Venezuela, war and pandemic: the Coronacrisis
Oscar Feo Isturiz[1]
General situation in Venezuela. Political context
It is impossible to understand the situation in Venezuela without making it clear that it is a country besieged and besieged by the empire. We are facing aggression and a blockade by the United States of America (USA), which has been trying for years to destabilize the legitimate government of Venezuela, unleashing a new type of war, called fourth-generation or hybrid warfare, characterized by a combination of blockades and economic sanctions, attacks on the currency, psychological operations (PSIO), political and diplomatic actions, irregular actions with paramilitary forces, and terrorism, with the objective of polarizing and intimidating the population and bringing down the government.
Of course, the US, the aggressor nation, despite its belligerent attitude towards Venezuela, in some cases resorts to "covert" actions to avoid taking direct responsibility for the actions, such as high-tech warfare or cyberwarfare.
In recent days, amid the pandemic, there has been an aggressive escalation, including the offering of a monetary reward for the “capture” of President Maduro and other high-ranking government officials, the incursion of paramilitary forces in an operation known as “Gideon,” and the threat of a maritime blockade of the Venezuelan coast to prevent the arrival of basic supplies, food, and fuel. An extremely conflictive situation is expected to unfold in a few days with the arrival of five Iranian ships loaded with gasoline.
Measures openly taken by the United States government
- Executive Order 13.692 (March 2015) in which the President of the United States declares Venezuela an “unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States.” (Because it is so hard to believe, it is attached and you are invited to review it.)
- Recognition of a “parallel government” headed by opposition leader and deputy Juan Guaidó, in January 2019.
- Seizure, freezing, and confiscation of assets and accounts in the financial system. Blocking of accounts and transactions that hinder international trade.
- The seizure and transfer to the "parallel government" of foreign currency accounts and assets belonging to the Venezuelan state. The CITGO refinery located in Texas and owned by the Venezuelan state is a clear example of this.
- Prohibition on financial and commercial entities from carrying out operations with Venezuela.
- Attack on the currency and the exchange rate, generating a hyperinflationary situation.
- Open threats to the international community to take similar measures.
Consequences of war in the midst of a pandemic
The most immediate and obvious consequence is the difficulty in acquiring essential materials and supplies, medicines, and food that are not produced domestically. Venezuela remains highly dependent on foreign healthcare. The blockade on the purchase of inputs for the production of fuel for motor vehicles has brought national transportation to a near standstill.
In relation to the pandemic, the difficulty in acquiring essential materials, supplies, reagents and technology for diagnosis and treatment has been overcome, thanks to the solidarity and unwavering support of China.
Clarification
I believe it's important to clarify my political stance. I have been and continue to be an activist for social medicine and public health, as well as a socialist, anti-imperialist, and anti-capitalist. However, I am a staunch critic of President Maduro's government, and I have published several articles that demonstrate this. Despite this, I am aware that the war and the sanctions are fundamental factors in understanding the situation in Venezuela.
However, while the most important factor, it is not the only one. It is also necessary to acknowledge that "our government" has committed serious and numerous errors, has been profoundly inefficient and incapable of solving the people's problems, leading the country into a major humanitarian crisis, in which the ruling class enjoys remarkable privileges.
In short, I maintain that the Venezuelan government, despite its socialist and anti-imperialist rhetoric, has a highly contradictory practice, handing over strategic resources to big business (the Orinoco Mining Arc) and exhibiting marked traits of authoritarianism, militarism, and corruption, which are completely at odds with socialist ethics and morality. However, in the face of imperial aggression, and especially during this pandemic, I stand without hesitation against the empire and with the Venezuelan people.
First conclusion
It is impossible to understand the situation in Venezuela without recognizing that it is a country under blockade, the target of ongoing aggression by the United States. It is essential to reject and demand an end to the blockade and economic sanctions against Venezuela.
Second point: Coronavirus crisis.
First, I will summarize the government's policy regarding the pandemic:
Venezuelan Government Action Plan aimed at containing the epidemic:
- The creation of a National Presidential Commission, headed by the Vice President of the Republic, includes the Ministry of Health and a team of scientists and technicians who support and advise the commission. This underscores the fact that the pandemic is a national and intersectoral problem, not solely a health issue, and that addressing it requires the participation of all sectors of national life. Political and media leadership is exercised by the highest levels of government, with President Maduro, Vice President Rodríguez, and the Minister of Communication issuing daily updates. There is no official spokesperson from the Ministry of Health; however, technical leadership rests with the Ministry of Health, headed by Carlos Alvarado, a physician and university professor with a background in public health and extensive administrative and public health experience. ALAMES fully supports him.
