Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro.
Photo: REUTERS/Manaure Quintero 
Venezuela’s bishops say they can’t stand by while the government of President Nicolas Maduro strengthens its “dictatorial line” and the country’s people suffer hunger and unemployment, feeling “more unprotected” every day.
“We live immersed in general chaos at all levels of social and personal life,” the bishops wrote in a statement at the end of their general assembly, held online to prevent the spread of coronavirus.
They denounced that public services are “often non-existent;” that political action is “divorced from the common good;” that insecurity and helplessness continue to grow; that family life is broken by the fact that most cannot meet basic needs; that an inflationary and dollarised economy hurts “almost the entire population;” and that education is paralysed.
The bishops wrote that the Covid-19 pandemic is “expanding exponentially” and that it’s been a paralysing element of a substantial part of ordinary activities.
Crisis
It highlights, they said, “the crisis already present, notably aggravated by the weakness of the health system, the sad situation experienced by emigrants who return to the country without resources or a safe life expectancy, as well as the shortage of gasoline.”
“Each day, the people feel more unprotected, due to…the lack of institutions that give fair answers to human rights violations,” they argue.
According to the bishops, the people of Venezuela want to live in a democracy, and for this to be possible, it’s necessary to hold elections that are impartial.
