Venezuelan bishops respond to national crisis

July 13, 2016

"We are on the brink of a food and health-security crisis," the Catholic bishops of Venezuela warned in a statement released at the conclusion of their annual meeting.

While widespread shortages and episodes of violence have troubled the country, the bishops' statement said that "the moral crisis is greater than the economic and political crisis." They said that Venezuelan society is plunging toward anarchy. 

The bishops called upon the government to take three immediate steps: permit the import of needed medicines, ending a block on supplies from outside the country; open the border with Colombia, after a temporary opening allowed thousands of people to obtain food and other supplies; and release political prisoners who have been detained without charges, or allow them a fair trial.

 

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Further information:

• The priorities of the Bishops: entry of medicines, opening of the border, political prisoners