Latin American Country at a Loss: Venezuela's Destruction

Asalam alaykum loves, this should be one of my last posts for my Ramadan series. There will be either one or two more posts In Sha Allah depending on when the actual day of Eid is. I will of course continue to write because that is my passion but it won't be everyday, one thing I have learned is to challenge myself and stick to it. I am surprised I even made it this far since last time I tried to blog in Ramadan I made it like 3 days and then stopped. Trying to stick to something isn't easy and I feel like we definitely push ourselves harder in this month more than others, so it's a good way to build habits and push yourself to complete goals you normally procrastinate in doing.

If you ya'll know me personally you know that my ethnic background I am Latin American, my father comes from a small country in South America called El Salvador. Maybe one day I will cover the conditions there because last I heard it wasn't good. But today we are focusing on Venezuela.

The strained politics I believe have been on and off since 2013, when their president at the time Hugo Chavez died and his replacement Nicolas Maduro took over, whom some regard as a dictator. On the opposing side is Juan Guaido. There have been clashes with the people of Venezuela and the government due to the economy becoming stable and many people losing electricity, access to water, food and medical care. Sadly, Venezuela used to be one of the richest Latin American countries.

"This is an oil-producing country. This was one of the most wealthy countries in Latin America," Journalist Nicholas Casey says. "And now this is a place where there are shortages of food, shortages of medicine. People's daily lives are spent trying to figure out how they're going to get basic things like eggs or coffee."

The current president has been running the country in a very authoritarian manner, imprisoning political rivals, punishing those who protest or oppose him, and even having doctors or people dress as doctors promise people medicine only to gain votes. He has also restricted access to journalists who expose or oppose him including Casey.

"Their reaction to the stories that I've had — it's been terrible sometimes. Anything that they see that doesn't line up with their view of what's happening in the country they consider to be a lie."

On the matter of trying to gain popularity, Maduro pressured Cuban doctors who were visiting the country to go door to door, offering medicine to those who were chronically ill or sick. After they gained their trust by giving them the medicine, they would bring up politics, asking them if they were registered to vote and letting them know the medicine had come from Maduro and if they did not vote for him there could be consequences. One doctor describes being in a small town and having to withhold medicine because the patients were on the opposing side, and they were not allowed to give out medical gear like oxygen tanks , which were in short supply. They would wait until right before an election to hand these out, to appear as if they were heroes and solving the crisis of the short supply and only to those who were on Maduro's side.

"If you don't vote for Maduro, there is a possibility that you will lose your medication. You will lose your free health care."

To flee the economic and social crisis, people have resorted to leaving the country and immigrating to nearby countries such as Columbia, Peru and Ecudaor. The United Nations estimated that over 3 million people have fled, which in a population of 30 million people means 10% are gone. Leaving is also very difficult, as a lot of flights have been restricted to certain areas and are too expensive for most Venezuelans. They can try to take the bus using their currency called the Bolivar, which is worth something in Venezuela but once you leave it is worth almost nothing. Which means most people are stuck at the border but because of a lack of jobs people chose to keep moving on foot.

"Because of this crisis that's getting worse and worse, because of lack of medicine mainly, people are coming into these countries with diseases that should be controlled in Venezuela — diseases like diphtheria, malaria, tuberculosis have made a huge comeback in Venezuela."

The Latin American countries are doing there best to accept Venezuelan immigrants, but it also puts pressure on their public resources to house and take in the large numbers. Columbia allowed people into the country giving a 2 year visa even without having a valid passport. Their health, education and social services are affected. 

Colombia hosts more Venezuelans than any country in the region – 1.2 million, followed by Peru and Ecuador, with 506,000 and 221,000 respectively.

"Over 60 percent of Venezuelans surveyed said that during the previous three months they had woken up hungry because they did not have enough money to buy food. About a quarter of the population was eating two or less meals a day, the study showed."

All of the photos are from CNN, the link is in the sources below, definitely check them out, they show you how intense both sides have gotten and how sad the situation is.

Organizations Helping Venezuela:

• https://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/

• https://secure.projecthope.org/

• https://help.rescue.org/

• https://www.mercycorps.org/

• https://www.savethechildren.org/

• https://www.rescue.org/country/venezuela

May Allah restore political and economic stability to Venezuela and grant those who have fled safety and resources, and May the people in power who are unjust be taken down and replaced with someone who cares about the needs of the people. Ameen!

sources: https://www.npr.org/, https://www.crisisgroup.org/, https://nypost.com/, https://www.cnn.com/