The depressing reality of Venezuelan hospitals continues: there are no medicines

Hospitals in Venezuela are very different from those in other parts of the world, where the majority of the population goes without the need to go to a private medical center.

The economic crisis, the shortage of medicines and the terrible inflation, has made the scene of these public centers completely depressing, where there is not even gauze to clean a simple wound.

A reality that once again is news in the international press, El País gives as an example the case of Ángel Gutiérrez, a five-year-old boy diagnosed with cancer who is at the center of a political labyrinth.

"What worries me the most is that her medical treatment is interrupted by the crisis in Venezuela," her mother, Marilyn Ochoa, said in front of the hospital. She also stated that her husband went to Colombia to try to settle down and take the child. "For now we must resist here."

While the facade of the place is being remodeled, the José Manuel de los Ríos hospital, which is the main care center for children in Caracas, the capital of the country, the doctors explain to the parents of the patients that they do not have supplies to attend to emergencies.

"We do not need painted walls, but a functioning operating room and medicines for children," Ochoa criticizes.

The government prevents the entry of humanitarian aid because, according to critics of the regime, that would mean recognizing the existence of the crisis. Many people appeal to international donations, for which they have mobilized numerous NGOs, to exchange or purchase medicines on the black market as alternatives.