March 3, 2018

…Regardless what interventionist politicians and the media pretend, the situation in Venezuela does not reach the level of a humanitarian crisis.  True enough, there is scarcity of certain foods (https://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/13478), medicines and personal hygiene items, there are delays in distribution, there are long lines for rationed foods, there is anguish, there is zozobra, there are institutional and constitutional irregularities (like in so many countries of our suffering world!)  — but the situation is very far from a “humanitarian crisis” as we know from Gaza (Norman Finkelstein, Gaza, University of California Press), Yemen...Libya … Syria… Iraq …Haiti…Mali…Central African Republic…Sudan…Somalia…Myanmar …It is significant that when in 2017 Venezuela requested medical aid from the Global Fund, the plea was rejected because it “is still a high income country…and as such is not eligible.”…During my eight-day visit to Venezuela, I discussed this issue with experts from FAO…and CEPAL…The 2017 FAO report lists humanitarian crisis in 29 countries.  Venezuela is not among them. … Thanks to UNDP, we could convene a meeting with all UN agencies and other regional organizations operating in Venezuela with a view to coordinate advisory services and technical assistance, an initiative that bore fruit shortly thereafter…What are the causes of today’s economic crisis in Venezuela? The mainstream media would have us believe that it is attributable exclusively to the failure of the socialistic model … too many ideologues, too few technocrats, amateurs who do not know how to run the economy. Even if there is some truth to that, other factors weigh in, notably the fall of oil prices, Venezuela’s principal source of income…