Self-declared “Interim President†Juan Guaido has allegedly refused to use funds under his control to purchase additional Covid-19 vaccines for the country.
According to documents seen by Reuters, Guaido’s team turned down overtures from the Venezuelan Central Bank (BCV) to free up US $120 million worth of frozen assets in the UK. The BCV reportedly proposed bypassing the US blockade and purchasing UK-produced vaccines through the Gavi financing program, which looks to boost poorer countries’ vaccination programmes via the World Health Organization’s (WHO) COVAX system.
“The impact of the pandemic in Venezuela has worsened, and President [Nicolas] Maduro’s government has been unable to effect payment to Gavi to secure access to Covid-19 vaccines by any other means,†a statement from BCV lawyers Zaiwalla & Co. reads.
In response, Guaido’s legal counsel Arnold & Porter allegedly responded that “our clients cannot consent†to the proposal. Guaido’s team has since claimed that the response is a fake.
Venezuela also took action to assist in an escalating Covid-19 emergency in the Brazilian city of Manaus over the weekend under the banner of “Latin American solidarity before anything else!â€
The isolated city in the bordering Amazonas State, which has difficult communications with the rest of Brazil but houses 2 million people, has been overrun by Covid-19 in recent days, with Reuters reporting that its healthcare system is “at breaking point†and that mass graves are being dug. AFP has quoted on-the-ground scientists as saying that “oxygen tanks have run out and some hospital units have become a type of suffocation chamber.â€
In response, 107 Venezuelan and Brazilian doctors from Caracas’ Salvador Allende Latin American Medical School (ELAM) were dispatched south of the border on Saturday to assist, in coordination with regional Brazilian authorities.
Alongside the so-called Simon Bolivar Medical Brigade, Venezuela also sent 136,000 litres of oxygen - equivalent to 14,000 individual tanks – as part of the humanitarian land convoy. The convoy, which will travel 1500 kilometres from Venezuela’s Puerto Ordaz to Manaus, is expected to arrive on Monday night or Tuesday morning. ■