Infant mortality in Venezuela has doubled during crisis, UN says

UN security council officials clash over ‘politicised’ aid to troubled country as peace-building chief warns of ‘grim realities’

Peter Beaumont
Wed 27 Feb 2019 14.04 GMT Last modified on Wed 27 Feb 2019 14.22 GMT

Infant mortality in Venezuela has soared by roughly 50% during the prolonged political crisis in the country.

Briefing the UN security council, the UN’s political and peace building chief, Rosemary DiCarlo, depicted a devastating collapse in Venezuela’s health system. She warned that 40% of medical staff had left the country and said hospital stocks of medicine had dwindled to 20% of the required level.

DiCarlo said the “protracted crisis” in the country had led in recent weeks to an “alarming escalation of tensions”. Four people died and hundreds were injured in clashes last weekend at the country’s borders.

Security council members clashed over the increasingly politicised humanitarian aid efforts to Venezuela, the government of which, led by Nicolás Maduro, is backed by China and Russia, and opposed by the US and a number of European and Latin American countries, who want Maduro to step down.

DiCarlo warned of the “grim reality” facing a country where citizens are dying of preventable causes and 3.4 million people have fled the worsening conditions.

-snip-