AMERICA/VENEZUELA - 35-year-old priest dies due to the lack of medicines

Wednesday, 19 April 2017

Merida (Agenzia Fides) – On Holy Saturday, April 15, according to information sent to Fides from Merida (Venezuela), father José Luis Arismendi, 35, died due to the lack of medicines. For two days the priest waited for the medicines which were to treat a suspected meningitis, at the Universitario Hospital de Los Andes (HULA), but unfortunately did not arrive in time. Father Arismendi fell ill already on Palm Sunday, April 9, and on Wednesday was hospitalized in HULA. The priest’s family members, tried to find the antibiotics he needed in the area.
Unfortunately, the medicines Card. Baltazar Porras, Archbishop of Mérida, managed to get from Caracas, was pointless because they did not arrive in time. Father José Luis Arismendi was a priest for only two years and worked in the Diocese of Cabimas in the state of Zulia.
Public opinion in Venezuela commented that "yet another Venezuelan died due to the lack of medicine". The country continues to experience a serious situation for the lack of food and medicine. Yesterday, Human Rights Watch, in its report on the impact of the many Venezuelans who are moving towards the border with Brazil, urged Latin American countries to intervene with the government of President Maduro to resolve this deep crisis.
"Sooner or later, Brazil and other countries in the region will have to put pressure on the government of Venezuela so that they stop denying the crisis and take measures to resolve it", said the director for the Americas of Human Rights Watch, José Miguel Vivanco. (CE) (Agenzia Fides 19/04/2017)


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