The Limited Times

Now you can see non-English news...

Death of two babies fuels criticism of roadblocks in Colombia

2021-05-25T15:32:44.743Z


Authorities denounce attacks on ambulances and medical workers amid protests An ambulance that was attacked during the protests, in the south of Bogotá. A baby is born with a reserved prognosis in Buenaventura, a city that produces 42% of Colombian foreign trade, but does not have a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit in the public hospital. They decide to intubate her and transfer her urgently to Cali, more than 100 kilometers away. It is midnight and a medical team embarks on


An ambulance that was attacked during the protests, in the south of Bogotá.

A baby is born with a reserved prognosis in Buenaventura, a city that produces 42% of Colombian foreign trade, but does not have a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit in the public hospital. They decide to intubate her and transfer her urgently to Cali, more than 100 kilometers away. It is midnight and a medical team embarks on a journey that in normal times would take two hours. However, a few kilometers from the port, in a place known as La Delfina, they come across a blockade, another expression of the protests in Colombia. One of the seven blockades on that road.

What follows is the doctor's account, who records a video to confirm that the newborn has died. “They didn't let us pass, the baby entered the code. We tried to revive her, but she didn't respond. The unemployed men told us to transfer, but we couldn't, because the baby was intubated, ”said the woman who was in the ambulance with the driver, an assistant and the baby's father. Later he says that they return and are in the middle of tear gas. “Then two men arrive on a motorcycle, they tell us that the ambulance can pass. As we passed, they started throwing explosive things and tear gas at us. We are here without being able to return the baby to the hospital and our lives are in danger, ”says the woman.

The story of this newborn has caused sting and polarization between those who accuse the protesters of the blockade and those who interpret that the ambulance could not move because of the tear gas that the police usually use.

It is not clear yet.

The truth is that the death of this baby is added to the fifty victims after almost four weeks of demonstrations, riots, police repression and roadblocks.

And it is not the only one.

During the first days of protests, another ambulance was blocked and attacked while transporting a woman in preterm labor.

The baby died inside the vehicle.

More information

  • Colombia's dilemma: the economic roots of satiety

  • From rocket launchers to shots from behind: videos of excess police force in Colombian protests

Attacks on the medical mission

The attacks on the medical missions raise the tension in the country and the authorities demand that the roads be opened to avoid more deaths. "Does no one assume responsibility for this new death in a new attack on the medical mission in Colombia? It seems that there are deaths that do not matter ”, wrote the Minister of Health, Fernando Ruiz, and labeled Human Rights Watch, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, the World Health Organization and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michele Bachelet.

Alert calls are multiplying throughout the country. "In Valle del Cauca we have had 163 attacks on the medical mission, 49 cases against ambulances, which has left three dead, this baby, a woman who was traveling between two municipalities and another person who needed dialysis," he tells EL COUNTRY Maria Cristina Lesmes, Secretary of Health of the department, the region on the Colombian Pacific where both Buenaventura and Cali are located. Meanwhile, in Bogotá, some protesters have been seen stopping ambulances to check what they have inside or attacking them. According to the National Board of Medical Mission, the attacks include personal injuries and threats against health personnel and against ambulances, their crews and patients on board. But it is not an exclusive matter of unemployment.In its annual balance, the International Committee of the Red Cross reported that in 2020 there were 325 attacks against health workers. "The highest figure that has been recorded in the last 24 years," says the report.

Disinformation in social networks - officials say - is a common factor in the attacks suffered in Bogotá and Valle del Cauca.

"False messages circulate saying that ambulances travel with ammunition and attack them," adds Lesmes.

In the capital of the country over the weekend there were 16 police officers injured, one of them burned.

“In an irresponsible and false way, pieces were broadcast on social networks saying that some of the ambulances were carrying military equipment or that when an ambulance picked up an injured boy (young), he was not handed over to hospitals but to the police.

This is a methodical activity to attack the medical mission, ”said the mayor in charge and secretary of health of Bogotá, Alejandro Gómez.

Humanitarian corridors

In the midst of the highest peak of the pandemic - with 21,669 daily cases - the blockades also affect the movement of medicines and food. In Bogotá, home oxygen is scarce and throughout the country alerts are issued for kidney patients. The main supply plant for patients requiring dialysis is located in Valle del Cauca, one of the areas most affected by road blockades.

With the help of the Church, some humanitarian corridors have been opened to allow the passage of medicines and food, as well as that of ambulances. On the road to Cali where the newborn died, the Valle del Cauca Pacific Region Indigenous Councils Association authorized the transit for 24 hours. The unblocking of roads is one of the red lines that the government of Iván Duque has placed on the strike committee, while it demands that the president openly condemn the attacks by the public forces against protesters. None have, and the talks are overdue. “Whenever traumatic events are discussed, you have to be careful. (...) But the rejection by all the actors of what happened between Buenaventura and Cali must be vehement (...) It will not be the last ambulance that needs to pass and the answer cannot be repeated, ”says the newspaper's editorial.

El Espectador

, “An inhuman blockade”.

Subscribe here to the

EL PAÍS América

newsletter

and receive all the informative keys of the region's current affairs

Source: elparis

All news articles on 2021-05-25

You may like

News/Politics 2024-02-12T20:38:53.571Z

Trends 24h

News/Politics 2024-03-27T16:45:54.081Z

Latest

© Communities 2019 - Privacy

The information on this site is from external sources that are not under our control.
The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.