Page 9 - AHATA

A6 WORLD NEWS
Monday 16 SepteMber 2024
Army to guard a hospital in Italy after a spate of attacks on

medical staff across the country

By GIADA ZAMPANO assault at the Policlinico waiting lists are the main
Associated Press hospital in the southern city reasons behind patients’
ROME (AP) — Italy’s army of Foggia in early Septem- frustration with health work-
will guard medical staff at ber. A group of about 50 ers.
a hospital in the southern relatives and friends of a According to Italy’s largest
Calabria region starting 23-year-old woman — who union for doctors, nearly
Monday, after a string of died during emergency half of emergency medi-
violent attacks on doctors surgery — turned their grief cine positions remained
and nurses by enraged pa- and rage into violence, at- unfilled as of 2022. Doctors
tients and relatives across tacking the hospital staff. lament that Italy’s legisla-
Italy, local media reported. tion has kept wages low,
Prefect Paolo Giovanni Video footage, widely cir- leading to overworked and
Grieco approved a plan to culated on social media, burned out staff at hospi-
reinforce the surveillance showed doctors and nurses tals.
services already operated barricading in a room to These problems have been
by soldiers on sensitive tar- escape the attack. Some Carabinieri (Italian paramilitary police) officers outside the San further aggravated by
gets in the Calabrian town of them were punched Giovanni Evangelista Hospital in Tivoli, Italy, on Dec. 9, 2023. the COVID-19 pandemic,
of Vibo Valentia, including and injured. The director of Associated Press which has pushed many
the hospital, the reports the hospital threatened to “We have never seen such ger,” he said. health workers to leave
said. close its emergency room levels of aggression in the The Italian Federation of Italy in search of better op-
Recent attacks on health after denouncing three past decade,” said Anto- Medical-Scientific Societies portunities abroad.
care workers have been similar attacks in less than a nio De Palma, president of has also proposed more se- In 2023, Italy was short of
particularly frequent in week. the Nursing Up union, stress- vere measures for offend- about 30,000 doctors, and
southern Italy, prompting With over 16,000 reported ing the urgent need for ac- ers, such as suspending ac- between 2010 and 2020,
the doctors’ national guild cases of physical and ver- tion. cess to free medical care the country saw the closure
to request that the army be bal assaults nationwide in “We are now at a point for three years for anyone of 111 hospitals and 113
deployed to ensure medi- 2023 alone, Italian doctors where considering military who assaults healthcare emergency rooms, data
cal staff safety. and nurses have called for protection in hospitals is no workers or damages hospi- from a specialized forum
The turning point was an drastic measures. longer a far-fetched idea. tal facilities. showed.q
We cannot wait any lon- Understaffing and long

Venezuela says it arrested 6 foreigners allegedly involved in a plot

to kill President Maduro

By MANUEL RUEDA election, and carrying out
Associated Press human rights abuses.
BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) Earlier this week, Spain’s
— Three Americans, two parliament recognized op-
Spaniards and a Czech citi- position candidate Edmun-
zen were arrested Saturday do Gonzalez as the winner
after Venezuelan officials of the election, angering
accused them of com- Maduro allies who called
ing to the South American on the Venezuelan govern-
country to assassinate Pres- ment to suspend commer-
ident Nicolas Maduro. cial and diplomatic rela-
The arrests were an- tions with Spain.
nounced on state televi-
sion by Diosdado Cabello, Tensions between Ven-
the nation’s powerful inte- ezuela’s government and
rior minister. Cabello said the U.S. have increased as
the foreign citizens were well following the election,
part of a CIA-led plot to whose result sparked pro-
overthrow the Venezuelan tests within Venezuela in
government and kill several which hundreds of opposi-
members of its leadership. tion activists were arrested.
In the television program, Socialist Party President Diosdado Cabello gives his weekly press conference, in Catia La Mar, La Venezuela’s Electoral
Cabello showed images of Guaira, Venezuela, Aug. 19, 2019. Council, which is closely
rifles that he said were con- Associated Press aligned with the Maduro
fiscated from some of the administration, said Mad-
plotters of the alleged plan. Iraq and Colombia. Spain’s firmed reports of two addi- la,” the statement said. uro won the election with
The arrest of the American embassy in Venezuela did tional U.S. citizens detained The announcement of the 52% of the vote, but did not
citizens included a mem- not reply to a request for in Venezuela.” arrests comes just two days provide a detailed break-
ber of the Navy, who Ca- comment on the arrests of “Any claims of U.S. involve- after the U.S. Treasury im- down of the results.
bello identified as Wilbert its citizens. ment in a plot to overthrow posed sanctions on 16 al- Opposition activists, how-
Joseph Castañeda Go- The U.S. State Department Maduro are categorically lies of Maduro who were ever, surprised the govern-
mez. Cabello said that Go- late Saturday confirmed false. The United States accused by the U.S. gov- ment by collecting tally
mez was a navy seal who the detention of a U.S. continues to support a ernment of obstructing vot- sheets from 80% of the na-
had served in Afghanistan, military member and said democratic solution to the ing during the disputed July tion’s voting machines.q
it was aware of “uncon- political crisis in Venezue- 28 Venezuelan presidential