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'It's a pain you will never overcome': crisis in Venezuela as babies die of malnutrition
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2020/feb/12/venezuela-crisis-babies-die-malnutrition-depression-deprivation-infant-mortality----------------
Infant mortality rates had been falling almost continuously in Venezuela since the 1940s – and almost halved in the 12 years after Hugo Chávez took power in 1999.
But as the oil-rich South American country enters the seventh year of a crushing depression critics blame on industrial-scale corruption, incompetence and mismanagement, doctors are seeing that trend reversed as deprivation-related cases of severe malnutrition condemn babies like Yaretzi to an early grave.
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Venezuela’s government has not published such figures since 2017, when an explosive health ministry bulletin revealed that 11,466 children had died the previous year – a 30% jump in infant mortality – before being purged from the internet.
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In an interview with the BBC last year, the president, Nicolás Maduro, denied a crisis, boasting Venezuela enjoyed “the highest levels of nutrients and access to food”.
