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U.S. Hospital Ship to Cruise Near Venezuela Amid Rising Tensions

U.S. Hospital Ship to Cruise Near Venezuela Amid Rising Tensions

(Bloomberg) -- A U.S. hospital ship is about to get very close to Venezuela, little more than a week after tensions between the two countries flared with what the U.S. termed “aggressive” shadowing of a U.S. surveillance aircraft by the Venezuelan military.

The USNS Comfort will be near the South American country, especially as it travels from its next planned stop in Panama to Trinidad and Tobago, just off Venezuela’s northeast coast. But it won’t stop there as long as President Nicolas Maduro remains in power, Admiral Craig Faller, Commander of the U.S. Southern Command, said Friday.

U.S. Hospital Ship to Cruise Near Venezuela Amid Rising Tensions

“The place it’s needed the most, in Venezuela, it’s not going to stop there,” Faller said in an interview after visiting the ship while it was anchored off Puntarenas, Costa Rica. The vessel would be ready to assist should what Faller termed a “legitimate” government assume power. “We could make that happen,” he said.

The Comfort, a military sealift command hospital ship with about 950 crew and medical personnel on board, is starting a five-month humanitarian deployment. That trip will take it across Central America, South America and the Caribbean in support of the political and economic crisis in Venezuela that’s seen millions flee and placed stress on the health care systems of neighboring countries.

‘Maduro-Made Crisis’

“The region, and the world, is really feeling the negative impacts of the Maduro-made crisis,” Faller said. “It has negatively impacted the social systems and medical systems of countries throughout the region, particularly the near neighbors of Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru and all the way further up.”

Costa Rica, meanwhile, has seen migrants from Venezuela along with tens of thousands from Nicaragua.

In Puntarenas on Friday, hundreds of people lined up at two onshore clinics set up to provide basic medical and dental screenings for as many as 500 patients a day, while more advanced surgeries were conducted on board the ship.

U.S. Hospital Ship to Cruise Near Venezuela Amid Rising Tensions

A spokeswoman for the U.S. embassy in San Jose said about 150 Venezuelans had been treated at the temporary facility, although authorities were treating anyone in line, regardless of nationality.

“It’s also an international effort, Faller said. “We have doctors and support personal from many different countries involved.”

Faller said he remained confident that there would eventually be a “transition to a legitimate government” in Venezuela, although he declined to speculate on a timeline.

For now, the U.S. Southern Command is primarily focused on sharing intelligence with regional partners including Colombia and Brazil, he said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Nathan Crooks in Miami at ncrooks@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Sebastian Tong at stong41@bloomberg.net, Ros Krasny, Ian Fisher

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