US hospital ship “USNS Comfort” will depart on October 11th to Latin America on an 11-week humanitarian tour to bring medical assistance to Venezuelan immigrants, said the US Southern Command on Monday.
During the mission, the vessel will visit Ecuador, Peru, Colombia (in the ports of Riohacha and Turbo) and Honduras, on dates that will be announced a few days in advance.
The purpose of this deployment is to help alleviate the pressure suffered by the medical systems of the host nation due to the increase of immigrants crossing their borders,”
stated Raymond Sarracino, spokesman for the Southern Command.
The Southern Command had reported in mid-August that its hospital ship would make this tour in late September at the request of the Colombian government. The announcement that the “USNS Comfort” tour will begin on October 11th, however, occurs two days after a Chinese hospital ship left Venezuela.
The hospital ship “Arca de la Paz” of the Chinese Army landed on Venezuelan coasts on September 22nd to offer medical assistance amid the severe crisis suffered by the Venezuelan health system.
The Venezuelan government has repeatedly rejected the possibility of establishing a humanitarian channel to address the shortage of food and medicine in the country, deeming it a form of foreign interference.
In August, US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis told reporters in Washington he was concerned about the destabilizing impact and the enormous cost of the massive arrival of Venezuelan refugees in neighboring countries.
We know that Colombia’s health care system cannot add a million people in one part of the country without affecting the rest. It is impossible. So we are going,”
said Mattis.
The ship will carry 200 doctors, nurses, and military technicians from the United States and the host nation, as well as 60 medical volunteers from non-governmental organizations with the capacity to assist 750 patients per day.
The “USNS Comfort” integrates the US Navy fleet as a non-combatant vessel and, as such, it does not carry offensive weapons.
According to the UN, about 1.9 million Venezuelans have emigrated since 2015, most of them to Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Brazil.