Deadly Negligence: Peru’s Red Cross & Cold Deaths in Andes
At last count (mid August), 514 Peruvians had died of pneumonia brought on by extreme cold this year, most of them children under five. Most reasonable people would call that an emergency.
Not Peru’s Red Cross, however.
In a bulletin issued August 4, 2009, the Peruvian Red Cross (PRC) issued a general statement about the cold deaths in Puno, noting the low temperatures, the rise in pneumonia cases and the deaths of “113” children (a number much lower than that cited by other news sources in early August). After low-balling the number of deaths, the bulletin explained that the PRC “has been assisting the affected people with medicines, blankets and food items. Additionally, the PRC has launched a nationwide campaign to collect donations for the emergency response.”
Strange. During June and July I didn’t hear or read a word about this “nationwide” PRC campaign. There was plenty of news about efforts by Civil Defense (which gave out 60 tons of clothing and blankets by August) and Caritas (which distributed 1,200 tons of food, clothing and medicine by early August), but the Peruvian Red Cross? Must have been a very low-key affair. Hmmmm.
Stranger yet, the bulletin goes on to state, in bold-face type:
The Peruvian Red Cross has determined that external assistance is not required, and is therefore not seeking funding or other assistance from donors at this moment. Since this is a recurrent emergency and the National Society was prepared and included in its preventive measures the successful implementation of an awareness campaign, no DREF funds will be requested.
Please reread that paragraph. It says that the PRC does not want the International Federation of Red Cross & Red Crescent Societies (IRCRC) to send emergency relief aid to Peru to save people from dying from the cold. “DREF” stands for “Disaster Relief Emergency Funds.”
Let me explain how the IRCRC works. The IRCRC is an international organization that has sister organizations or “societies” in countries throughout the world. When a natural disaster or humanitarian emergency hits a country, that nation can call on the IRCRC to provide food, clothing, medicine, medical equipment, emergency housing and field hospitals, plus qualified disaster workers (doctors, nurses, social workers, volunteers), to the affected zone. According to the IRCRC’s website, DREF funds are typically released within 24 hours (yes, that quickly).
There’s only one catch and it isn’t a catch really: The only way the IRCRC can give emergency aid to a country is if that country requests it. No matter how huge or catastrophic an emergency, the IRCRC cannot step in unless the country’s own Red Cross or Red Crescent society asks the IRCRC to do so. Even if people are dying, like they are in Puno and Juliaca.
This is what has happened this year with the cold deaths in the Andes. The Peruvian Red Cross has issued a bulletin saying, Don’t send medical workers, don’t set up field hospitals. People die every year from the cold in the puna, so it’s not emergency. Let us, the PRC, handle it our own way. We have our own little disaster-preparedness program, which kicks in months after the cold spell starts, and we think that’s good enough for the people who live way up there.
In other words, let the people of the Andes die.
I would love to report that the Peru Red Cross has done a fantastic job of bringing medical aid to the people of the puna, all on its own, but I can’t. The PRC did nothing in May, June and July, when an early cold wave began weakening tens of thousands of people in the highlands and triggered hundreds of deaths.
Strangely, after issuing its August 4 “Don’t Help Us” bulletin, the Peru Red Cross got busy banging its own drum. A news item appeared in the August 10 issue of Peruvian Times trumpeting the PRC’s relief efforts, claiming that “as part of its “Together against the Cold” Campaign, the Peruvian Red Cross [had] shipped more than 50 tons of warm clothing, blankets and medicine to 11,290 families throughout Peru’s southern Altiplano, including Cuzco, Puno, Apurimac and Huancavelica.”
However, a quick check with the official web site of the American Red Cross reveals that (U.S.) American Red Cross workers were instrumental in getting the aid to the affected regions. The news item does not specify whose funding, that of the PRC or ARC or both, underwrote the relief effort, which was less than that given by Civil Defense and Caritas.
