UN ‘COVAX Indebted to Venezuela Following April Payments’: New Steps to be Taken Today
The President of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, reiterated that if the vaccine schedule is met as planned, it will be possible to meet the expanded vaccination goal without a problem and to have 70% of the population vaccinated by September, as was planned by the government. In this sense, he warned that the United Nations COVAX mechanism is indebted to Venezuela, considering that the South American nation already fulfilled its monetary commitments last April for millions of vaccines of various types.
“Venezuela has deposited the money. Tomorrow, Monday, the executive vice president will make a series of steps and reports, because the COVAX system has a debt with Venezuela,” commented the head of state in his customary Sunday address. “Venezuela deposited the resources this past April, and the system has to comply.”
He added that the “technical indications have already been agreed to between the parties, and we have approved the vaccines that can enter Venezuela. In July and August they must guarantee several million vaccines to be delivered.”
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The Global Access Fund for COVID-19 vaccines, known as COVAX, is an alliance between public and private actors, created to guarantee equitable access to the immunizations against this viral disease.
Efforts to circumvent the blockade
The president also praised the great efforts of his government required to secure the arrival of vaccine doses allowing mass immunization in the midst of a brutal economic, financial, and commercial blockade by the US and Europe.
Expanding on the issue of the hybrid war facing the nation, he stated that “Venezuela could be the only country in the world that is the object of persecution regarding its right to freely buy vaccines from any company that makes vaccines.”
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“If I told you how many dirty things we went through, you would not even imagine,” he said. “The enemies, the anti-national right that go around the world lobbying so that they do not sell vaccines to Venezuela, the organizations of North American imperialism that go around the world threatening the companies that make vaccines so that they do not sell to Venezuela.”
“I have to tell you. For a time I have been silent, I have suffered in silence, witnessing their wickedness and perversity against the noble people of Venezuela. I had to remain silent. We have worked every day, night, and early morning to get vaccines, and we are getting them. Sometimes we cannot make announcements because these evil and demonic people immediately move to try to stop the vaccines.”
Unbelievable and lamentable statement
Among the evidence of this siege against the Bolivarian nation and its legitimate government is the most recent statement by James Story, the United States “ambassador” to Venezuela who operates from Bogotá.
“It is part of the tragicomedy,” said Maduro, referring to Story’s comments as “unbelievable.”
“When I heard of it I reacted with indignation and anger,” admitted Maduro. “He declared that there were no vaccines for Venezuela. He inadvertently disclosed this, then the State Department posted a tweet correcting him, because it officially declared, on behalf of the United States government, that Venezuela had no right to receive vaccines that Joe Biden announced he would donate to the world.”
Featured image: United Nations COVAX vaccination mechanism is heavily influenced by US and European big pharma. Photo courtesy of RedRadioVE.
(RedRadioVE) by Lucía Eugenia Córdova
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/JRE/SL
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