{"id":2523,"date":"2018-11-18T19:09:48","date_gmt":"2018-11-18T19:09:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/?p=2523"},"modified":"2018-11-18T19:09:48","modified_gmt":"2018-11-18T19:09:48","slug":"us-navy-hospital-ship-stokes-tensions-by-giving-venezuelan-refugees-free-care","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/2018\/11\/18\/us-navy-hospital-ship-stokes-tensions-by-giving-venezuelan-refugees-free-care\/","title":{"rendered":"US navy hospital ship stokes tensions by giving Venezuelan refugees free care"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A US navy hospital ship moored off Colombia has started giving free medical care to Venezuelan refugees, in a move likely to rile officials in Caracas who deny the existence of a humanitarian crisis in their own country \u2013 and have long been suspicious of the close relationship between\u00a0Colombia\u00a0and the US.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"element element-rich-link element--thumbnail element-rich-link--upgraded\">\n<div class=\"rich-link tone-feature--item rich-link--pillar-news\">\n<div class=\"rich-link__container\">\n<div class=\"rich-link__image-container u-responsive-ratio\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p>As well as treating Colombians, US medical teams aboard the USNS Comfort will attend to Venezuelan refugees, particularly at the ship\u2019s next stop in Riohacha, a city near the border between the two countries.<\/p>\n<p>Some\u00a03 million Venezuelans\u00a0have fled political turmoil and economic hardship at home, including 1 million who have taken shelter in Colombia, which has struggled to deal with the exodus.<\/p>\n<p>Last week, authorities in the the country\u2019s capital Bogot\u00e1 opened the first refugee camp to house nearly 500 Venezuelans.<\/p>\n<div id=\"dfp-ad--inline1\" class=\"js-ad-slot ad-slot ad-slot--inline ad-slot--inline1 ad-slot--rendered\">\n<div id=\"google_ads_iframe_\/59666047\/theguardian.com\/us-news\/article\/ng_7__container__\" class=\"ad-slot__content\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Venezuela has been\u00a0seized by a worsening health crisis\u00a0amid a dire shortage of drugs, vaccines and sanitary products and outbreaks of infectious diseases.<\/p>\n<p>Last year\u00a0authorities recorded 406,000 cases of malaria \u2013 a disease which Venezuela had come close to eradicating in the 1980s \u2013 an increase of\u00a069% from 2016. Measles is also on the rise, and both diseases have spread across the border, worrying Colombian health officials.<\/p>\n<p>The USNS Comfort, which is on a three-month mission that has already taken in Ecuador and Peru and will end next month in Honduras, arrived at Colombia\u2019s north-western port city Turbo on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>Patients in Turbo and Riohacha, where the ship will dock next week, will receive medical assistance from the crew of more than 900 doctors, nurses, military technicians and volunteers, with installations aboard the 272-metre-long vessel as well as on shore.<\/p>\n<p>The ship is equipped with a dental suite, four x-ray machines and an optometric lab, and carries 5,000 blood packs \u2013 a marked improvement on the rudimentary hospitals in the two cities. Two helicopters will ferry patients between land and the ship.<\/p>\n<p>The mission has been billed as a reflection of the \u201cenduring promise of friendship, partnership and solidarity with the Americas\u201d, according to a statement put out by US Southern Command.<\/p>\n<p>But it has stoked tensions in the region, with China \u2013 one of Venezuela\u2019s few allies \u2013 hastily dispatching its own hospital ship to\u00a0Venezuela\u00a0in September ahead of the US mission.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"element element-rich-link element--thumbnail element-rich-link--upgraded\">\n<div class=\"rich-link tone-feature--item rich-link--pillar-news\">\n<div class=\"rich-link__container\">\n<div class=\"rich-link__read-more\">\n<div class=\"rich-link__arrow\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p>\u201cThis is how you undertake diplomacy in the world,\u201d Venezuelan defense minister Vladimir Padrino said at the time. \u201cWith concrete actions of co-operation and not stoking the false voices of those who beat the drum of war.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Tensions between Washington and Caracas have been ratcheted up recently, with US national security adviser John Bolton\u00a0labelling Venezuela as part of a \u201ctroika of tyranny\u201d\u00a0alongside Nicaragua and Cuba.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s pretty brilliant PR, isn\u2019t it?\u201d Adam Isacson, a security analyst at the Washington Office on Latin America, a think tank, said in response to the deployment. \u201cWe could just as easily, at similar cost, send a huge contingent of civilian doctors, working on land where the people are, to help tend to the Venezuelan population. But sending a military ship \u2013 even though it\u2019s white with a big red cross on it \u2013 sends more of a message about projecting US power.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>While US officials describe an enduring alliance with Colombia, Donald Trump has twice snubbed the Andean nation by cancelling planned visits.<\/p>\n<p>Source: The Guardian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A US navy hospital ship moored off Colombia has started giving free medical care to Venezuelan refugees, in a move likely to rile officials in Caracas who deny the existence of a humanitarian crisis in their own country \u2013 and have long been suspicious of the close relationship between\u00a0Colombia\u00a0and the US. As well as treating Colombians, US medical teams aboard&#8230; <a href=\"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/2018\/11\/18\/us-navy-hospital-ship-stokes-tensions-by-giving-venezuelan-refugees-free-care\/\">Read more &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":120,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2523","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2523","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/120"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2523"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2523\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2524,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2523\/revisions\/2524"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}