Page 11 - Preliminary Report on the Venezuelan Migrant and Refugee Crisis in the Region

A recent survey of Venezuela’s public health system

Hospitals lack 88% of
revealed that hospitals lack 88 percent of medicines and 79
medicines, 79% of
medical and surgical percent of medical and surgical materials. Essential medical
materials, 53% of diagnostic equipment is also in short supply: over 90 percent
operating rooms are
of radiology and tomography units at public health facilities
unusable and 70.7% of
22
are inoperative. The survey also revealed that not a single
emergency rooms in the
public health system are laboratory in the public health system is fully functional
deficient or function because of a lack of reagents. At the same time, 53 percent
intermittently.
of operating rooms are unusable and 70.7 percent of

emergency rooms in the public health system are deficient or function intermittently. Many of

these shortcomings are caused by a lack of inputs and the uncertain supply of water and

electricity in the country.

Persecution and generalized violence

Systematized persecution by different methods is another major factor behind the mass
migration from Venezuela.

Between January 2014 and November 2018, 12,949 people were arbitrarily detained in

Venezuela. Of those, 7,512 were placed under criminal investigation and are the subject of

noncustodial precautionary measures, including the requirement to appear periodically before
authorities, house arrest, and a prohibition from making statements to the media, among

others. On February 4, 2019, Foro Penal, an NGO, denounced that there were 966 political

prisoners in Venezuela. That figure changes constantly because of the “revolving door effect”

22 Agence France-Presse. “Encuesta Nacional de Hospitales constató que faltan 88% de medicamentos.” El
Nacional, March 19, 2018, http://www.el-nacional.com/noticias/crisis-humanitaria/encuesta-nacional-
hospitales-constato-que-faltan-medicamentos_227478.

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