Venezuela Continues Supplying Brazil’s Hospitals With Oxygen

Venezuela’s Foreign Minister, Jorge Arreaza. states that his country will continue sending oxygen supplies to the hospitals in the Brazilian states of Amazonas & Roraima that were left in a state of collapse by Bolsonaro’s mismanagement of the pandemic. Arreaza also sent greetings to the workers at the plant that produces the liquid oxygen being sent. 

“Solidarity! From Venezuela, we continue to supply oxygen to attend the health crisis in Amazonas and Roraima in Brazil. A special recognition to the workers of the SIDOR oxygen plant in the city of Guayana, for their dedication and effort”, commented Jorge Arreaza via twitter. 

“We the workers here at the SIDOR plant are committed to producing oxygen to serve our population and the world” said a representative from the factory, in a video attached to Arreaz’s original post. 

Venezuela sent its first shipment of oxygen on the 19th of January 2021, in response to dramatic scenes in Brazil’s amazonian city of Manaus, whose hospitals were left without any supplies of oxygen for Covid19 patients in a critical condition. Patients and families in the affected area took to social media, using the hashtag #SOSManaus to inform the country and the international community about the extreme situation facing the region.

Despite the Brazilian government’s attacks on Venezuela, and Bolsonaro’s refusal to recognise the elected government of President Nicolas Maduro, Caracas has nevertheless committed to sending Brazil 80,000 kilograms of liquid oxygen every 7 days. 

The Governor of Amazonas, Wilson Miranda, Lima, sent Venezuela a formal letter thanking them for the oxygen supplies and inviting officials to Manaus for an official act to mark the oxygen reaching the local hospitals in the embattled city.  

Former President Lula also thanked the Venezuelan government for coming to the aid of Brazil’s abandoned regions, stating “I want to thank the political greatness that Nicolas Maduro has shown in being supportive of the people of Manaus during this crisis in the lack of medicinal oxygen, caused by the irresponsibility of the Bolsonaro government. It is possible to do politics without hatred.”