On the world map of the coronavirus (developed by the American Johns-Hopkins University), Venezuela is marked with a tiny red dot. Against all expectations, the country seems to resist the pandemic better than its neighbors. The Bolivarian Republic recorded, Tuesday, April 21, 288 cases of Covid-19 and 10 deaths. Mask on the face, President Nicolas Maduro himself announced this new assessment on television, where he multiplies the appearances, more often surrounded by his generals than his Minister of Health.
"Normally I hate Maduro, but then I have to admit that he does things well", said Frankin, a nurse in the town of San Cristobal, on the border with Colombia. Doctors and scientists have recognized that the government took the necessary measures on time. Some opponents too. "With a Jair Bolsonaro at the helm of Brazil and Donald Trump in Washington, Nicolas Maduro looks like a real statesman", sighs an opposition MP.
As Venezuelan public hospitals lack everything to cope with the pandemic and state coffers are empty, the threat of a health and humanitarian tragedy continues to loom. "The government does not have the resources to help individuals and businesses survive containment," worries economist Luis Vicente Leon.
Border closures
The UN World Food Program warned in February – before the Covid-19 crisis – that more than 9 million Venezuelans were food insecure. The information service of the journal The Economist (Economist Intelligence Unit), which has drawn up an index of countries' vulnerability to the pandemic, places Venezuela at the 176e place on 195.
As early as March 15, when Venezuela had identified two cases of Covid-19, Nicolas Maduro announced the closure of the country's air and land borders. Four days later, the president decreed a strict quarantine on the whole territory. "It was well received because Venezuelans are aware that their health depends on themselves", says Pedro Peñaloza, a young lawyer convinced of the virtues of socialism.
But here as in neighboring countries, confinement is very unequally respected. The crates of food distributed by the Bolivarian government are not enough to support the poor, who have to go out to work to survive. They do it all the more easily since the risk of contagion is perceived as very low.
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