Relatives, doctors, workers, and the young patients, all want the Inter American Commission on Human Rights to come to visit with them at the 83-years old José Manuel de Los Ríos hospital in Caracas, Venezuela’s largest facility of its kind and where kids have to wait a year before an operation, sometimes dying in the process.
Nicolas Maduro’s regime didn’t even allow members boarding a Venezuela-bound plane in Panama, reportedly extorting carrier Copa Airlines into denying them passage. The hospital featured prominently in the commission’s schedule.
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El Pitazo reported last week that ten young patients have died since December awaiting a transplant or similar operation there.
But that didn’t dampen spirits any at the hospital. On Wednesday the whole gang held a protest in front of the hospital’s main entrance to demand that Maduro allow the commission entrance into Venezuela and a visit to the hospital.
“Let them in,” demonstrators chanted Wednesday under the hot sun. Dr. Vietnam Vera joined the demonstration, denouncing Maduro’s rebuffing of the commission. “What is it that you fear? Come here, and realize for yourself that there is no running water, that the Intensive Therapy area is about to be shut down for technical reasons. Come and tell us that the children are not dying inside this hospital!” the intensive-care specialist told assembled media.
Liliana Chinaglia said the lack of water puts his son, being treated for kidney disease at the hospital, in undue danger. “The water, they send it every once in a while. When it arrives, you need to hurry to perform dialysis on my son,” she said during the protest.
Carlos Trapani, head of children’s rights NGO Cecodap, scolded Maduro’s isolationism. “To prohibit their entrance is to turn his back on the problems of the children,” Trapani said during the protest.
