By Delisa Morris

Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

CARACAS, Venezuela — There’s nothing new about Venezuelan’s complaining over chronic shortages since the governments restrictive currency controls deprive local businesses of the money to import foreign goods. However, outcry from Venezuelan women has begun to grow louder since FDA approved silicone breast implants have become scarce within the country.

Many women are so desperate that they and their doctors are turning to implants that are the wrong size or made in China, with less rigorous quality standards. Previously, Venezuelans had easy access to implants approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Today doctors say they are now all-but impossible to find because restrictive currency controls have deprived local businesses of the cash to import foreign goods. It may not be the worst shortfall facing the socialist South American country, but surgeons say the issue cuts to the psyche of the image conscious Venezuelan woman. Venezuelan’s are obsessed with their appearance.

“The women are complaining,” said Ramon Zapata, president of the Society of Plastic Surgeons. “Venezuelan women are very concerned with their self-esteem.”

Venezuela has one of the world’s highest plastic surgery rates, and the breast implant is the premiere procedure. Doctors performed 85,000 implants there last year, according to the International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery. Only the U.S., Brazil, Mexico and Germany, all with much larger populations, saw more breast implants.

While there are no official statistics on how many Venezuelans are walking around with enhanced busts, a stroll down any Caracas street reveals that the augmentations are prevalent there more than in other surgery-loving places. The mannequins even look like they have had breast implants.

In the recent past, women could enter raffles for implants held by pharmacies, workplaces and even politicians on the campaign trail. During this spring’s anti-government street demonstrations, the occasional sign protesting the rising price of breast implants blended with posters against food shortages and currency devaluation.

“It’s a culture of ‘I want to be more beautiful than you.’ That’s why even people who live in the slums get implants,” surgeon Daniel Slobodianik said.

Slobodianik used to perform several breast implants each wee, but now performs about two a month. He says women call his office daily to ask for the specific implant size they’re looking for and when they can’t find it they almost always size up.

Frustrated, the women have little sympathy, especially not from the government. The consumerism of plastic surgery never fit with the rhetoric of socialist revolution. The late President Hugo Chavez called the country’s plastic surgery fixation “monstrous,” and railed against the practice of giving implants to girls on their 15th birthdays.

 

For more information, please see:

 

CBS News – Breast Implant Shortage in Venezuela – 15 Sept 2014

Huffington Post – Breast Implants are Newest Shortage in Venezuela – 15 Sept 2014

NBC News – Venezuela’s Chronic Shortages Hit Brand-Name Breast Implants – 15 Sept 2014

Daily News – Venezuela’s Shortage of Breast Implants Leads to Riskier Decisions – 15 Sept 2014