COVID-19: Venezuela Says COVAX Payments Blocked
June 17, 2021
The countrys vice president says access to the program is being disrupted
and calls it a crime.
Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez in 2019. (Flickr, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
By Brett Wilkins
Common Dreams
Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez has accused the U.S.-backed
international financial system of blocking the countrys access to Covid-19
vaccines under the COVAX program, even though Venezuela has paid all but $10
million of the $120 million it owes.
Appearing in a televised address last week, Rodríguez said Venezuela was
unable to pay the remaining $10 million because it was being blocked from
transferring funds to the Switzerland-based GAVI Vaccine Alliance, which
directs COVAX.
The financial system that also hides behind the U.S. lobby has the power to
block resources that can be used to immunize the population of Venezuela,
she said.
Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza tweeted a letter from COVAX
stating that it received notification from UBS Bank that four payments,
totaling just over $4.6 million, were blocked and under investigation.
Arreaza said that Venezuela has paid all of its commitments, adding that
the bank has arbitrarily blocked the countrys final payments and calling
the situation a crime.
The vice president and foreign ministers remarks follow accusations from
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro last week that organizations of U.S.
imperialism are engaged in an effort to stop vaccine producers from selling
doses to the country.
Venezuela might be the only country in the world that is subject to a
persecution against its right to freely purchase vaccines, said Maduro,
according to Venezuelanalysis. Venezuela is besieged so that it cannot buy
vaccines.
Successive U.S. administrations have targeted Venezuela with economic
sanctions that critics say have devastated the nations once-thriving
economy and have caused tremendous suffering for the poor and working-class
people whose dramatic uplift was once hailed as the great success of the
Bolivarian Revolution launched under the late President Hugo Chávez.
According to a 2019 report from the Center for Economic and Policy Research,
a progressive think tank based in Washington, D.C., as many as 40,000
Venezuelans have died due to sanctions, which have made it much more
difficult for millions of people to obtain food, medicine, and other
necessities.
Maduro also denounced the World Health Organization (WHO) for its role in
delaying vaccine delivery to Venezuela. The president had expected many
millions of the Covid-19 jabs to be delivered in July and August.
The COVAX system owes a debt to Venezuela, asserted Maduro. We made a
deposit in April and we are waiting for the vaccines.
Juan Guaidó, left, and Nicolás Maduro. (Wikimedia Commons)
That $64 million deposit to GAVI came after a rare deal between the Maduro
administration and Juan Guaidó, the coup leader recognized by the United
States and dozens of other nations as Venezuelas legitimate head of state
despite never having been elected.
Adept at circumventing U.S. interference in its affairs, Venezuela turned to
China, Russia, and Cuba to launch its mass vaccination program, which aims
to inoculate 70 percent of the population this year. Earlier this month, the
country reached a deal to buy and locally manufacture the Russian
EpiVacCorona vaccine.
Venezuela has also already acquired about 3 million doses of the Russian
Sputnik V and Chinese Sinopharm jabs, and last month began clinical trials
on Cubas Adbala vaccine.
Compared to other nations in the region, Venezuela has reported a very low
rate of coronavirus infections and deaths. According to Johns Hopkins
Universitys Coronavirus Resource Center, there have been nearly 248,000
reported cases and 2,781 deaths in the country of 28.5 million people during
the ongoing pandemic. Neighboring Colombia, with just over 50 million
people, has reported more than 3.6 million cases and over 94,000 deaths.
This article is from Common Dreams.