Esther Yáñez Illescas – Isabella lives not knowing that her life depends on coloured pills. She is 21 months old, and her speech is clear only to those who look after her on a daily basis in the Italian hospital of Buenos Aires, deciding which pill she needs to take.
Isabella was born with a congenital disease and doctors immediately warned that she required a liver transplant to survive. Her parents, Douglas and Yelibeth, addressed the issue straight away: donor, funding, where, how and when the transplant will be performed.
It’s currently not clear where the company’s $7 billion in assets are. US National Security Advisor John Bolton has promised that the Venezuelan oil company will lose an additional $11 billion next year in lost export revenue from the US market. Citgo will continue its operations, but only in the United States, and the money will no longer go to Venezuela and charities like the Simon Bolivar Foundation.
“If Isabella doesn’t follow the postoperative regime, she can lose the new organ and will need another operation. We will have to start from scratch, and it will be much more difficult because my wife can no longer be a donor. We don’t have that much time,” her father said.
“The sanctions are depriving Venezuelans of lifesaving medicines, medical equipment, food, and other essential imports” the report titled “Economic Sanctions as Collective Punishment: The Case of Venezuela” says.
80,000 people with HIV, 16,000 cancer patients and 4 million with diabetes and hypertension are victims of these sanctions, which the report calls “illegal under international law.”
In addition, it is important not to forget about the 25 Venezuelan children currently in Italy, about whom the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jorge Arreaza, spoke at a recent press conference at the United Nations. They are also waiting for a bone marrow transplant, which now can’t go ahead. How many cases involving Venezuelan children are there in the world? How many of them will die waiting? A few have already passed away in Italy and other countries. Who is to blame and who will be held accountable?
People who criticise the government of Nicholas Maduro are certain that it’s not the sanctions that are causing food and medicine shortages in Venezuela, since the problem existed even before the United States imposed them.
In his turn, Antony Moreno, doctor and spokesman for the Committee of patients and relatives of the victims of the financial blockade, said that this is wrong.
“We conducted a series of studies, and from 2013 to 2015, when Maduro was already in power, but before the introduction of the first round of sanctions, each Venezuelan was able to take up to 20 different types of drugs in the event of illness. Even the UN confirmed that Venezuela had met its Millennium Development Goals (MDGs),” he said.
“But everything changed when the opposition won the National Assembly in 2015 and demanded sanctions against Venezuela,” Moreno added.
In 2015, Barack Obama issued an executive order designating Venezuela as an “unusual and extraordinary threat to the United States.” Now, as Moreno says, Venezuelans are able to receive no more than 5 types of medicines annually.
“That’s practically nothing. The damage inflicted is enormous. I work in the field of occupational health and see the difference since 2015,” Moreno explained.
Venezuela has always imported medication from foreign laboratories using foreign currency from oil sales. When that money was blocked, there were no more funds to buy medicine with.
People are fighting against the situation by organizing protest rallies and distributing the few drugs they receive or produce. Currently, Douglas, Isabella and other families are able to continue their treatment thanks to the Simon Bolivar Foundation and various social funds that support them in Argentina.
“Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza has asked to hold on. But for how long?” Douglas wants to know. Douglas doesn’t talk about politics, because the situation in which he finds himself in, as well as hundreds of others and their families, has nothing to do with Chavism or anti-Chavism, revolution or political marketing.