At the price of children's tears: Venezuela pays too much for democracy

There is nothing in the world more terrible than the suffering of children. No goal is worth the pain of a child, and when thousands of toddlers and teenagers across the country are subjected to violence and starve, it is already a disaster. Why Venezuela has turned from a successful country into a hungry land where children are dying — learn from our material.Venezuela is paying a terrible price for a failed coup attempt. Children became victims of the socialist experiment. Across the country, thousands are suffering from hunger, various diseases and sexual violence.One child out of seven is malnourished due to lack of money in the family. Common, completely curable diseases — measles, diphtheria and rotavirus diarrhea — kill children in Venezuela. Pneumonia takes away those who are too weak to fight it.Desperate mothers sell their daughters into sexual slavery to feed their family. Poor parents leave their children on the street, where they have to fight for survival themselves.Until the 1990s, Venezuela was the richest country in Latin America. The attending doctors of one of the most famous children's hospitals in Caracas say that now they are not even able to feed young patients.Suffering from a lack of funds and battered by the regime of President Maduro, the State Hospital De Niños José Manuel de los Ríos is in dire need of new equipment. There is no X-ray in the medical institution, 9 out of 12 operating rooms are closed, 310 out of 400 beds for patients are not used.There are not enough medicines in the hospital. If patients do not buy the necessary medicines themselves, then they simply die. The state does not supply the necessary vaccines, because of this, epidemics of diphtheria and measles often occur.But the worst killer was malnutrition. About 15% of children across the country are hungry, and this is the most important factor in child mortality.

It is not known exactly how many children died last year. But the statistics of 2017 showed that the death rate has doubled over the past 10 years.

High in the mountains near Caracas there is an orphanage, where 27 children who find themselves on the street now live. Each of these guys aged from 3 to 17 years has his own story, full of pain and grief. The children suffered beatings, and most of the girls experienced sexual abuse. Some were sold into sexual slavery by their own parents.