Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó on Saturday accused the government of President Nicolás Maduro of politicizing the administration of vaccines against the coronavirus in Venezuela, just as infections are experiencing a rebound in the country.
“The politicization that the dictatorship intends to give to administer the vaccine must be left aside, they cannot continue to discriminate and generate social control through the necessary help to Venezuelans,” Guaidó said in a statement released through his Twitter account. Not to mention if there was an agreement in between with the Maduro government.
Guaidó’s comments came a day after his allies – all of them former deputies of the previous National Assembly, which ceased their functions on January 5 – approved an agreement to apply to the Office for the Control of Assets Abroad of the Department of the Treasury (OFAC) the release of a part of the funds withheld by Washington for the purpose of financing Venezuela’s access to the COVAX mechanism, created by the United Nations and several international organizations to guarantee equitable immunization against COVID-19 around the world.
The sanctions imposed by the United States seek to prevent the Maduro government from carrying out financial and commercial transactions abroad, accessing Venezuela’s international assets and trading with oil, gold or other assets.
The agreement will allow the arrival of 12 million doses of vaccines against the SARS-CoV-2 virus with the help of the World Health Organization (WHO), the Pan American Health Organization, the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) and the management of the so-called “interim government,” Guaidó said on Friday. The agreement contemplates some 18.1 million dollars destined for Venezuela’s subscription to COVAX and another 12.1 million dollars for the logistics necessary to maintain the cold chain of vaccines.
Through COVAX, subscribing countries can access the vaccine basket at a better price, while some nations, including 10 in the region, will receive COVAX vaccines for free as they are considered low-income.
“It is not all that is necessary, but obviously it is very different from what we have seen recently that the dictatorship does. Health should not be segregated at this time, on the contrary, we must go to save lives at this time, “added the opposition leader.
Government spokesmen were not immediately available for comment.
On January 5, a new National Assembly was installed in Venezuela, which the ruling party recovered after five years and after the opposition boycott of the December 2020 legislative elections, considering that there were no conditions for free and democratic elections.
Guaidó, as acting president of the National Assembly, declared himself interim president in 2019 and the United States and 60 other countries recognized him as the legitimate ruler of Venezuela instead of Maduro, arguing that the president’s re-election in 2018 was fraudulent.
On February 18, vaccination began in Venezuela.
Between February 13 and March 6, 200,000 doses of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine arrived, representing 2% of the total of 10 million initially agreed in December between the governments of Caracas and Moscow.
Meanwhile, Venezuela received on March 1 a batch of 500,000 doses of the Vero Cell vaccine from the Chinese state company Sinopharm, donated by the Asian giant.
Maduro – who repeatedly denounces that sanctions prevent the proper provision of medicines and food that Venezuelans need in times of pandemic – reported days after that his government invested 200 million dollars in the 10 million doses that should be in the country in April , when it is expected that Venezuela will be in a position to deploy a massive vaccination campaign.
On January 15, Venezuela ruled out authorizing the use of AstraZeneca’s vaccine against the coronavirus due to the accumulation of negative effects registered in some people after being inoculated.
On Friday, Vice President Delcy Rodríguez declared that Venezuela faces “a second wave much more virulent than the one that occurred in 2020” and the increase in cases in several regions, including Caracas and two neighboring states. He announced that the commission he presides will take proposals to Maduro to reinforce measures to break the chain of infections.
In Venezuela – where the coronavirus has not hit as hard as in other South American countries – there are more than 150,300 positive cases and 1,483 deaths, 30 of them in Caracas in the last 10 days, Communication Minister Freddy Ñáñez highlighted on Saturday.
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