Lima, Peru, Apr 23, 2020 / 10:02 am (CNA).- As the ongoing coronavirus lockdown in Peru leaves the working poor in a vulnerable situation, one priest has been working to ensure that thousands in need have access to food.

Fr. Omar Sánchez Portillo is the secretary general of Caritas Lurín, on metro Lima’s south side.

Sánchez has distributed more than 15,000 food baskets, with the help of donors and volunteers at the Beatitudes Association, which he founded, since the nationwide quarantine was declared March 15. Peru’s Ministry of Health has confirmed 19,000 cases of coronavirus with 530 deaths.

Recently, Sánchez also received a donation of 5,000 live chickens from a poultry farm. He found himself needing to quickly process the chickens for distribution.

Sánchez turned to his fellow priests in the diocese of Lurín with an appeal on Whatsapp. To his surprise, almost 30 priests showed up to volunteer, including Bishop-elect Cristobal Mejía, who was recently named bishop of Chulucanas.

The priests and other volunteers worked all day, plucking, cleaning and preparing the birds for distribution.

“Today has been a long day,” Sánchez commented on his Facebook page. “Thank you dear priests! Thank you for your example, your work, and your joy. I feel proud to belong to a such an active, alive diocese so full of God, and to be part of a presbyterate full of holiness and enthusiasm for our priestly mission.”

In a statement to ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish language news partner, Sánchez noted that in the Diocese of Lurín, which is comprised of 55 parishes, there are many poor people who do not have access to electricity or running water.

The priest estimates about 60% of the people in the diocese live in extreme poverty. Southern Lima, where his diocese is located, contains the third and fourth most COVID-infected areas in the country.

Sánchez also pointed out that most Peruvians lack the ability to save money, which leaves vulnerable populations even more at risk during the quarantine.

“A lot of people are out of work and out on the street, a lot of them are temporary workers, many of them earn a living day-to-day,” he said.

So far, volunteers have distributed 75,000 food baskets throughout the South Lima area. However, the needs remain great.

“Every day in the parishes there are people out looking, knocking on doors, that haven’t gotten any food, or what they have gotten isn’t enough and has already run out,” he explained.

 

Lima, Peru, Apr 26, 2020 / 06:18 am (CNA).- An archbishop in Venezuela warned that desperation is growing in the country, as the national coronavirus quarantine measures have compounded a tenuous political and economic situation. He urged people in the country to resist violence and social unrest.

Extreme hunger “does not reason or know rules,” said Archbishop Ulises Gutiérrez of Ciudad Bolívar, adding that this desperate hunger “is becoming a fuel more dangerous than gasoline.”

Gutiérrez spoke with ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish language news partner, in an April 23 interview, after looting and protests broke out in seven states in Venezuela.

Protestors objected to price hikes on food and a gasoline shortage exacerbated by the ongoing quarantine that was imposed last month to halt the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the latest government report, there have been 298 cases and 10 deaths in the country due to the virus.

Even before the coronavirus pandemic, Venezuela has been marred by violence and social upheaval under the socialist administration of Nicolas Maduro, with severe shortages of food and medicine, high unemployment, power outages, and hyperinflation. Some 4.5 million Venezuelans have emigrated since 2015.

The current COVID-19 quarantine is “aggravating the situation,” the archbishop said, noting that the quarantine was implemented without accompanying measures to protect the most vulnerable.

As a result, families are suffering, and many cannot access clean water, electricity or gasoline.

The country is experiencing “a totally destroyed economy in which agricultural producers can’t get their products out because they’re not getting gasoline supplied to them, or they have to buy it on the black market for 2 or 3 dollars a liter,” he said. In some cases, crops are rotting in farmers’ fields due to lack of fuel to transport them to market.

Gutiérrez voiced concern over the hunger-fueled looting and protests throughout the country, as well as the government’s violent suppression of the protests.

“The common denominator in all these protests is hunger,” he stressed.

With equipment in short supply and many of the country’s doctors have already emigrated due to the political and economic crisis, Gutiérrez acknowledged, the pandemic poses a significant threat.

“In short, the outlook is very dark,” he said.

But despite the desperate situation, the archbishop urged people not to resort to looting and violence.

