Caracas: Efforts to rescue and provide shelter to thousands of Venezuelans who have been left homeless by torrential rains and mudslides have descended into political infighting among allies and adversaries of President Hugo Chavez.
Flooding and landslides unleashed by the rains over the last two weeks have killed at least 32 people and forced more than 5,000 Venezuelans from their homes, Justice Minister Tareck El Aissami said on Friday. Over 60,000 people living in high-risk areas have been brought to hundreds of shelters, government institutions and even the presidential palace, El Aissami said.
But numerous opposition leaders claim the government's response to the floods has been marked by inefficiency and improvisation. Chavez, meanwhile, accuses his adversaries of attempting to politically capitalize on the problems brought by the rains.
"The government doesn't have the capacity to resolve this problem," Pablo Medina, an opposition politician, said in a telephone interview.
"The people who have been forced to leave their homes are going to be living in the shelters for a long time, possibly for years."
Chavez lashed out at his political foes earlier this week, accusing the political parties that governed Venezuela before him of failing to build sufficient low-income housing, forcing more of the poor to build ramshackle slums that ring major cities.
Shabby slums
"The wealthy live in large estates and they left this for the people," Chavez said during a visit to the poor Antimano district in western Caracas, where shabby slums cling precariously to hillsides.
Chavez frequently refers to his political opponents as "oligarchs" who ignore the plight of the poor.
But government foes argue that Chavez — who has been in power for 11 years — is to blame for Venezuela's housing shortage, saying his orders to expropriate apartment buildings and private businesses are scaring off investors and aggravating the housing deficit.
