VENEZUELA ARMY CAPTAIN DEFECTION SHOWS CRACKS IN COUNTRY POLITICAL UNITY

 

Venezuela's 'communist' revolution, begun by Chavez, has been hailed by many as a great leap forward for the Venezuelan poor, who had access for the first time to medical care and other social services, including free schooling.  That indeed has been part of Chavez's legacy.  But the problem arises when these gains are viewed solely from the perspective of an ideology, and not from the practical standpoint of what such largesse entailed for the deceased totalitarian ruler. 

For many opponents of the Chavez regime, the social programs initiated under his rule were nothing more than gifts aimed at consolidating his base. And that may be true, since the economic and socialist reforms enacted by Chavez have not created the stream of income needed to sustain such programs.  By nationalizing crucial interests in the country, he also diminished the stream of income from the business sector, and created a stronger power base for himself.  

Venezuela was, and remains, a country with great resources.  It is exactly the squandering of such resources, such as oil, that has garnered the most criticism against Chavez.  

His successor, Maduro, has made the situation even worse, by failing to shore the economic downturn with reforms aimed at increasing revenue stream, and therefore undermining the very underpinnings of the socialist reforms that the poor people in Venezuela were hailing Chavez for. 

But Maduro has now turned into a petty tyrant. He is using to great effect the ground developed by Chaves during his political campaigns, who are now terrorising and brutalizing certain areas of the country and the capital, where they run interference to the opposition's demonstrations. Student revolts have turned bloody, and the situation is expected to get worse. 

The defection, late last week, of an important army official may signify the first glimpse of what may be a growing mutiny in Maduro's army.  The defector, one Juan Carlos Caguaripano Scott, gave a statement in front of the statue of Venezuela's annointed hero and saint, Simon Bolivar.  In it, he detailed how his conscience had compelled him to come forward, in the name of Bolivar and his people, as to the atrocities being committed on the ground escalated into a brutal, fratricidal civil war.  

The defector went on to call for Maduro's deposition for promoting a civil war in which most of the violence is incited by the paramilitary chavistas that are terrorizing the capital and beyond.  In the speech he also went on to call for the rest of the army to defect and misalign itself from Maduro's policies and measures.

Immediately a warrant for his arrest was issued. The charge of course is the usual 'coup attempt' that Maduro so cherishes as corollaries to his insistence that the unrest in his country is due to outside interference, mainly to the 'evil' power to the North.  The swirl of conspiracy theories promoted by Maduro sit well with a majority of the people who believe that Venezuela, and their destiny, has forever been tampered with by the greedy West.

Four more military personnel who dissented Maduro's orders will be keeping him company, for they have already been incarcerated earlier this month.  

To make things worse, Maduro forced the Supreme Court in Venezuela to declare last week that freedom of speech is not universal and therefore any dissenter can now be also imprisoned.  

Reports from Venezuela speak of terrible violence against the protesters, in addition to that suffered by paramilitary forces.  Reports of rape and robbery, in addition to violent crackdowns are painting a picture increasingly bleak and worrisome. Reports of torture are also mounting.  

Venezuela's deaths from demonstrations has risen to 41.  But as the violence and unrest grows, the military seems to be splintering around Maduro.  There are apparently more than 30 military officers now in jail for defecting or refusing to carry out orders.  The revolution, if there ever was one, has been betrayed by a petty, small minded leader who should never have been placed in such position.   One general has even been able to escape his arrest so far, and is broadcasting his call of deposing Maduro via a social app called Zello.  Some defectors are not so lucky.  Otaiza, ex-chief of intelligence for Maduro was found executed in his car in the outskirts of Caracas, signaling yet another escalation of Maduro's crackdown. His death was called a botched robbery, but no one has any doubt as to why the officer was found dead.