- Population-based approach. A massive population survey is conducted on an ongoing basis through the PATRIA system website, which allows the identification of people with respiratory symptoms. These individuals are then visited at their homes to carry out tests that identify the disease and, if positive, proceed with their isolation.
c. Total Social Quarantine. This has been in effect nationwide since March 16th. The decision was made after the first case appeared and has played a fundamental role in containing the epidemic. It is important to remember that quarantine does not solve the problem of the pandemic; what it does is flatten the curve and prevent a very high number of cases in a short period, thus avoiding the collapse of the healthcare system. However, it prolongs or delays the evolution of the pandemic, since the susceptible population remains at risk.
d. Expanded and personalized screening. Every person identified as a contact or symptomatic is given a rapid test. Those who test positive are given a molecular test. Sample processing (PCR) is centralized at the National Institute of Hygiene, and there are protocols for sample collection and transport. A mobile laboratory was set up in Táchira state for collecting and processing samples from people entering the country through that border. By May 20, 2020, more than 250.000 home visits and 616.562 rapid tests had been conducted, representing 20.552 tests per million inhabitants. However, it is important to note that this centralization presents significant challenges, since all samples (except those from Táchira state, on the border with Colombia) must be transported to Caracas for processing. This transport is logistically very complex if it is to be done regularly, due in part to the existing transportation and fuel crisis.
e. Isolation and early treatment of cases. Forty-six hospitals and fifty-two comprehensive diagnostic centers were designated to receive and treat cases of the disease. In addition, an agreement has been established with the private sector for the care and treatment of cases requiring hospitalization in private clinics.
One additional comment: given that the Venezuelan healthcare system is collapsed and in crisis, particularly at the hospital level, it is worrying to consider how health problems unrelated to the pandemic are being addressed and resolved. It seems there is capacity to attend to and resolve problems related to COVID-19. However, we must question how the large number of patients requiring specialized care are being managed, whether for medical emergencies unrelated to COVID-19 or for chronic illnesses requiring routine treatment, such as dialysis, cancer, cardiovascular disease, etc.
One of the problems the pandemic brings is that it obscures or makes invisible other health problems that continue their usual course. We have malaria, dengue fever, tuberculosis, cancer, cardiovascular disease, and many other illnesses for which we weren't providing an adequate response before the pandemic, and I don't think we are now.
Additional factors to consider
- Impact of lockdown and quarantine measures on family life and finances. More than 50% of the employed population in the country depends on their daily work for their livelihood. This makes the "quarantine" very difficult to sustain in the medium term, since people in these circumstances have to choose between the pandemic and their essential income. The government has established various social protection measures, including a special bonus called "Stay at Home," however, it appears insufficient given the magnitude of the problem. There have already been some attempts at social unrest stemming from this situation.
- Lack of epidemiological information. Since 2016, the Ministry of Health has not published epidemiological data, which represents a significant obstacle to the analysis and understanding of the epidemic. We do not condone the secrecy and compartmentalization with which health information is handled. I believe that epidemiological information is a public good and, as such, should be accessible to anyone who may need it.
Final comments and reflections
The environmental crisis, climate change, and this pandemic are all expressions of a civilizational crisis. It's impossible to analyze the pandemic outside the context of the immense crisis affecting the world today, and the brutal way in which capitalism has damaged the planet.
This pandemic is an expression of the imbalance in the social metabolism, and we can expect many more manifestations in the future, whether in the form of new pandemics or “natural” disasters, linked to the profound environmental degradation caused by a way of life, production, and consumption that turns nature into a commodity. The crisis of the civilizational pattern that characterizes capitalism is the primary genesis of the problems we face. The breakdown of the society-nature metabolism, generated by the capitalist accumulation model, is key to understanding the jump from a zoonotic virus, which circulates exclusively in animals, to humans.
-The inadequacy of public health and traditional epidemiology to deal with the pandemic.
