Thank you, Mr. Chair. I will be the first one to speak.
Mr. Chair, vice-chairs, members of the subcommittee on human rights, and all the other people who are present here today, first, on behalf of Orlando, myself, and the Venezuelan community present here today, I would like to thank you for providing us with the opportunity to give you an update on the situation in Venezuela.
I was going to give a brief introduction of myself, but you did a very good job so I don't have to repeat it.
I would like to say that even though I've been here in Canada for 40 years, my family still resides in Venezuela. I have had the opportunity to visit that beautiful country every year, and thus, to witness first-hand the rapid deterioration of the country and its people.
I have been able to witness the systematic violations of human rights the Venezuelan people suffer on a daily basis. I often find myself in absolute shock when I see or read about the atrocities and violations committed against Venezuelan people at the hands of the government, through their misguided policies of neglect in some instances and abuse in others.
I find myself in shock to learn that so many crimes are committed while their perpetrators get away with impunity. I find myself in shock to learn about the continuous humiliation, pain, and abasement inflicted on Venezuelans, the destruction of their spirits, their livelihoods, and in many cases their lives.
It is so hard for me as a Canadian to fathom a place where my children, other children, and adults have to live day by day while their basic civil rights and liberties are continuously violated, and where the day-to-day for millions of Venezuelans is consumed by the challenge just to survive.
I would like to thank this subcommittee for undertaking the study on the situation of human rights in Venezuela, which was presented in June 2012 and which provided a comprehensive review of the situation as it was back then. We fully understand and appreciate the amount of time and effort required to realize such a study, and we are forever grateful. However, since the publication of this report, the state of affairs in our country has substantially deteriorated.
For example, there is a severe scarcity of food. People are forced to stand in line for hours to purchase basic foodstuff whenever it is available, but even worse, it has become a common sight to see people scavenging for whatever leftover food they can find from garbage piles. Malnutrition levels, especially in children and the elderly, are at an all-time high, and so is neonatal mortality.
The crime rates have escalated tremendously. For example, in 2012 when this report was published, the committee found that Caracas was the most violent city in Latin America. Right now, we're ranked number one or two in the world. Last year, in 2016 we had 20,000 reported homicides. Fifty-four per cent of the victims were aged 15 to 30 years old. Eighty-six per cent of these murders were caused by firearms.
Political prisoners have also increased substantially, mostly since 2014. At the time of this report, there were 11 political prisoners. It is worth mentioning that Judge Afiuni, whom you spoke of in this report, is still incarcerated. Because of her health, she is under house arrest.
As of last week, there were 117 prisoners, including, most notably, Leopoldo López, leader of the opposition; Antonio Ledezma, mayor of Caracas; and Daniel Ceballos, former mayor of San Cristóbal, Táchira. There are also deputies of the national assembly, students, military members, and even three young men arrested for using social media to express their views about the present government. The numbers are growing. More people have been arrested during the last week.
These political prisoners are subject to many forms of torture, the details of which can be obtained in the Organization of American States report that we will be submitting today. The kinds and varieties are just too painful for me to mention.
Other examples of rapid deterioration deal with some economic indices such as inflation. In 2016, the inflation rate was up 700% and the World Bank predicts that it will exceed 1,000% in 2017.
In November 2016, the minimum wage was about $10 a month. Just to buy the minimum basket of goods including food, hygiene products, and medication, it takes about 20 salaries per month to feed a family of five people.
Therefore, today, we would like to formally submit the following documents. We will be submitting the report by Luis Almagro, secretary general of the Organization of American States, outlining the crisis in Venezuela. In it, he cites eight recommendations that they consider necessary to resolve the challenges identified in the report. The second is a report on state repression in Venezuela from 2014 to 2016, published by the Venezuelan Penal Forum. The third document is “Pobreza y Misiones Sociales” by ENCOVI dated November 2015.
These three documents provide a comprehensive review of the present situation in Venezuela. These documents are from well-established reputable organizations such as the Organization of American States, to which Canada belongs and is a member. These organizations are considered to be impartial, accurate, and credible rather than politically biased. In many ways, these reports complement the work that was done by this committee in 2012. The documents enable us to see the rapid deterioration of Venezuelan human rights since the report by this subcommittee was completed.
Ladies and gentlemen, following the events that have recently taken place in Venezuela, and which Mr. Viera will expand on, I do not think that I am exaggerating when I say time is of the essence. Events are moving very quickly, and the time to act is now. We would like to ask you as members of the subcommittee on international and human rights in an urgent manner to review the previously mentioned documents and other information submitted today and to annex them to the 2012 report.
We would like to ask you in the same urgent manner to review the previous recommendations, those stated in the 2012 report, and to develop new ones, which will correspond to the quickly changing situation in Venezuela. Our hope is to impress on you the urgent need that exists today to discuss and establish a concrete set of recommendations that will lead to an immediate action plan, one that this government can enact in order to help us fight human rights violations in Venezuela, and in the process, help us restore its democracy.
Now Mr. Viera will give you an update on the situation in Venezuela in the last couple of weeks, and in our conclusion, we will be suggesting some further recommendations for you to consider undertaking.
Thank you so much.