Note that no teams of doctors or nurses were brought to the highlands. No field hospitals were set up. By this point, early August, more than 77,000 people in Puno alone had been treated for pneumonia in grossly understaffed hospitals. The time had passed for blankets and sweaters. People needed nebulizers and the constant medical care that pneumonia and pneumonia-like diseases require.
So, why didn’t the PRC jump on the problem months ago? Ongoing politics, it seems.
A spokesperson for the PRC blamed the Peruvian government for the deaths, which the PRC refuses to classify as an “emergency” because they happen each year and are therefore preventable:
“Government authorities deal with low temperatures as a risk or a possibility, and not as part of a sustained policy of the State to adopt permanent prevention throughout the year to avoid more deaths,” Susana Silva, [PRC] Deputy Health Ombudswoman, said in an official statement.
Gee. I’m glad the PRC has its priorities straight. It’s job is finding the right entity to blame, not saving lives.
It’s a deadly game that benefits no one in Peru, least of all the hundreds of campesinos dying in the highlands. All over the world, countries suffering from drought, earthquakes, deadly epidemics, floods — these countries receive billions of dollars’ worth of prompt emergency aid and disaster-preparedness aid because their Red Cross or Red Crescent society knew that its job is to supplement its own funds by asking for IRCRC help ASAP.
What the hell is wrong with the Peru Red Cross? And why do Peruvians permit the small-minded people who run this Lima-based “aid society” to continue to do an abysmal job and to deny Peruvians the international aid that the vulnerable nation deserves?
It’s criminal.
–Barbara R. Drake
p.s. Check out the Cruz Roja Peru’s lame web site. Half of the “buttons” on the front page are dead; they don’t link to a live page. The society boasts of 130 years of aid in Peru (huh?). Nowhere will you find a section on transparency, as you should on a reputable nonprofit org’s page. No record of incoming donations or dispensing of aid (in contrast, Caritas and Civil Defense provided daily and weekly accounting of relief efforts to communities in the highland for June, July and August).
Barbara
I am an American writer who lived in Lima for seven years (2007-2014), where I covered Andean traditions, melting glaciers and daily life in the capital for Miami Herald, MSNBC and Huffington Post. I now live and work in northern Florida where I champion climate change advocacy and compassionate, affordable eldercare.
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Herve
When I read this, it’s unfortunately remind me how peruvian are able to badly treat each others. But that’s another point.
Any idea of what is doing the Peruvian Gouvernment about this situation ?
Barbara
Herve (A frog in London),
To make it short: the Peruvian government has done little about this situation, which reoccurs every year. They gave money to the highlands region (of Puno) to vaccinate the population, but only a handful of vaccines were administered.
The federal government could have sent in doctors and medical emergency teams to the highlands, but instead, the ministers started to blame the local governments and vice versa, and in the mean time, children began dying. And kept dying. Overall, Peru’s central government should have taken care of the emergency but they didn’t. And when a country’s health and emergency relief agencies don’t do their jobs (or even when they do), the Red Cross is supposed to step in and help victims, regardless of the politics.
Holly
This is outrageous. And I think you’re right: some sort of terrible Darwin system of have and have-nots playing out. I’m curious of the excess mortality rates — how close are they coming to disaster levels?
Angela
I had to read your article twice to let it sink in fully. This is just simple negligence. To deny aid to poor children in need of medicine, food, shelter is just rediculous. It sure seems like the PRC does not see these people as worthy of rescue, deliberately turning their backs on allowing international aid. I am glad you are bringing this tragedy to light so perhaps someone can make a difference in this terrible situation. I can only hope that this sad disaster is dealt with more appropriately so that the poor are rescued from more deaths that can and should be prevented.
Barb
Thanks, Angela, for adding your voice to the chorus of outrage. Sometimes abuse goes on so long, it becomes normal for people to stop trying to stop it. That’s what’s happened in the Andes.
I’ve heard that the International Red Cross has a lawsuit against the Peruvian Red Cross to get the Peru org to give up the Red Cross name so it can be handed over to more competant members. Peru has so many emergencies and ongoing crises; the country needs a stellar Red Cross to take care of all that.
