A public transport employee who doesn’t earn enough to feed himself, a doctor who watches his patients die for lack of medicines, a lawmaker without a legislature, three generations of one family emigrating — the list of victims of Venezuela’s crisis is long. They come from all walks of life and dread the prospect of another six years under the man who has overseen it, President Nicolas Maduro. Nevertheless, the 56-year-old leader will be sworn in for a second six-year term on Thursday, after winning a presidential election in May dismissed as illegitimate by much of the international community on grounds that it was not free, fair or transparent. The opposition boycotted the vote, blaming Maduro for the political, economic and humanitarian crisis that has enveloped the oil-rich country. Losing weight Jairo Colmenares scrapes by on the equivalent of seven dollars a month, which he earns as a Caracas metro worker. At the street market, it’s barely enough to buy a dozen eggs, half a kilogram (a pound) of potatoes and a few pieces of fruit. On his days off, he says he gets up late to save himself a meal. “I’ve lost seven kilos,” said Colmenares, a technician. Even with a little extra money he earns on the side, his diet mostly consists of beans or lentils that the government distributes at subsidized prices. “Once a month, we may buy chicken or meat,” said Colmenares, 33. In 2017, he sent his children, aged 10 and 11, and their mother to neighboring Colombia, which has given refuge to around a million Venezuelans fleeing the crisis. For Colmenares — threatened with dismissal for trade union activities — Maduro is far from being the “worker president” he depicts himself to be because of his background as a bus driver. Hospitals without water Water is scarce at the Miguel Perez Carreno hospital, the largest in Venezuela’s capital. In a recent rush to the accident and emergency unit, family members brought their own water to swab the bloody face of a youth who had suffered a gunshot wound to the head. At the entrance of the 11-story building, a man waited forlornly on a stretcher, as a corpse under a sheet festered just a few meters (yards) away. “One or two patients die every day due to lack of supplies or while waiting for a surgical shift to come on,” Jose, a 27-year-old neurosurgery resident, told AFP. Empty storeroom shelves are evidence of the scarcity of medicines and basic hospital supplies, which trade unions estimate at 84 percent. Shortages of medicine and basic foods became the norm in Venezuela when oil prices collapsed, and Venezuela’s crude production declined from 3.2 million barrels a day to 1.13 million bpd, crippling its ability to import necessary supplies. “When there are antibiotics, there are no syringes. And when there are syringes, there are no antibiotics. The planets must be aligned so that everything works as it should for a week,” said Jose. Water is scarce in 70 percent of Venezuela’s hospitals, according to an NGO. “Usually there isn’t any,” added the doctor. The government blames the scarcities on an “economic war” and international sanctions, calculating losses at $20 billion in 2018. Published in Daily Times, January 9th 2019.