Church denounces that only governing party members are being vaccinated in Venezuela

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Venezuelan Roman Catholic Church authorities yesterday denounced that the Nicolás Maduro regime is vaccinating only people who can demonstrate that they belong to the governing United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV). The warning came from Bishop Mario Moronta, current vice-president of the Episcopal Conference.

Head of the San Cristobal Diocese, Moronta said that the vaccination campaign “is not a political or partisan problem, although unfortunately that is what the groups involved in the political debate have turned it into.”

“We are experiencing a surge in Covid-19 cases,” Moranta told the Vatican’s news website. “Many of the sick are being treated as outpatients in their homes, mainly in the states of Zulia and Yaracuy, as well as in some parts of the Capital Region. The number of infected people is so high that there is a bed crisis in hospitals, which means that it is not easy to find places to be treated in public hospitals. Nor is it affordable to go to private clinics since, due to the devaluation of the national currency, costs are very onerous or excessively expensive,” he stated.

According to Moronta, the situation is critical in a large part of the country. “We are feeling and suffering with Covid-19, the reflection of a crisis that has been going on for many years with the deterioration of the health system,” said the bishop. Furthermore, he challenged the vaccination system and said that the people are skeptical of the figures reported by the regime.

“Indeed, last May 23 the president announced that he had received 1,300,000 vaccines from China and that a vaccination plan would start in the coming days. The problem is that we do not believe anyone because it is deception after deception. And at this moment the vaccination plan is far below the required levels,” he said.

“One of the problems we are facing is that in several regions doctors and health personnel were going to be vaccinated but this has not materialized: only those who have a political affiliation to the ruling party group are being vaccinated, alongside people who perhaps do not require it as urgently as other more vulnerable groups, such as doctors, nurses, firemen, health operators and the elderly,” cautioned Moronta.

The San Cristobal bishop also said that Venezuela, under Maduro’s leadership, is “far below the international average” and that “we would be in the last or next-to-last place in the list of countries with low vaccination percentage.” “The Episcopal Conference and the Bishops are calling for mass vaccination and we remind that this is not a political or partisan problem, although unfortunately that is what the groups involved in the political debate have turned it into,” he stressed.

Recently, images and videos showed lines of Venezuelans, trying to be vaccinated, who were required to show their PSUV membership card in order to be administered the shot against the coronavirus. Those without it were excluded from vaccination.

“Both the Church, as well as other religious and social organizations have offered their services to cooperate in these vaccination campaigns, but so far, sadly, all we have are just announcements. In short, 1,300,000 vaccines, wherever they come from, do not even cover one fifth of what is required in the country,” Moronta emphasized.

“We in the Episcopal Conference are in contact with the best group of doctors in Venezuela who are aware of this situation. They say that if we wanted to achieve a high percentage of the population (approximately 80%) to be vaccinated by the end of the year, 14 million vaccines would be needed at this moment, which would imply two doses to be administered per person,” concluded the Bishop.

Neither women nor children… Chavistas first

This weekend the much promoted regime’s vaccination plan against the coronavirus was launched in Venezuela. However, priority was not given to people at risk, nor to all the elderly. As acknowledged by the Chavista dictatorship itself, the priority at this time is for all those who have the “carnet de la patria” (national identity card).

“We are attending as a priority the people who received the message through the “carnet de la patria”. We are not saying that we will not attend to those who didn’t receive the message, we will also attend to them. That is why we are going to draw up a list of these people… You are going to organize yourselves, we are going to register that you are on the party’s list,” explained an official outside the Alba Caracas hotel, one of the vaccination centers in the Venezuelan capital.

Dozens of Venezuelans reached the hotel at around 5 AM, and after several hours they were still waiting for their turn, while those with the “carnet de la patria” were vaccinated without having to wait in long lines.

Source: Infobae