There are several approaches to confronting the pandemic: the dominant, biomedical approach, focused on the disease and with primarily hospital-based responses. Its fundamental concern is the individual treatment of the illness, and it is accompanied by an epidemiology that is basically dedicated to counting cases and deaths. This epidemiology is insufficient to understand the origins of the “pandemic” and, therefore, to design proposals that can respond to it comprehensively. Another, alternative and counter-hegemonic approach, of a collective, community-based nature, focused on the population, aimed at protecting the population from contagion and detecting the disease early to break the chain of transmission. It is based on a critical epidemiology concerned with the causes, unequal distribution, and determinants of the process.
It is essential to strengthen collective health thinking and critical epidemiology in the region, and ALAMES must play a fundamental role in this.
-This pandemic has become a “test” for health systems.
A key lesson is that market-based healthcare systems, designed to address individual illnesses, are ill-equipped to tackle collective problems. The view of health as a commodity, prevalent in many countries and international organizations, must be reconsidered. It is time to forcefully advocate for our proposal of single, public, and universal systems, where the concept of health as a fundamental human and social right prevails.
-What comes after the pandemic.
There are many warnings that point to the possibility that the pandemic will be used by the powerful corporations that control the world to create a post-pandemic situation characterized by greater control and demobilization of the population. It is likely that they will try to sell us/impose a "virtualized world" where human relationships are definitively subordinated to economic relations, and where social mobilizations and protests face severe limitations.
-The class character of the pandemic.
It's often said that the pandemic is universal and affects us all equally, which is why it has received so much media attention, unlike other preventable diseases that cause millions of deaths each year, such as malaria and tuberculosis. Or like hunger, which kills countless people.
While it is true that everyone is susceptible to infection, and that the first cases were generally linked to higher-income sectors of the population, partly due to their access to air travel, and that there have been cases and deaths in high-income sectors belonging to the dominant class, it is not true that everyone has the same opportunities and resources to contract and cope with the pandemic. It is clear that social inequalities, and the "social class" to which one belongs, generate different ways of confronting and reacting to the pandemic.
A clear example of this is the impact of lockdown and quarantine measures on family life and finances. A very high percentage of the world's population lacks the means to survive isolation and quarantine, and depends on their daily work for survival. This makes "quarantine" very difficult to maintain, as people in these circumstances have to choose between illness and a vital income.
There are governments, particularly Venezuela, that have established social protection measures; however, these are insufficient given the magnitude of the problem.
This may be the moment to raise the need for a universal basic income for the entire population, regardless of their employment status.
- The big question remains whether the pandemic originated from manipulation of the virus in a laboratory, either as part of research programs or biological warfare. It's a possibility that's always present.
- Another important question is whether this pandemic could die out naturally… or on the contrary, could a second wave come? There are no answers… but we will soon know.
Final Thoughts.
Capitalism transforms nature and life into commodities and sources of profit. It has generated a multidimensional crisis of a civilizational nature, forcing us to seek a different way of producing, consuming, living, and relating to one another.
It is not possible to think only of "technocratic" solutions that do not take into account the structural nature of the crisis.
We may have a coronavirus vaccine in a few months. It's necessary, but not sufficient. In a few months, we could face new epidemics or disasters of various kinds.
It is urgent to propose a radical solution to the crisis generated by the pandemic. The system must change. Capitalism leads us to consumerism and individualism; we need a society and an economy where solidarity prevails and where we can all build a good life together.
Bibliography for those who wish to delve deeper into the national component:
| Barrios R, David. Hybrid Warfare: Origins and Political Uses. Article published in the journal Latin America in Motion No. 544: The Networks of War 14/10/2019 |
- USA. Presidential Documents Federal Register Vol. 80, No. 47 Executive Order 13692 of March 8, 2015
- Curcio, Pasqualina. Impact of the economic war against the people of Venezuela. Published in Latin America in Motion (https://www.alainet.org 8/03/2019)
- Government of Venezuela. Sanctions and blockade. Crime against humanity. Available at: http://mppre.gob.ve/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Reporte_Venezuela_Sanciones.pdf
- MPPS Venezuela. https://covid19.patria.org.ve/estadisticas-venezuela/
[1] Professor and researcher at the Arnoldo Gabaldón Institute of Higher Studies in Health (IAE) and researcher of the CLACSO Working Group on International Health and Health Sovereignty.
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