Venezuela in exile in Panama welcomed him as interim president.
As of 1 February 2019, Guaidó has announced a National Assembly-approved amnesty law for police, military and authorities who help restore constitutional order; announced a sector-by-sector plan, called Plan País, for the revitalization of the country considering the crisis in Venezuela, with attention to the most poverty-stricken; secured a promise of humanitarian aid from the US and announced plans for international shipments and convoys; gained control of Venezuela's US financial accounts and worked to secure other foreign assets; appointed diplomats and ambassadors; gained the endorsement as interim president by the European Parliament; and given interviews and attended packed public assemblies.[citation needed] He is the subject of a government probe, was prohibited from leaving the country, his assets were frozen, and his family has been intimidated. The US levied further sanctions on PDVSA (Venezuela's petroleum company); Maduro retains control of most of the government, PDVSA, and top military command, and accuses the US of orchestrating a coup with Guaidó.[citation ne
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juan_Guaidó#/media/File:Juan_Guaidó_-_family.png