Archbishop Diego Rafael Padron Sanchez The head of the Venezuelan Bishops’ Conference has issued a plea to his government to open humanitarian channels to allow the Church’s aid agency Caritas to distribute desperately needed medicines and basic goods.
Addressing a gathering of his fellow prelates in Caracas, Archbishop Diego Rafael Padrón Sánchez said the ongoing economic crisis in the nation was having a devastating effect on ordinary citizens, where the national currency is now virtually worthless.
Cataloguing the suffering in the country, Archbishop Padrón Sánchez said: “Almost 29,000 violent deaths; hunger and malnutrition; lack of medicine and the resurgence of epidemics; over 120 political prisoners unjustly and illegally detained; rampant corruption; the systematic attack against private businesses and the independent media; the anti-constitutional attempt to ignore directives issued by the National Assembly…never in the history of the nation had a Government caused so much suffering to its people due to its actions and omissions.”
Making his plea for the acceptance of immediate aid via Church sources, the archbishop warned that over 10% of Venezuela’s three million children under the age of five will suffer malnutrition in 2017 if the government does not alter its approach to the crisis.