Venezuelan doctors were targeted by the government of Nicolás Maduro for having tried to alert the UN mission, currently visiting the country, about the serious shortage of equipment and medicines in hospitals, according to several NGOs.

The Venezuelan government says that the sanctions of the United States, which froze 30,000 million of the country's assets, prevent it from importing basic necessities, including medicines.

"This morning they forcibly removed the president of the medical school of Maracay hospital (west of Caracas), and since then we do not know where she is," Jaime Lorenzo, executive director of the NGO Médicos, told AFP on Monday. United, without specifying who could be behind that incident.

"I was protesting against the repression of health personnel and those who denounce the lack of medicines and the malfunctioning of hospitals," he added.

The opposition deputy for the state of Vargas José Manuel Olivares, who is an oncologist and radiotherapist, denounced on Twitter that this is the "third doctor in two weeks who is persecuted for reporting the situation that lives in hospitals."

On Sunday there were incidents among the hospital staff of Barquisimeto (northwest) and a group of supporters of the Venezuelan government, who threw stones while waiting for the arrival of the envoys of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet.

According to Médicos Unidos, the repression has increased in the last two weeks. "We have called attention to our patients, who are dying because of the lack of supplies and equipment. The doctors have been arrested without any justification. "

"My mother cries me"

On Saturday, a young doctor from the state of Carabobo (southwest of Caracas), Ronnie Villasmil, announced his departure from the country via Twitter after being summoned by the police for having contacted the mission: "Today I had to flee like a delinquent, today my mother cries me. "

The doctor said that his house was raided and that the objective was to deprive him of his freedom. "My only crime was to show the world the precarious situation in which they live in the hospitals of Carabobo to the commission @ONU_es".

The UN mission, composed of five people - who abstain from all contact with the press - is in Venezuela on a "preliminary technical mission" to prepare a possible visit of the Chilean Bachelet, who was officially invited by the Venezuelan government to November.

In Barquisimeto the United Nations envoys visited the hospital escorted by doctors and local authorities.

A doctor who accompanied the visit said that in an interview with one of the delegates he listed "all the faults that the hospital has, the pauper salaries" that the doctors receive and "the medication failures".

"I told him that the patients we operate can not comply with the chemotherapy and that those who do not have how to buy it outside (of the country) die. When I told him about the salary, he almost fell back, "said the doctor, who asked to reserve her name.

In Venezuela, a doctor earns between 18,000 and 30,000 bolivares per month, equivalent to about 6 and 10 dollars, respectively.

Operation "makeup"

Several NGOs such as Provea denounce that the government has set up a "makeup" operation in hospitals and prisons visited by the commissioners to hide their precariousness.

"In Valencia and Barquisimeto we have seen trucks that took doctors and supplies to the hospital where the visit of the mission was expected."

"The makeup they have been doing to hospitals and prisons before the visit of the Technical Commission demonstrates the indolence and cruelty of the de facto government. They can improve facilities, they can give medicines but they are indolent, "NGO Provea, critical of the government, said on Twitter.

In public hospitals, 90% of the necessary medical products are missing and almost all public laboratories have closed, according to a national survey carried out by the NGO Médicos por la Salud together with the Parliament, the only institution controlled by the opposition.

The government has not released official figures for three years.

The situation is further aggravated by the departure of many doctors: according to the Venezuelan Federation of Physicians, 22,800 doctors have opted for exile in recent years. "For us, the figures are bigger."

A total of 3.4 million Venezuelans have left the country, including 2.7 million since 2015, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

The blackout of March 7, which left the country in darkness for almost a week, further aggravated the situation.

@raquel.ramirezv