Uprising in Venezuela Underscores Humanitarian Crisis
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Venezuela's declared interim President Juan Guaido called for the military to join him Tuesday in the last phase of "Operation Freedom" to remove President Nicolas Maduro. Amid the ongoing political crisis with Guaido and Maduro grappling for power, Venezuelans have also been dealing with a mounting humanitarian crisis.
With critical medicine shortages forcing many Venezuelans to turn to the black market for lifesaving drugs, a record-low 15% of Venezuelans said in late 2018 that they are satisfied with the availability of quality healthcare in their city or area.
These results are based on face-to-face interviews with 1,000 adults, aged 15 and older, conducted in Venezuela Sept. 27-Nov. 28, 2018. For results based on the total sample of national adults, the margin of sampling error is 卤3.6 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. The margin of error reflects the influence of data weighting. In addition to sampling error, question wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings of public opinion polls.
Record numbers of Venezuelans have wanted to leave their country since Nicolas Maduro became president. In the past three years, no fewer than one in three have said they wanted to leave, including the 36% who said so late last year.
In addition to the current political crisis, Venezuelans are facing a humanitarian crisis as well; just 15% are satisfied with the availability of quality healthcare, and 71% say they did not have enough money for food at times in the past year.
Venezuelans' life ratings were already at their worst level in a decade before the recent unrest in the country. Venezuelans in 2016 were twice as likely to be "suffering" as to be "thriving."