Daniel
Children and people who happen to be Aymaran and who probably speak Aymaran. Maybe they should have an Aymaran person who also speaks Spanish come to the Red Cross of Peru in Lima so that they can communicate better.
As I said before, culture seems to be the main issue here. Since it mostly happens in Puno where there are people who have Aymaran culture and speak that language unlike the rest of Peru !!
This also reminds me that many Native American in the US die from negligence in the cold weather of the winter of the great plains of the US.
Maybe the Peruvian government should have segregated all the indigenenous peoples to reservations just like the united states did. But, that would have been really cruel and mean in my opinion.
Angela
I had never heard that about Native Americans dying from the cold of winter here in the US. That is a telling comparison… This situation in Peru is tragic for these poor native people who have no one ministering to their needs because their government refuses international aid. Sadly this is not the first time for this situation but maybe something will be done about it before the next winter in Peru…
Daniel
Well, Angela, I am not surprised that you have never heard of Native Americans dying in the Great Plains of the US. After all, most Americans seem ignorant of their own country or they want to blindfold themselves about these type of issues…
But, it is true and many die every year. It is very unfair. It seems that because they live in reservations, they are not human beings anymore. Very inhumane.
To educate yourself better and whoever else reads this, why don’t you take a look at the link below.
http://www.russellmeansfreedom.com/tag/south-dakota-winter-emergency-declaration-russell-means-republic-of-lakotah/
There are many more articles related to Native Americans who die from cold and negligence in the Great Plains on other non profit organizations websites. But this is a good start 🙂
Barb
Daniel,
I welcome various opinions but I notice that your comments harp on the same theme: Americans have no right to criticize Peru because bad things happen in the U.S. as well. It began with my post on dog poisonings (which has now been picked up by the Peruvian media, btw, so I do believe I had a good point there) and it has continued with every post that points out injustices in Peru.
Since this issue means so much to you, why don’t you start your own blog to spread your message? You have left many lengthy comments on my blog, some of them filled with 15 or more links, a few of them longer than my original post.
You’re probably not aware of it, but the readers who comment on my blog posts and disagree strongly with me generally link to their pieces on their own blogs. It’s a matter of courtesy, given that I pay to host this site.
I also speak for many of the readers of this blog that making blanket statements like “most Americans seem ignorant of their own country” isn’t a courteous way to initiate dialogue on a site called “An American in Lima.”
Angela
I do not consider myself an ignorant person but I can always learn something new. I will investigate this issue as suggested. I read a lot of news sites and have many interests. I was not being particulary critical of Peru, more of people who have made these decisions to ignor the plight of poor individuals who could use some help from the International Red Cross or other organizations who seek to reach out to protect or save the needy. I really appreciate how Barbara speaks out on issues that she sees as important. She has a strong intelligent voice and I like to check her site as I find it thought provoking and well worth my time. Peace Barbara.
Barb
Hey, thanks, Angela, for speaking up.
To get back to the issue — that of a country’s Red Cross not responsing to an emergency and letting people die — the Peruvian Red Cross is clearly negligent, and it’s a problem that goes back to the 1990s. Internal and institutional problems with the PRC have made it unable to deliver the disaster response that the country needs so desperately. Many other countries, including the U.S.,have highly functional Red Cross societies that have fair to good relations with the government and with the international Red Cross society. Those relationships are key to bringing aid when it is needed.
As far as the US: there was a break-down in the Red Cross’s and FEMA’s ability to respond to disasters starting with the launch of the Bush Administration, when some key posts were handed out as political favors to people without the institutional knowledge to respond effectively. The Katrina disaster was a prime example of a country’s disaster-relief network falling apart. It was a great tragedy and people were justifably outraged by the needless deaths and suffering that occured then. As we all know, corrections were made and now, I believe, the Am Red Cross and FEMA are back in the business of saving lives and mitigating disasters.
Would that similar mess-ups in Peru would spur the country to fix its disaster-response mechanisms.