Suicides rampant in Venezuela. Chavismo denies (but won't release data)

[GatoGordo]

Suicides Surge in a Hopeless Venezuela
The desperate act is becoming ordinary in a population plagued by hyperinflation, hunger and mass emigration.

October 24, 2018, 4:00 AM CDT

The patients arrive by night or in broad daylight, alive and sometimes dead.

A record surge of suicides in troubled Venezuela is wearing down doctors who work at the university hospital in the Andean state of Merida. People who have tried to kill themselves arrive at an uncertain rhythm that breeds dread in the professionals who receive them.

“We live between terror and impotence,” said Ignacio Sandia, who heads the psychiatry department. “We constantly think we can’t do what we should in the moment we’re able to, and we’re terrified that patients commit suicide and there’s nothing we can do for them.”

Suicides are rapidly rising across this once-wealthy nation, but particularly in mountainous Merida, where they are hitting levels never seen. The Venezuelan Violence Observatory, a nongovernmental organization, estimates that the state’s suicide rate was more than 19 per 100,000 in 2017. By comparison, the global rate in 2016, according to the most recent World Health Organization data available, was 10.5.

Such deaths are becoming ordinary in a population plagued by hyperinflation, hunger and mass emigration. Xiomara Betancourt, a neurologist who heads mental-health services at Corposalud Merida, the public health system, blamed scarcities of antidepressant and anti-anxiety medicine and loneliness as loved ones leave.

“It’s a cocktail, a multitude of factors that have all converged,” she said.

-snip-

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-10-24/suicides-surge-in-a-hopeless-venezuela

In 2012, the whole country had 788 suicides. This year, 786 cases have been reported in Caracas alone.

But, according to the Chavistas, there is Utopia in Venezuela. No need for anything, as Chavismo provides all. There is no desperation. No anxiety. No depression. The rare suicide can be blamed on the "economic war" being waged by Capitalist oppressors everywhere (USA, EU, jealous Spain, evil Brazil, vile Colombia, Portuguese pig farmers, the Illuminati, etc.) Everything else is just propaganda from the CIA.

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1. Sad. Wonder what really happened there? Even a trumpster couldn't fuck up an economy that bad...

without help.

[COLGATE4]

2. Oh, they had plenty of help. Chavez, Maduro, Cabello and all

the band of thieves who looted the Venezuelan treasury as well as the National Petroleum Company so they could buy luxurious homes in Miami and Europe, backed up by enormous bank accounts overseas. These bozos were very efficient in skimming every last Bolivar that could have conceivably done any good to the long-suffering Venezuelan people.

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3. Do you include Chavez in that? His death always seemed suspicious to me.

Like he was gotten out of the way.

He was so anti-Bush, I wouldn't discount a CIA role in it.

[COLGATE4]

4. Nothing so spectular as a 'hit' by the CIA (or other

assorted entities that get blamed for the mess that is Venezuela today). Chavez was diagnosed with cancer. Instead of relying on some really top-notch oncologists then practicing in Venezuela he let his paranoia get the better of him so flew off to Cuba for surgery. Seems they did a horribly botched job on him and so he left this vail of tears before his appointed time.

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5. I wouldn't totally discount any US involvement. There's more than a century-long...

history of our meddling in the Americas.

"Overthrow: America's Century of Regime Change From Hawaii to Iraq"

by Stephen Kinzer

[COLGATE4]

6. Well, as someone who lived and worked in several Latin

American countries for over 25 years and who also was very familiar with Venezuela both before and immediately after Chavez's election I would suggest you actually try and familiarize yourself with the region before offering such opinions like "I wouldn't totally discount American involvement in Chavez's death" if you want to be taken seriously by anyone who actually know something about the subject.

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7. You actually don't think there was any American involvement?

I can't take you seriously if you don't.

Too much history of American skullduggery all over Latin America for me to believe there wasn't.

The book is a good, well-researched read.

[COLGATE4]

10. In Chavez's death? No. None.

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11. Not in Chavez's death maybe, but in the disruption of society?

