Mr. Chair, thank you very much.
Mr. Speaker, thank you.
I am very proud to be here at this historic session. I am very honoured to be honoured by this subcommittee through this award.
I will speak briefly in French too.
My thanks to the Parliament of Canada's Subcommittee on International Human Rights for inviting me.
I would like to say that the situation in Venezuela is now worse than ever. The complex humanitarian crisis we have been facing for years now—since 2014 or 2015 mainly, but aggravated in 2018—has caused more than 4.6 million Venezuelans to flee the country, particularly to the surrounding countries such as Colombia, which this week enacted temporary legal status for Venezuelan migrants. As well, today the United States did the same.
In this context, we don't have free and fair elections any more. The last one was the one in which I was elected, back in 2015. We did not participate in the election because all our parties were basically seized via the judiciary and allocated to people who are collaborationists with the regime headed by Maduro. In this context, the possibility to recover democracy is more and more difficult to [Technical difficulty—Editor]. We are trying to get as much international support as possible in order to recover democracy in Venezuela.
In this context, women are suffering an extraordinary burden. There are no contraceptive methods available at reasonable prices. The minimum wage is around $1.2 U.S. per month at this moment, and the cost of a box of contraceptives is around $20 in the market in Venezuela. Therefore, the number of unwished-for pregnancies is increasing. The number of women dead because of illegal abortions is increasing. The number of malnourished children is increasing. It's up to 36% of all children between zero and three years, according to Caritas, the NGO led by the Catholic church in Venezuela.
The circumstances surrounding the women who have fled the country are very difficult. They are often subjected to human trafficking and sexual harassment, or even sexual exploitation. In the case of the LGBTQI population, there are no rights whatsoever in the country. I haven't been able to get my name and gender changed on my legal documents in spite of the fact that I filed a submission with the Supreme Tribunal of Justice in May 2004. The cases of people living with HIV are terrible because antiretrovirals are practically non-existent in the country.
In this very difficult context, we are fighting for democracy. This recognition is an encouragement for me to continue this fight to get our freedom and our democracy, and to obtain free, fair and accountable elections in Venezuela.
Once again, thank you for this recognition. I will continue to fight for democracy and freedom in Venezuela.
Thank you very much.