LOOK: The Fruits of Socialism – Venezuelan Food Lines

**AirborneSapper7** · 05-21-2014, 02:08 PM

http://www.alipac.us/f19/not-ukraine...npoint-303130/

**AirborneSapper7** · 05-28-2014, 08:10 AM

Amputations Skyrocket in Venezuela Due to Lack of Medical Equipment

by Frances Martel 27 May 2014 32 post a comment

Venezuela's hospitals are amputating limbs at an alarming pace, as economic shortages under Nicolás Maduro's socialist government have triggered a scarcity of medical equipment necessary for a number of procedures. Hospitals, a new report shows, are lacking everything from latex gloves and gowns to coronary stents.

A new report by the Venezuelan Association of Distributors of Medical Equipment, Odontologists, and Laboratories (Avadem) warns that hospitals in the nation are significantly under-equipped to meet the daily challenges faced in a hospital. While Venezuela averages 20 medical procedures per month to save limbs, that number has diminished to five, and the organization warns that more than 500 coronary angioplasties have been postponed due to lack of stents, leaving patients at risk of heart attacks.
Another procedure barely possible in Venezuelan hospitals today, according to the report, is the insertion of cochlear implants--a small device that can help children born deaf fully acquire a sense of sound if done early enough in life. Venezuela has been unable to reliably import the devices for the procedures. Also missing in Venezuelan hospitals, newspaper El Nacional notes, are "resuscitation machines, cytology kits, radiographic equipment, reactive ingredients to diagnose syphilis/hepatitis/HIV ... gloves, hand-washing brushes, and hospital gowns." Of 239 essential items hospitals must have, Avadem warns 200 are "absolutely lacking."
The Venezuelan government has dealt with the lack of equipment by asking patients not to seek the items elsewhere or discuss the lack of medical equipment publicly. According to Infobae, the Ministry of Health sent a letter in May to medical professionals stating that it was "terminally prohibited to solicit from patients and/or family members, medicine and/or medical surgical equipment to cover corresponding treatments; although there may not be the necessary equipment at the hospital, never divulge publicly these weaknesses or scarcities."
That request was not honored, however, as last month the nation's largest newspaper El Universal published a report warning that 95% of Venezuelan hospitals were reliably stocked with only 5% of the necessary equipment.
The Venezuelan healthcare system is fully controlled by the government and relies heavily on the Cuban government. Venezuela under Hugo Chávez negotiated with the Castro regime to trade much of the nation's oil reserves for imported doctors from Cuba to run the nation's healthcare system. That program has left many Venezuelans without adequate medical care, as Cuban doctors have fled from the professional exchange program en masse. According to Miami newspaper El Nuevo Herald, almost 3,000 Cuban professionals--most of them doctors--deserted their exchange programs in Venezuela to escape the grasp of the communist regime, leaving Venezuela providing Cuba oil with little benefit.
In December, then-recently elected President Maduro described the Venezuelan healthcare system as "an embarrassment" and vowed to improve it.

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Peace/2...ical-Equipment

**AirborneSapper7** · 06-08-2014, 04:10 PM

Another story on the success of socialism....NOT....

Venezuela Runs out of Drinking Water

Milk, sugar, toilet paper—what could Venezuela manage to run out of next? How about drinking water. Having created a choice between oil and water, the benevolent socialist republic chose to keep th...
the-american-interest.com

The Fracas in Caracas

Venezuela Runs out of Drinking Water

Venezuela has already run short of milk, sugar, and even , and now supplies of drinking water have fallen dangerously low. Drought and poor infrastructure are the usual culprits, but the socialist paradise also owed tens of billions to international bondholders, and the Chávistas couldn’t afford to finance their debts and also import bottled water. So which did they choose? Venezuela, that foreign creditors would seize its oil shipments, elected to pay $2.8 billion dollars in interest on foreign debt.
Blaming a drought caused by El Niño, the state-owned water company, Hidrocapital, rationing tap water in Caracas in May. The Table of Democratic Unity (MUD) opposition party was having none of it, “the lack of responsibility and improvisation with which the government acts, postponing investments, maintenance, and opportune decisions.”
MUD may have a point. Although in May the government began to pay down some of its bills, it still has over $25 billion dollars of debt outstanding to foreign companies that provide its medicine, operate its telephones, and import its food. Remain calm, however. Fervently denying that the temple of Bolivarian Socialism has problems, the Economy Vice President “Venezuela doesn’t have debt with anyone. What we have are pending foreign-exchange liquidations, which we are reviewing.”
American college grads, rejoice: you’re not crushed by student debt. You just have a few pesky education-exchange liquidations to clear up.

Published on June 7, 2014 1:30 pm

http://www.the-american-interest.com...rinking-water/