I was born in this public - free - hospital several decades ago. It is still the only general public hospital in my city, Valencia. Valencia has over 1.3 million people. There are several private clinics, a couple of specialised hospitals and a series of tiny health centres that are supposed to be one of the successes of the so-called "Bolivarian revolution". Foreign sycophants of Venezuela's caudillo praise those centres as "a great advancement".
Venezuela now, thanks to external factors, is receiving several times the amount of petrodollars it used to get in the nineties - before Chávez came to power. Still, the "civic-military government" has let most hospitals - but for one or two Potemkin villages - crumble down.
