Alicie Marye Souza posted on social media that she had been sent away of public maternity hospital Nossa Senhora de Nazareth in Boa Vista (RR), to open a spot for a Venezuelan women. Her post went viral.
There has been in fact an increase of care for Venezuelan woman in the hospital, caused by the flood of Venezuelan immigrants in Roraima. 60,000 people crossed the border in the last two years. Roraima is one of Brazil's least populated states, with only 520,000 people total.
In 2017, 566 Venezuelan women gave birth in Roraima, while from January until June of this year alone there were 571 births. In the same period, 4,240 Brazilian women gave birth in the state.
Going back to Alicie Souza's case, there was no need to keep her in the hospital, according to Moema Farias, director of technical support at the facility, because she was still 38 weeks pregnant. But because Souza complained, the staff ended up inducing labor.
This is how the antivenezuelan sentiment in Roraima grows, fed by rumors on social media.
The riot in Paracaima, on Saturday (18), was motivated by videos of shopkeeper Raimundo Nonato being battered and stabbed during a mugging. Nonato suffered head trauma and according to the videos, he was in a coma, between life and death.
Nonato was admitted in Paracaima's general hospital with head trauma, but his condition was stabled, and he was neither stabbed or in a coma.
"This strained situation is a perfect environment to breed rumors, who in turn spread through social media and lead to unfortunate incidents such as we saw during the weekend," said Camila Asano, program coordinator at human rights nonprofit Conectas.
Translated by NATASHA MADOV
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