Brazilian Government Offers Medical Aid to Venezuela

06/07/2016 - 09h50

The government of interim President Michel Temer (PMDB) offered on Monday, the 6th, to send medicines and other aid to Veneuela to help the neighboring country confront a public health collapse due to the lack of medicines and medical supplies.

The offer, contained in a communique from Itamaraty, is in response to a request from the Venezuelan opposition, and therefore, has little chance of being accepted by the Chavist Government

"As a neighboring country, friend and in solidarity with the Venezuelan Nation, Brazil is ready () to collaborate in meeting the most critical needs that are affecting the population of our neighbor country" said the note, which in an unusual diplomatic twist, was signed by Chancellor José Serra.

We are ready to donate basic medicines produced by our national laboratories, delivering them to international humanitarian organizations that can deal with their distribution", affirms the communication, which speaks of the "suffering of the Venezuelan people".

Itamaraty said that it didn't have any information regarding the quantities of medicines that could be offered.

The request for the medical aid had been articulated by the Venezuelan Congressman Luis Florido, President of the Foreign Relations Commission of the National Assembly, (led by the opposition since January) while on a visit to Brazil in February, still during Dilma Rousseff's Government.

The Government of President Nicolás Maduro, the figure accused of being the most responsible for Venezuela's current grave social and economic crisis, has been rejecting international offers of food and medicine, since accepting help from abroad would be equivalent to admitting the failure of the Chavist economic model.

Translated by LLOYD HARDER

Read the article in the original language