Source : Bloomberg/ 5.4.14

  

WHAT IS PANS? WHY PARENTS SHOULD KNOW ABOUT THE TERRIFYING NEW SYNDROME THAT STRIKES TEENS SUDDENLY AND IS A MYSTERY TO THE MEDICAL COMMUNITY

A new psychiatric disorder is emerging among teens and it is baffling the medical community.  The sudden onset neuropsychiatric syndrome, also called PANS, is a sudden mental and neurological illness that seems to strike only teenagers and has no certified known origin or cause. 

Only recently, doctors have had to confront the baffling illness in teenagers who presented with extreme psychosis and some physical symptoms for which there is no apparent cause or cure.  

Defined as a rapid onset Obsessive compulsive disorder type, some scientists attribute the malady to a streptococcal infections, or an immune response to some yet undefined agent or pathogen.  The pathogens seem to affect the basal ganglia in the brain, which is an area fundamental for a spate of vital functions, including cognition, emotion and motory functions.  

Because it is such a new disease, the symptoms classification is rather new and rudimentary, with new symptoms and presentation being added as new cases occur.  What is indisputable, however, is the sudden and frightening onset, which is defined as rise in anxiety or depression that soon reaches aggressive and hallucinatory peaks, and can devolve in behavioral regression and even convulsions.  Physical symptoms include frequent need to urinate, a wide array of somatic symptoms, including a feeling that the brain is affected, and inability to sleep normally. 

There are diseases that present with similar symptoms, so evaluation needs to exclude those, such as lupus, encephalomyelitis and Tourette's.  But after those are ruled out, the problem is the management of the disease, since there is no definite cure.  Only a very dangerous class of psychiatric medication seems to bring some relief to the sufferers, but the side effect often scare parents from choosing that option.  Only a handful of clinics in the US handles PANS and offer the potent cocktail of psychotropic medication, with a waiting list of more than 5 months.  

To parents who have never heard of the disease, the onset of the syndrome is terrifying.  One of the new therapies considered for the treatment is one that targets errant antibodies with IV immunoglobulin, which is intended to reduce the obsessive compulsive behaviors in the sufferers by stopping immune reactions that attack the brain and nerves.  The Immunoglobulin targets those harmful antibodies that are causing the immune reaction which is believed to underlie the psychiatric and neurological symptoms. 

One of the greatest danger in PANS sufferers is misdiagnosis.  A teen in San Jose, California, spent one year in and out of psychiatric wards until her illness was properly diagnosed.  

Because the infection which is believed to cause the illness is not apparent, the resulting effect on the brain is not detected until the full blown symptoms appear.  The infection is believed to cause swelling of the brain, which then leads to the spate of symptoms that characterize PANS.  

Some in the medical community posit that the disease is a construction to extort money from frigthened parents, and is a non-existant syndrome. Those medical pundits believe that a placebo trial should be undertaken to show that the syndrome is not organic nor caused by an infection.  

However, doctors at the National Institute of Mental Health, or NIMH, in the United States, who have been tracking the illness since the 1980's, believe that the disease is all too real.  However, they also believe that it is primarily a medical problem with secondary psychiatric problems, and that it has to be dealt with first as a medical syndrome with collateral psychiatric symptoms. 

The cases vary in intensity from mild to severe.  In some cases the symptoms clear out quickly, in others they are believed to last for years. 

In addition, more cases recently seem to afflict younger children.  The Harvard Medical School research believes that antibiotics can clear the problem if administered as soon as the psychiatric symptoms occur.  They believe the disease was first detected in 1998, but they also believe that not only Strep A can cause it but also other infectious organisms as of yet unclassified. 

An important resource link from the Institute of Pediatrics and Therapeutics on PANS is available here: http://ocfoundation.org/uploadedfiles/MainContent/About_OCD/PANDAS%20to%20PANS%20-%20Final%20form%20for%20Pediatrics%20%20Therapeutics%202012.pdf
 

Source: NIMH/ Harvard Health/Medical school: 5.2.14