“[S]atisfying hunger short term [by committing robbery] only leads to the destruction of regular commerce,” he said.

“The situation we’re going through is very tough, difficult, and fragile,” Gutiérrez said, likening the conditions to a pressure cooker, “which could lead us to unprecedented explosive social unrest, which nobody wants, and which would bring with it more hunger and greater suffering for the people.”

Still, the archbishop said he has reason for hope: “Our trust is in God and his providence keeps us going, encouraging and accompanying our people, assisting them with our Caritas social programs.”

“We have community soup kitchens, a medicine bank, outpatient medical care, programs for infant nutrition and nursing mothers, etc., which although it’s impossible to reach everyone, is a sign of God’s love through the Church,” he said.

CNA Staff, Apr 29, 2020 / 04:30 pm (CNA).- Venezuela’s prolonged social, political and economic crisis has only been compounded by the coronavirus pandemic, the archbishop emeritus of Caracas, Cardinal Jorge Urosa Savino, charged Tuesday.

Even before the coronavirus pandemic, Venezuela has been marred by violence and social upheaval under the socialist administration of Nicolas Maduro, with severe shortages of food and medicine, high unemployment, power outages, and hyperinflation. Some 4.5 million Venezuelans have emigrated since 2015.

In response to the threat of the virus, the government imposed a nationwide stay at home order March 17. According to government statistics, to date there have been 329 cases of COVID-19 with ten deaths. The country is ill prepared to handle the crisis, with chronic shortages of medical supplies, and many doctors have left the country.

“The national reality is terrible,” and the government has no answers, Urosa said in an April 28 statement to ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner.

While the cardinal acknowledged the lockdown has prevented the spread of the virus, he pointed out that “the quarantine has hurt a great many people because the economic, social and logistical conditions in the country weren’t taken into account,” including “the extremely serious problem of the gasoline shortage for transport, especially for food.”

In some cases, crops are rotting in farmers’ fields due to lack of fuel to transport them to market.

Especially hard hit, the cardinal said, are “informal” workers who are paid off the books,  and who are now  “barely surviving,” and only with “the help of family members, social organizations and the Church.”

On April 25, Venezuelan vice president Delcy Rodríguez announced state intervention and oversight of several food supply companies in order to control the prices of 27 products for 180 days.

Urosa criticized the intervention, calling it “an extremely serious mistake, since it will probably result in greater shortages. Price controls are acceptable, but intervening in efficient businesses is not. The government can’t even manage to supply gasoline.” “The state-run petroleum industry has collapsed, and now Venezuelans’ food is in danger!” 

 “The current government doesn’t have any answers for such elementary things such as the extremely serious problem of the gasoline shortage” and runaway inflation. “In the last 40 days, the dollar has doubled in value, which is undoubtedly the fundamental cause of the spike in prices,” the cardinal said.

Urosa decried political persecution, which “has gotten worse since March because amid the quarantine, the government has ramped up the repression. During these weeks the government has jailed, even without due process, many political activists, especially from the inner circle of Juan Guaidó, president of the National Assembly and leader of the Venezuelan opposition.”

Guaidó declared himself the nation's interim leader Jan. 23 last year following Maduro’s inauguration for a second term. Maduro won a May 2018 presidential election, which was boycotted by the opposition and has been rejected by much of the international community. The United States was swift to recognize Guaidó as interim president, eventually followed by over 60 countries. Both the National Assembly and the Venezuelan bishops' conference declared Maduro's reelection to be invalid.

With the military firmly in support of Maduro, however, opposition protests calling for his resignation have failed to oust the leader.

On March 30, Guaidó charged that the Maduro regime had unleashed a new wave of harassment against his close collaborators. Andrea Bianchi, the wife of close associate Rafael Rico, was kidnapped, beaten and then left naked on a highway. Two others, Rómulo García and Víctor Silio were also picked up and later charged with possession of marijuana and a handgun.

The NGO Venezuelan Program for Education-Action in Human Rights reported that during the state of emergency, 34 people have been arbitrarily arrested and attacks against politicians, journalists and healthcare workers have increased.

“The bishops have always strongly criticized the political repression by the government and once again I call for the release of all political prisoners. They are even in greater physical danger because of the pandemic situation we’re going through,” Urosa stressed.

