Venezuela health minister fired over mortality stats

[Jose Garcia]

Source: BBC News

Venezuela has sacked Health Minister Antonieta Caporale after her department released statistics revealing a large jump in infant and maternal mortality.

Vice-Minister of Hospitals Luis López has been appointed to take over, according to state media.

The ministry's report showed the number of women dying in childbirth had risen by 65%, while child deaths were up 30%.

The national figures were released after almost two years without official data.

Read more: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-39896048

[mahatmakanejeeves]

1. Pro-socialist partygoers on hot streets of Caracas are treated with delightful cooling showers

Pro-socialist partygoers on hot streets of Caracas are treated with delightful cooling showers from benevolent Venezuela police.

Link to tweet

[COLGATE4]

2. Yep. The Maduro supporters have always been known for

their consideration of their fellow countrymen.

[brooklynite]

3. Shooting people and running them over with tanks doesn't help the stats...

[geek tragedy]

4. Lysenkoism lives nt

[Igel]

6. My Russian prof in '88 and '89 was occasionally moved to tears.

We had to read newspaper articles (often several on a given theme) and summarize/discuss them.

Once a student got up and talked about the suicide stats published in some news articles. He lurched out of his seat and pulled the photocopies she'd made out of her hands, read them, and started to cry. Not for those who'd killed themselves, but because his entire life the newspapers said there was no suicide in the worker's paradise and could be no suicide. It was a large chink in the media blackout of all things politically incorrect for official mention.

He was nearly as weepy over the report of a plane crash, for the same reason. For decades, no planes had ever crashed in the USSR. For one to crash would mean that the government was fallible.


A perfect government can make no mistakes, esp. if it leaves its citizens in penury. Once mistakes are made, trust is lost.

[ripcord]

5. She is pretty brave

Telling the truth to a government like that can't be a healthy thing.

[xor]

7. What happened to all the folks who defended Maduro unconditionally?