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 "My baby would have died if I had stayed. There was no food or
medicine, no doctors," said Maria Teresa Lopez as she fed her
daughter Fabiola, who was born on Monday night by caesarian section
in the maternity hospital of Boa Vista, the capital of Brazil's
Roraima border state.
Lopez, 20, hitched 800 kilometers from her home in the Orinoco river
delta to the Brazilian border five months ago. She is one of several
hundred thousand Venezuelans who have fled the economic and
political turmoil in their homeland, mostly to neighboring Colombia.
The massive influx of Venezuelans has overburdened social services
in Roraima state and led to an increase in crime, prostitution,
disease and incidents of xenophobia.
Births of Venezuelan babies at the Boa Vista maternity hospital
surged to 566 last year and 571 in the first half of 2018, from 288
in 2016 when the flow of Venezuelan refugees began, the Roraima
health department said. There were no births in 2015, it said.
Roraima health safety coordinator Daniela Souza said the state has
only one maternity hospital and it is being stretched to the limit,
with patients sleeping on cots in the corridors. Syringes, gloves
and other supplies are running out, she said.
"There are 800 people coming across the border every day and many of
the women and children need medical care," Souza said. The number of
Venezuelans attended at the state's medical centers has risen from
700 in 2014 to 50,000 in 2017 and 45,000 in just the first three
months of this year, she said.
The Brazilian government and Venezuela’s Information Ministry did
not immediately respond to requests for comment.
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Roraima's governor has asked Brazil's Supreme Court to close the
border to be able to deal with the immigration crisis. The federal
government in Brasilia has ruled that out on humanitarian grounds.
Carmen Jimenez, 33, who arrived from Ciudad Bolivar eight months
pregnant and gave birth in the Boa Vista hospital, said she was
amazed to see so many Venezuelan mothers there.
"I won't go back to Venezuela until there is food and medicine, and
the streets are safe again," she said holding her 4-day-old
daughter, Amalia.
Lopez, a Warao Indian of the Orinoco delta, said she would only
return to pick up her first daughter, who remained behind with her
grandmother because she was too young for the arduous journey to the
border.
Brazil has received her well and her husband found work doing odd
jobs, painting and mowing lawns, Lopez said, as she fed her baby
milk with a large syringe.
"There is nothing left for us there," she said. "I did not get an
ultrasound until I got to Brazil and it was free. I want to stay."
(Reporting by Nacho Doce; Writing by Anthony Boadle; Editing by
Leslie Adler
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