Venezuelan bishop confirms “unpleasant incident” while bringing aid to flooded city

The president of the Venezuelan Episcopal Conference (CEV) and archbishop of Cumaná, Monsignor Jesús González de Zárate, confirmed that he experienced an “unpleasant incident” during his visit to the eastern city of Cumanacoa, affected by Hurricane Beryl, although he did not give details of the incident.

Media reported this week that a group of soldiers interrupted the mass that the leader of the Venezuelan bishops was officiating on Sunday and forced him to leave the city, where he had gone with a group of religious and volunteers from Caritas to deliver humanitarian aid.

The uniformed officers of the Bolivarian National Guard warned him that President Nicolás Maduro was the only one authorized to bring aid to those affected by the overflow of the Manzanares River in Cumanacoa, reported media such as the newspaper As it is. According to those attending the mass, the officials insulted those present and closed the San Baltasar church.

In a statement shared by the cultural channel Vale TVGonzález de Zárate denied having suffered physical aggression by soldiers in Cumanacoa, in the state of Sucre, as claimed by newspaper reports, although he stressed that he did experience “an unpleasant incident” in the aforementioned temple, without providing details.

“Constant and effective communication with the authorities in the area is necessary to avoid similar situations, which only harm the most needy population,” said the monsignor, according to his text, which Vale TV accompanied by a photo of himself.

Venezuelan Cardinal Baltazar Porras considered that what González de Zárate experienced was “unusual”

The incident reported by the Catholic prelate occurred just days after two journalists, Andrea Fabbiani, director of the media Official Cast Netand Federico González, correspondent of The Pinreported that armed officers from the Bolivarian National Police forced them to leave Cumanacoa, where they were covering the floods.

The journalists described the situation as “a kidnapping.” According to the digital observatory ProBox, the Venezuelan government closed access to the independent press and those who sought to bring aid to the affected community, as well as launched a “propaganda campaign” on social media based on their management of the floods.

As of July 8, six people have been confirmed dead in Cumanacoa due to flooding and two people remain missing. The governor of Sucre, an ally of Maduro, reported 31,000 people affected by the floods.

Maduro said that his government’s “preventive action” helped save “many lives” and said he was confident that this month everything affected in the city would have “normalized,” including public services such as electricity.

He said his military authorities would take over “control and development of all comprehensive plans” for the area, such as sending and distributing water and food, as well as repairing homes and restoring household goods to the population.

The incident involving González de Zárate occurred the same week in which the CEV shared with the country its reflections on the presidential election, which it described as an “atypical” process where “there is no equal opportunity for all.”

In their statement, the Venezuelan bishops recommended an end to the “disloyal” persecution and harassment of political activists.

The leadership of the Venezuelan Catholic Church has for years published reports to denounce the deterioration of the social and economic conditions of the population, which has earned them public criticism from Maduro, who accuses them of becoming political actors.

Maduro launched an official program called My Well-Equipped Church to restore churches and furnish temples of different faiths, such as Catholic and Christian. He also announced bonuses for 20,000 religious leaders in Venezuela.

His son, deputy Nicolás Maduro Guerra, vice president of religious affairs for the ruling party, the PSUV, is leading these official efforts to assist the country’s main churches.

This year, the national executive has strengthened its ties with the Christian church. In June, the president received evangelical pastors at the Miraflores palace, with whom he prayed and talked about “what is going to happen” in the country, in reference to the election.

Pope Francis has made changes to the Venezuelan Church. He has named a new archbishop of Caracas, Cardinal Raúl Biord Castillo, who is described by pro-government press as a religious leader with a “good relationship” with Maduro since his tenure as bishop of La Guaira.

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