IMO there was some clandestine American influence and involvement. American operatives did not just abandon that part of the hemisphere and not take advantage of and quite possibly cause some of the unheaval with behind the scenes realpolitik.

It's very clear and has been for decades since before even Castro in Cuba that America does not stand idly by and allow a leftist government to establish and maintain stability in South and central America without trying to destabilize it.

Let's not be naive.

[COLGATE4]

13. I find it amazing that someone who obviously has no first-hand

knowledge of or experience either with the region and certainly with the country in question is still so willing to offer an undocumented opinion so at odds of those of us who have actually dealt with Venezuela and the Venezuelan government both pre and post Chavez.

The disintegration of the Venezuelan economy is no mystery and is certainly not due to any "clandestine influence", whether by the American government or by any of the other boogeymen the Chavez/Maduro gang is fond of blaming for their own failures. These are convenient fictions designed to try and explain away the staggering corruption and beyond negligent mismanagement of a country whose economy when Chavez took power was the envy of Latin America. In this short period these inept (except for stealing) thieves have managed to bring the country to Zimbabwe levels in its overall economy. At this point economists are unable to even predict the annual inflation rate in Venezuela since the only thing still working are the printing presses, stamping out more and more worthless Bolivar (or, in the currency de jour "Soverign Bolivar&quot notes. A country whose economy was based solely on petroleum is now unable to even produce enough crude to keep it afloat. The national electric grid is in shambles, due to total mismanagement and neglect so that even Caracas now has to be content with 6 hours of electricity per day (usually late at night. Hospitals are without needed drugs and surgical supplies, consumer goods like toilet paper have to be obtained on the black market and the overall Venezuelan populace is undergoing severe hunger. Literally thousands of Venezuelans are fleeing to neighboring countries due to this dire situation. None of this can be laid at the feet of outside influences although Maduro is fond of trying to do so. His favorite these days in preparing the country for the 'imminent Yanqui invasion'. I'm assuming you don't actually believe that we are planning to invade Venezuela any time soon. As for the rest, Napoleon's saying that you 'should never interfere with an enemy who is destroying himself' is the best explanation for why the US hasn't and isn't contributing to Venezuela stunning collapse - and tragic - collapse.

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14. I find it just as amazing that someone so knowledgeable discounts...

what has been the history of the US in that region.

And to call this book undocumented is ridiculous:

"Overthrow: America's Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq"

[COLGATE4]

15. I'm not calling the book undocumented. I'm calling

your opinion undocumented.

[GatoGordo]

9. There isnt a single reasonable person who thinks Chavez was murdered by cancer

Unless former Venezuelan Defense Minister's (Diego Alfredo Molero Bellavia) opinion that a "cancer virus" was injected into him without the least bit of proof offered. (that's how Chavismo rolls!)

If ANYONE should be required to prove their absurd theories, it is the Chavists. There isn't a minute that goes by that they don't accuse any/everyone of screwing up their Marxist/Leninist Utopia.

https://www.aporrea.org/actualidad/a271006.html
View in Chrome, translate to English. Aporrea is a Chavista website devoted to the memory of Hugo Chavez.

This guy. He can't say enough bad things about all the previous Venezuela governments. But, Chavismo made some mistakes... by not being more ruthless with non-believers of Chavismo. Blames everyone for every malady... except Chavismo. Which is perfect.

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12. See post #11.

[GatoGordo]

8. Chavez' ilk would love nothing better to pin his death on El Imperio

The good news for the Chavistas is that Hugo's death was a blessing for those who deified him. Saint Hugo could do no wrong... what a shame he died before the loot ran out. He absolutely bankrupted Venezuela, but had the good fortune to die of sarcoma before the wheels came fully off the wagon.

Now, the Chavistas can insist that Chavez was doing everything correctly and blame it all on on Maduro and the rest of the Chavista cadre. The facts are that he ran out of other peoples productivity to loot, and at his death things were already falling apart.

Fast forward to today. It would serve Uncle Sam's interest best had Hugo not died and was alive to take responsibility for his malfeasance. There is NO WAY that Hugo Chavez could dig himself out of this mess, and he and his ass kissing sycophants would be going down in flames, along with his zany Marxist economic policies.