Posted on 04/22/2006 9:20:27 AM PDT by kiriath_jearim
Venezuelan Hospitals Cope With Violence
Staff and agencies 21 April, 2006
By IAN JAMES, Fri Apr 21, 3:50 AM ET
CARACAS, Venezuela - Victims reach the emergency room soaked in blood and dazed — wheeled in on stretchers, carried in people‘s arms, some still walking with the last of their strength. An elderly man shot in a robbery, a young man sprayed with gunfire, a woman who took a stray bullet in the head while on her way to church.
The government says it is making progress on the problem, but a series of particularly heinous murders sparked protests earlier this month by people demanding safer streets, and more rallies are planned for Saturday. While crime has long bedeviled Venezuelans, particularly the poor, some protesters say there‘s a new element to the danger now — class tensions incited by Chavez himself.
Relatives of 89-year-old Rodolfo Dos Santos, who was breathing through an oxygen mask, said he was shot while driving to a construction site to pay his workers. He had just braked at a hilltop when a teenager approached and shouted: "Stop!"
Dos Santos‘ son accused Chavez of virtually ignoring crime while also inciting the poor: "The president is always saying it‘s OK to steal in order to eat."
Class tension has long been a part of life in the South American country, where armed robberies, carjackings and kidnappings are frequent.
Venezuela‘s murder rate ranked third in Latin America in a recent report by the Pan American Health Organization, behind Colombia and El Salvador . The ranking used 2001-2003 figures and showed Venezuela just ahead of Brazil.
"Chavez didn‘t invent the class tension; he just gave it a flag and made it a political movement," said the 28-year-old Venezuelan filmmaker. "I just hope at some point in the next few decades he is forced to control the violence, for the sake of all of us."
Angry protests broke out in Caracas earlier this month after kidnappers executed three young brothers — ages 17, 13 and 12. The protesters also cited the killings of a prominent businessman and a newspaper photographer who was shot just as he arrived at one of the protests.
The government has pledged sweeping police reforms and also put up $4.6 million for a gun buyback program that will offer people money to hand in revolvers and pistols.
Reflecting political divisions, two separate anti-crime demonstrations are planned this Saturday: one by Chavez opponents and another by students who share his view that the issue shouldn‘t be politicized.
Experts disagree on how much blame Chavez bears. Criminologist Fermin Marmol Leon, a former justice minister, says Chavez has failed to define a clear anti-crime strategy. Sociologist Luis Damiani argues Chavez is making progress through gradual reforms and programs aimed at reducing poverty.
In the meantime, nurses at Domingo Luciani Hospital sometimes have to treat the wounded on the floor due to a shortage of beds.
The elderly gun shot victim, Dos Santos, opened his eyes while his wife, Rosa Porras, stroked his silver hair. "You can‘t even go out nowadays because you‘re afraid of everything," she said.
Later, police burst in carrying a man with bullet wounds in his head and torso. His pulse had stopped. Two nurses made the sign of the cross over him, and one pulled a sheet over his head.
"The saddest thing is that people seem to be getting used to it," Dr. Carlos Rodriguez said. "No one is doing anything about it."
This can't possibly be true - that dictator Hugo Chavez is the savior of Venezuela....
Don't turn in guns to a dictator who is arming.
Well, it won't be long before they disarm the populace,
for their own safety of course.
These are the fruits of class warfare.
Doing the work Mexicans won't do.
This is his method of "saving" the country. Much like Stalin's, Mao's, Pol Pot's, etc.
Hugo grabbed power through class warfare, and now the rabble who supports him feels free to plunder and murder. I'm hoping for a military coup in Hugo's future.
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