World

Venezuela Sees Increase In Suicide Rate As Socialist State Continues To Fall

Joseph Lafave Contributor
Font Size:

The number of people dying by suicide in Venezuela is on the rise, with many healthcare officials citing the abysmal living conditions that the country’s hyperinflation has brought.

According to a report from Bloomberg, the number of people taking their own lives or attempting to do so has hit record-high numbers, which is exhausting already overworked physicians.

“We live between terror and impotence,” said Ignacio Sandia, who serves as the head of the psychiatry department at the Merida university hospital. “We constantly think we can’t do what we should in the moment we’re able to, and we’re terrified that patients commit suicide and there’s nothing we can do for them.”

(RELATED: Polio Returns To Venezuela As Socialist State Crumbles)

The epicenter of the epidemic is the state of Merida, in the Andes mountains. According to one watchdog group, The Venezuelan Violence Observatory, Venezuela’s suicide rate is about 19 instances out of every 100,000 people.

A woman holds a sign that reads: "Maduro gives oil to Cuba and people die of hunger. Enough. Country do not give up" during a protest of workers of the health sector due to the shortages of medicines and for higher wages, outside a public children hospital in Caracas, Venezuela August 16, 2018. REUTERS/Marco Bello

A woman holds a sign that reads: “Maduro gives oil to Cuba and people die of hunger. Enough. Country do not give up” during a protest of workers of the health sector due to the shortages of medicines and for higher wages, outside a public children hospital in Caracas, Venezuela August 16, 2018. REUTERS/Marco Bello

It’s not just the poor living conditions, which include lack of food, clean water and electricity, but also the shroud of hopelessness that has gripped the country since it began to collapse. According to Bloomberg, these issues are further exacerbated by the surge in Venezuelans whoa re fleeing across the border into Colombia and Brazil, leaving those left behind to feel lonely and depressed.

It appears as though the entire population is affected. According to Bloomberg, the prevalence of suicide is increasing in both elderly Venezuelans and those considered minors.

Although physicians are concerned about this new mental health crisis, they say that essential drugs such as antipsychotics and antidepressants are in short supply.

“It’s a cocktail — a multitude of factors that have all converged,” said neurologist Xiomara Betancourt, who serves as the physician-in-charge of “mental-health services at Corposalud Merida,” while speaking to Bloomberg.

(RELATED: Venezuela’s New Currency Does Little To Stabilize Economy)

Despite the prevalence of suicide, the socialist Maduro regime is remaining characteristically tight-lipped about the nation’s mental-health crisis. According to Bloomberg, watchdog groups rely on interviews, press clippings, and police reports to calculate the number of people who have died by suicide.

Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro attends an event with supporters in Caracas, Venezuela, October 20, 2018. Miraflores Palace/Handout via REUTERS

Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro attends an event with supporters in Caracas, Venezuela, October 20, 2018. Miraflores Palace/Handout via REUTERS

“No government benefits from revealing statistics that prove their country is one of the most violent in the world,” said The Venezuelan Violence Observatory’s Merida chapter director Gustavo Paez in an interview with Bloomberg

PREMIUM ARTICLE: Subscribe To Keep Reading

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign Up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
BENEFITS READERS PASS PATRIOTS FOUNDERS
Daily and Breaking Newsletters
Daily Caller Shows
Ad Free Experience
Exclusive Articles
Custom Newsletters
Editor Daily Rundown
Behind The Scenes Coverage
Award Winning Documentaries
Patriot War Room
Patriot Live Chat
Exclusive Events
Gold Membership Card
Tucker Mug

What does Founders Club include?

Tucker Mug and Membership Card
Founders

Readers,

Instead of sucking up to the political and corporate powers that dominate America, The Daily Caller is fighting for you — our readers. We humbly ask you to consider joining us in this fight.

Now that millions of readers are rejecting the increasingly biased and even corrupt corporate media and joining us daily, there are powerful forces lined up to stop us: the old guard of the news media hopes to marginalize us; the big corporate ad agencies want to deprive us of revenue and put us out of business; senators threaten to have our reporters arrested for asking simple questions; the big tech platforms want to limit our ability to communicate with you; and the political party establishments feel threatened by our independence.

We don't complain -- we can't stand complainers -- but we do call it how we see it. We have a fight on our hands, and it's intense. We need your help to smash through the big tech, big media and big government blockade.

We're the insurgent outsiders for a reason: our deep-dive investigations hold the powerful to account. Our original videos undermine their narratives on a daily basis. Even our insistence on having fun infuriates them -- because we won’t bend the knee to political correctness.

One reason we stand apart is because we are not afraid to say we love America. We love her with every fiber of our being, and we think she's worth saving from today’s craziness.

Help us save her.

A second reason we stand out is the sheer number of honest responsible reporters we have helped train. We have trained so many solid reporters that they now hold prominent positions at publications across the political spectrum. Hear a rare reasonable voice at a place like CNN? There’s a good chance they were trained at Daily Caller. Same goes for the numerous Daily Caller alumni dominating the news coverage at outlets such as Fox News, Newsmax, Daily Wire and many others.

Simply put, America needs solid reporters fighting to tell the truth or we will never have honest elections or a fair system. We are working tirelessly to make that happen and we are making a difference.

Since 2010, The Daily Caller has grown immensely. We're in the halls of Congress. We're in the Oval Office. And we're in up to 20 million homes every single month. That's 20 million Americans like you who are impossible to ignore.

We can overcome the forces lined up against all of us. This is an important mission but we can’t do it unless you — the everyday Americans forgotten by the establishment — have our back.

Please consider becoming a Daily Caller Patriot today, and help us keep doing work that holds politicians, corporations and other leaders accountable. Help us thumb our noses at political correctness. Help us train a new generation of news reporters who will actually tell the truth. And help us remind Americans everywhere that there are millions of us who remain clear-eyed about our country's greatness.

In return for membership, Daily Caller Patriots will be able to read The Daily Caller without any of the ads that we have long used to support our mission. We know the ads drive you crazy. They drive us crazy too. But we need revenue to keep the fight going. If you join us, we will cut out the ads for you and put every Lincoln-headed cent we earn into amplifying our voice, training even more solid reporters, and giving you the ad-free experience and lightning fast website you deserve.

Patriots will also be eligible for Patriots Only content, newsletters, chats and live events with our reporters and editors. It's simple: welcome us into your lives, and we'll welcome you into ours.

We can save America together.

Become a Daily Caller Patriot today.

Signature

Neil Patel