At least 30 cancer patients, along with ten drivers of tanker trucks, reported delays in getting fuel in Cabimas, a municipality on the eastern coast of the lake in the state of Zulia.
Early during the Coronavirus outbreak, Maduro rationed gasoline: only police and military get it freely, the rest of the country’s motorists, would have to get in line.
The drivers of the water trucks are waiting for a response from the Cabimas Mayor’s Office regarding the supply of 60 liters of gasoline to each truck that transports water to priority sectors of the municipality due to faults in the regular water pipeline service, with some areas of Zulia now going into their fourth year without regular water service. Cancer and other critical patients, on the other hand, are assigned between 20 and 30 liters.
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Ana Gomez, a relative of an oncology patient, explained that since Monday, April 6, they have been trying to refuel at the Venezuelan Social Security Institute in Maracaibo, where they seek treatment for chemotherapy every week. “We have a medical report, but they only say that you have to be patient. But They need their treatment,” he said.
Patients and water-truck drivers must go to the Civil Protection Directorate in Cabimas, a facility authorized by the local authorities as a control center to hold meetings with COVID-19, to seek authorization to fill up with gasoline.
In the upper zone of Cabimas, there are sectors such as Las Malvinas, La Mision, El Golfito, and Francisco de Miranda, where inhabitants report water shortages since 2017. Some areas have 90 continuous days without water, so they must buy tankers for their homes.
Even a water truck, a priority service in Zulia, must wait for 12 hours before it can receive gasoline, drivers told El Pitazo.