On March 26, “the Trump administration unsealed sweeping indictments against Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and members of his inner circle on narcoterrorism charges, a dramatic escalation in the U.S. campaign to force the authoritarian socialist from power,” even offering “a $15 million reward for information leading to his capture or conviction,” the Washington Post reported.

In response, the Maduro regime activated a plan against the Venezuelan opposition called “Operation Bolivarian Fury.”

The archbishop emeritus denounced these recent “threats of violence by the government against Venezuelans. Maduro himself has spoken of a supposed ‘Bolivarian fury’ as a threat against members of the Venezuelan opposition in case of international problems. That’s illegal, unconstitutional and unacceptable from every point of view. That threat of violence is intolerable.” 

The cardinal said the government has used the quarantine simply as an opportunity to strengthen its social and political control.

On April 25, the Maduro regime placed shipping containers on the Caracas-La Guaira highway to prevent demonstrators from other cities who have been protesting the shortages of food, water and electricity in other cities from getting to the capital.

“Why restrict the right to free transit?” the cardinal asked.

The Maduro regime also blocked the highway in February 2019 to prevent humanitarian aid from entering the country from Colombia.

Guaidó charged April 24 on Twitter that “a dictatorship of corrupt and incapable people has brought us to a crisis where farmers are losing their crops while families are starving to death in the barrios. They turned the richest country in the region into a hell. They’ll leave here, the sacrifice has been enough already.”

As signs of hope, Urosa pointed to ongoing work of Caritas Venezuela and the creative ways the clergy has reached out to the faithful through social media. “Our message is one of encouragement, trust in God, solidarity and hope in this dark hour,” he said.

 Catholics “have an unshakeable faith in God who is love,” who had died and risen and “has shown us the merciful face of God.” “We’ll come out of this,” the archbishop said, “the suffering we are experiencing has united us closer to God and opens to us the gates of heaven.”

The archbishop encouraged Venezuelans to always stand in solidarity with each other and “to be the face of God to those in need. God is love and is with us. Let us join ourselves to him and the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of Mercy in this painful hour.”

 

A version of this story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA's Spanish-language news partner. It has been adapted by CNA.

Lima, Peru, May 7, 2020 / 06:00 am (CNA).- Two priests in a rural area of Peru aimed to fight the coronavirus pandemic by finding a way to supply oxygen tanks, much needed for medical treatment, to their region.

The recent death of two doctors from coronavirus in Iquitos, Peru, underscored the hard-hit region’s shortage of medical equipment and medications. Both doctors died because of the lack of oxygen to treat them.

The Medical Corps of Hospital III of Iquitos and the Medical College of Peru said in a joint statement last month that there is a shortage of medications in the Loreto region, and its capital Iquitos is "one of the cities hardest hit by the infection."

“We don’t have medications” to treat coronavirus patients and “not enough oxygen tanks, pressure gauges and refilled tanks,” they reported.

One doctor was in intensive care at Loreto Regional Hospital and the other at a hospital under the country’s universal health insurance program, both in Iquitos, the Medical College of Peru said on social media.

Fr. Raymond Portelli, a parish pastor in Iquitos, along with the diocesan administrator of the Apostolic Vicariate of Iquitos, Fr. Miguel Fuertes, decided to start a fundraising campaign to acquire an oxygen plant for the city.

Portelli himself is a doctor caring for COVID-19 patients.

To purchase the machinery, they needed to raise about $118,000.

The city does have an oxygen plant, but it only produces between 100 and 160 tanks a day. The dean of the Medical College of Peru, Miguel Palacios, told local media that quantity is not enough and that current production would need to be tripled.

The priests’ campaign was launched the morning of May 3 on social media, and in less than a day, they had raised about $300,000.

Both priests thanked contributors, and said that thanks to the amount collected, a “high capacity” plant could be purchased for Iquitos.

Portelli added that Fuentes is currently in Lima coordinating with a specialist for the acquisition of the plant.

“Pray a lot that this work can be accomplished quickly. May God bless all who have contributed. We hope to continue to cover all the expenses,” he added.

  This story was first published by CNA's Spanish-language news partner, ACI Prensa. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.



 

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