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WORLD NEWSSaturday 19 March 2016
In Zika fight, Brazil bogged down by neglect, recession Cuban who wrote
J. GOODMAN
M. SAVARESE
Associated Press
CAMPINA GRANDE, Brazil
(AP) — Last May, as the first
cases of Zika were being
detected in Brazil, cities at
the front lines of the epi-
demic stopped receiving
government shipments of
insecticide to kill mosqui-
toes.
In Campina Grande, a city
of 400,000, the shortages
continued even after Presi-
dent Dilma Rousseff de-
clared the mosquito-borne
virus a national health
emergency on Nov. 11.
The lack of larvicide is one
of a string of public health
failings crippling Brazil’s
ability to manage the Zika
outbreak and the surge in
rare birth defects believed
linked to it. A weeklong tour
by The Associated Press of
the impoverished northeast
where the epidemic is most
severe found public hospi-
tals starved for funding and
local officials scrambling to
care for the stricken babies.
“In 19 years of working in
environmental control I’ve
never seen so much disor-
ganization,” said Rossan-
dra Oliveira, who manages
mosquito control in Campi-
na Grande.
The immediate culprit is
Brazil’s deepest recession
since the 1930s. But experts
say the collective failure
to tackle corruption and
crushing inequality is also to
blame.
If addressing such long-
standing scourges weren’t
a steep enough challenge,
Rousseff must now do so
while fighting for political
Venezuelan leader flies to Cuba ahead of Obama
M. WEISSENSTEIN
Associated Press
HAVANA (AP) — Venezuela
President Nicolas Maduro
flew to Cuba on Friday for a
day of high-level meetings
and ceremonies that ap-
peared designed to send a
message of socialist solidar-
ity two days before Barack
Obama becomes the first
U.S. president to visit the is- the Order of Jose Marti, one
land in nearly 90 years.
Maduro was accompanied
by his ministers of foreign
affairs, agriculture, health,
petroleum and mining and
survival. This week, thou-
sands of Brazilians poured
into the streets to demand
she resign over a widening
corruption scandal now
ensnaring her mentor, for-
mer President Luiz Inacio
Lula da Silva.
Health Minister Marcelo
A municipal health worker sprays insecticide to kill Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, which spreads the
Zika virus, in Campina Grande, Brazil.
Castro was at a loss to ex-
plain what happened.
“If there was this shortage
— which I cannot attest to
if there was or not — it was
for a short time, and was an
isolated incident that does
not affect the overall situa-
tion,” Castro said.
Castro said shipments have
been normalized since he
took office last October.
“We’ve made a huge ef-
fort to ensure that there’s
no lack of larvicide in any
part of Brazil,” he said in an liferate in the northeast due known as microcephaly.
communications. Commu-
nications Minister Luis Jose
Marcano told Venezuelan
state television that the
two governments would
agree on new cooperation
in pharmaceutical produc-
tion, urban agriculture, in-
dustrial development and
tourism. Later in the day,
Maduro was set to receive
of Cuba’s highest honors.
Venezuela has been send-
ing hundreds of millions of
dollars in oil to Cuba each
year in exchange for Cuba
interview.
But documents obtained
by the AP from prosecutors
indicate that the shortages
were so severe supplies
had to be rationed nation-
wide between August and
October.
In a technical note sent in
September, Pernambuco
state officials even dis-
cussed using substitutes like much stronger than this
household bleach or small
fish to eat mosquito larvae.
Castro said that the most
effective way to fight mos-
quitoes is eliminating the
breeding sites lurking inside buco and Paraiba. Since
homes.
But virologists say it’s im-
portant to leverage all
weapons, including larvi-
cide, which is dropped into
makeshift cisterns that pro-
sending teams of doctors
and other state workers to
bolster Venezuelan gov-
ernment efforts. Some of
that aid has been cut back
as Venezuela struggles with
a deep economic crisis.
Venezuela’s relations with
the U.S. remain tense even
as Cuba works with the
Obama administration to
normalize ties.
Cuba has made repeated
public statements about
maintaining its close ties
with Venezuela even as
President Raul Castro’s
Obama is thrilled
to a lack of reliable running to get a response
water.
Instead of looking at past A. RODRIGUEZ
failures, Rousseff has been Associated Press
appealing to national LA HABANA (AP) — A
pride. The T-shirt she wore 76-year-old Cuban wom-
to kick off a nationwide an who invited President
cleanup campaign read, Barack Obama to her Ha-
“A mosquito is not stronger vana home received a re-
sponse from the U.S. leader
Thursday in one of the first
letters to travel directly to
Cuba in decades.
(AP Photo/Felipe Dana) Ileana Yarza wrote to
Obama on Feb. 18, saying
than an entire country.” “there are not many Cu-
“The 204 million of us are bans so eager as I to meet
you in person” and asked
mosquito,” she said Friday him to have a strong cup
in a speech in Bahia state, of Cuban coffee with her
which has also been bat- sometime. Obama wrote
tered by the virus. back that “hopefully, I will
Ground zero is Pernam- have time to enjoy a cup
of Cuban coffee” when he
Zika was detected in Brazil, visits Havana Sunday.
the two states have ac- His letter flew to Cuba
counted for 40 percent of Wednesday on the first di-
the 6,480 reported cases of rect mail flight since shortly
babies born with shrunken after the 1959 Cuban revo-
heads, a rare condition lution and arrived Thursday
afternoon. “I’m pleasantly
surprised,” Yarza told The
Associated Press. The White
House published the letter
Thursday but Yarza said she
was waiting to open it until
relatives arrived to watch.
Yarza, a retired econo-
mist, speaks and writes
fluent English thanks to a
private school education
in American-run schools
before Cuba’s 1959 so-
cialist revolution. She said
she was “charmed” by
Obama’s “gentlemanli-
ness” and while she didn’t
know if she would see the
president during his time
in Cuba, she said: “If I had
the opportunity to see him
I would say ‘I admire you,
I respect you, and I think
you’ve done something
very important,” by mov-
government moves closer ing toward normalizing re-
to the United States. lations with Cuba.
“We have big differences “I’d love to show him and
with the United States be- his wife my house,” she
cause of our emphatic, un- said.
limited, complete solidarity U.S. officials have said in re-
with the Bolivarian Repub- cent days that direct mail
lic of Venezuela and the ended shortly after the
military-civilian union of its Cuban revolution. Cuban
people,” Cuban Foreign state press say it was cut af-
Minister Bruno Rodriguez ter a letter bomb was sent
told reporters Thursday af- from New York to Cuba in
ternoon in a press confer- 1968. William LeoGrande,
ence previewing Obama’s an American University ex-
trip to Cuba. pert on U.S.-Cuba relations,
Maduro’s visit was an- said he believed the Cu-
nounced shortly afterward. ban version was correct.