Page 12 - ARUBA TODAY

A12 WORLD NEWS
Thursday 5 March 2020
Venezuela's president urges all

women to have 6 children

By JORGE RUEDA
Associated Press
CARACAS, Venezuela
(AP) — President Nicolás
Maduro wants Venezuelan
women to have many chil-
dren as a way to boost the
country, which has seen
In this April 9, 2018 file photo, flowers lay on symbolic caskets millions of people flee in
that represent victims of Colombia's civil conflict at Bolivar recent years to escape its
square in Bogota, Colombia. economic crisis.
Associated Press Maduro made the exhor-
Red Cross: 'Life without tation during a televised
event Tuesday evening for
a government program
fear is overdue in promoting various birth In this Feb. 14, 2020 file photo, Venezuelan President Nicolas
methods.
Colombia' "God bless you for giving Maduro gives a press conference at Miraflores presidential pal-
ace in Caracas, Venezuela. Maduro said on Tuesday, March 4,
the country six little boys
2020.
and girls," the socialist presi- Associated Press
Associated Press tions in several parts of the dent told a woman at the
BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) country. event. "To give birth, then, deep political divisions, led We had them when we
— The head of the Inter- The ICRC report document- to give birth, all women to more than 4.5 million Ven- thought we were better off,
national Committee of ed 987 violations of inter- have six children, all. Let ezuelans to emigrate since but in the last year we've
the Red Cross in Colombia national humanitarian law the homeland grow!" 2015, according to the been buying less and less
warned Wednesday that including threats, killings, The comments drew criti- United Nations. food," she said.
ongoing human rights vio- acts of sexual violence and cism from human rights ac- The U.N. World Food Pro- De Machado and others
lations and the forced dis- recruitment of minors into il- tivists and others who noted gram also recently said that also questioned how wom-
placement of thousands legal armed organizations. Venezuelans already are 9.3 million people — nearly en could be expected to
from their homes because There were also 93 new dis- struggling to provide food, one-third of Venezuela's increase births amid the
of violence mean many still appearances. clothes and health care for population — are unable deterioration in the coun-
live in fear. Harnisch noted that armed their families. to meet their basic dietary try's health care, both for
The humanitarian organi- groups in Colombia today "It is irresponsible, on the needs. adults and children.
zation recorded 352 victims are more fragmented, part of a president of the "You have to be very cyni- A report by Humans Rights
of explosive devices and making it difficult to pursue Republic, to encourage cal to ask that we have six Watch in collaboration
anti-personnel mines as dialogue and promote hu- women to have six children children," said Magdalena with the Johns Hopkins
well as the displacement of manitarian initiatives. simply to make a home- de Machado, a housewife Bloomberg School of Pub-
more than 25,000 people "The scenario we are see- land, when there is a home- picking through scraggly lic Health concluded last
last year, suggesting the ing today is more compli- land that does not guar- vegetables at a street mar- year that the health sys-
armed conflict is deepen- cated than last year," he antee children their lives," ket in the center of Cara- tem in Venezuela has "to-
ing in vulnerable areas. said. said Oscar Misle, founder cas for making soup for her tally collapsed." Among
"Civilians are still suffering The report comes on the of CECODAP, a group that sons, ages 2 and 4. other problems, it cited ris-
the worst consequences heels of a similarly criti- defends the rights of young "Only two days a week ing levels of maternal and
of armed conflict and vio- cal United Nations report people. we can serve some meat child mortality as well as
lence," Christoph Harnisch, released last week that The country's economic and chicken. For years we the spread of vaccine-pre-
head of the ICRC's del- called on Colombia's gov- collapse, coupled with its were late having children. ventable diseases.q
egation in Colombia, said ernment to address the
in presenting the findings. structural causes fueling vi- Mexico investigates tainted
"Life without fear is overdue olence, particularly in rural
in Colombia." areas where the state has
Colombia's government had little presence. drugs that have killed 2
signed an historic peace President Iván Duque,
accord with leftist guerril- a conservative who has
las from the Revolutionary been critical of the peace Associated Press federal health officials to sponsible.
Armed Forces of Colom- accord, has defended his MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexi- address the situation and More than 60 dialysis pa-
bia in 2016, ending Latin government's implemen- can federal officials say he called the deaths "very tients at the Pemex Region-
America's longest-running tation of the agreement, they are investigating a unfortunate." al Hospital last week re-
conflict, but the nation is pointing to investments in tainted batch of an anti- The Petroleos Mexicanos ceived the heparin sodium
still struggling to combat building roads and bridges clotting medication given hospital in Villahermosa is medication that later test-
smaller rebel groups and in long neglected parts of to dialysis patients at a monitoring 42 patients who ed positive for the bacteria
drug trafficking organiza- the country.q hospital run by the state- received the tainted medi- Klebsiella spp, according
owned oil company that cation, including four who to Pemex.
has so far resulted in two remain in intensive care, Pemex operates its own
deaths. according to a statement healthcare system, includ-
President Andrés Manuel this week from Pemex. The ing hospitals, for employ-
López Obrador, who is from company said federal in- ees, retirees and their fami-
Tabasco state where the vestigations had been lies. The gulf coast state of
hospital is located, said opened into both deaths Tabasco is one of its prima-
Wednesday he would ask to determine who was re- ry centers of operations.q