UN urged to declare full-scale crisis in Venezuela as health system 'collapses' - Polidicks

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2019/apr/05/un-urged-to-declare-full-scale-crisis-in-venezuela-as-health-system-collapses Warning of the return of infectious diseases and rising levels of malnutrition and infant and maternal death, a report published this week by Human Rights Watch and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health calls on the UN secretary general, António Guterres, to declare a “complex humanitarian emergency”. “No matter how hard they try, Venezuelan authorities cannot hide the reality on the ground,” said Shannon Doocy, associate professor of international health at Johns Hopkins University, who conducted research at Venezuela’s border. Maternal mortality rose 65%, and infant mortality rose 30% in 2016 More than 9,300 cases of measles have been reported, with more than 6,200 confirmed, since 2017 – a dramatic rise compared with the period between 2008-15, when only one case was reported Since July 2016, more than 2,500 cases of diphtheria have been reported since July 2016, with more than 1,500 confirmed. None were recorded between 2006-15 Confirmed malaria cases have increased more than tenfold, from fewer than 36,000 in 2009 to 414,000 in 2017 Tuberculosis cases have increased from 6,000 in 2014 to 13,000 in 2017 In 2018, nearly nine out of 10 Venezuelans living with HIV and registered by the government were not receiving antiretroviral treatment “Venezuelan authorities publicly minimise and suppress information about the crisis, and harass and retaliate against those who collect data or speak out about it, while also doing far too little to alleviate it,” said José Miguel Vivanco, Americas director at Human Rights Watch.

What blows is we are unable to do anything realistic with this situation. Sending supplies for the most part is not an option. Most of the supplies will be used to keep propping up the regime that is causing this mess. It's likely that all of the supplies will also be seized by collectivos and other party members which have no care in the world for the suffering of the people on the ground. We have already seen how much fucks they do not give when several points of the water supply was being made undrinkable by oil contamination. This is one of those catch 22's where you have to weigh out how long you want to prolong the suffering, and the cost is human lives.

Waiting to see how the tankies spin this one.

So why haven't we invaded them on humanitarian basis

Nations do not invade other nations on the basis of saving foreign citizens. Any politician that promotes having their country's soldiers shot at and killed to save someone else would be rode out of their capital on a rail.

I dunno why singapore hasn't but the United States isn't gonna do it because everyone (rightly) yells at us when we try to mess in Latin America due to past sneaky fuckery. These things have included, but are not limited to: Installing a new fascist government in Chile, financing terrorist/rebel cells in Nicaragua/Costa Rica using Iranian Money in order to get them to invade Costa Rica and give us a reason to overthrow the government, the many attempts to murder Fidel Castro, and of course who could forget selling guns to the Mexican Gun Cartels.

Well maybe not US specifically, but perhaps a UN task force? After all, a UN force did defend South Korea during the Korean war. The rest of the world pretty much know the fucked up shit going on in Venezuela, but nobody seems to be doing alot.

Which was predominantly made up of the US?

That was also a complete farce to hide the fact that we were trying out that whole 'proxy war' thing against the USSR.

65 % maternal mortality rate is quite horrendous, jesus christ.

It rose 65%. Not as bad but definitely not good.

Increase, not total.

Thanks for clearing up, although it's still staggering.

Any UN intervention would be veto'd by the Chinese and Russians

Not to diminish this crisis or the suffering it's causing, but why is this a full scale crisis and not some dump in Africa?

As an addendum, this is going to just serve the right-wing narrative that socialism inevitably leads to death, collapse and the end of civilization as we know it. "Look at Venezuela!!"

The UN was able to take action in Korea purely because North Korea's owners, Russia, were boycotting it at the time. They're no longer doing that and will prevent UN action against any of their imperial holdings and puppet states.

I'd argue it's because the term 'crisis' refers to a rapid change in circumstances for the worst, not an absolute metric. Otherwise, we'd say all of humanity was in crisis 500 years ago due to much worse statistics, and that kinda defeats the purpose of the word.

I suspect that green berets will have some "training accidents" at Venezuela

To accomplish what, exactly? Assassinate Maduro? That just leads to a military coup because of how much money he's dumped into the general staff to remain loyal. Give the people arms? That just leads to a bloody civil war in which the well funded Venezuelan military starts shooting its own people. As a preamble to an invasion? Probably, sadly, the best option if Green Berets were to go in there but it would still result in civil strife and thousands of casualties.