Nine people died in Venezuela after New Year’s Eve. They had all been drinking artisanal alcohol that was actually adulterated. Sixteen other people were hospitalized.
The “Slow Death,” as residents of Chivacoa, an agricultural village in west-central Venezuela, have dubbed the adulterated alcohol that killed nine people during New Year’s celebrations. Sixteen other people were hospitalized, confirmed Venezuela’s governor Yaracuy Julio Leon conjuring up “ethyl poisoning of an artisanal product not approved by health authorities.”
Consumption of such inexpensive craft drinks has become widespread, particularly in working-class neighborhoods in major cities and in inland villages hit by an unprecedented economic crisis.
A few drops of the yellowish liquid remain in bottles that are in the garden of the house… The party with musicians continued late into the night in a house in Pueblo Nuevo. A few hours later, no one suspected that the deaths would be linked. “It started on January 1st with the loss of his sight. He was very dizzy,” Joselyn Oropeza, a 27-year-old housewife, recalled of her uncle Oswaldo Oviedo, one of the victims. Oviedo was attending the funeral of another deceased when his symptoms worsened, forcing him to go to a health center.
This man lost his pictured brother to adulterated alcohol. Photo: AFP
Ongoing analyses
The deaths added up over the week. “We are going through a painful moment (…), most of the deceased are friends and some are brothers,” laments Winder Campos, brother of Manuel Campos, as he returns from the cemetery where he rests. “We don’t know what they really prepared,” says Oropeza, but “it’s very strange that so many people died in such a short time, three days.
The origin of the alcohol is not known
The origin of the alcohol is not yet known. Police want to find the suppliers, but the person who sold it unchecked and brought it to the party also died from his use.” Authorities interviewed relatives and visited the home where the party was taking place. They took samples of what little alcohol was left for laboratory analysis. A law enforcement source said the alcohol had been adulterated with methanol, a substance that can cause blindness, liver damage and ultimately death.
As the “slow death” investigation unfolds, traumatized neighbors gather and chat on plastic chairs on the street outside their homes. You talk about the victims. Doris Barico, 56, mourns the loss of her older brother Carlos, 57: “He led a very good, very happy life”.