Brazil's former Foreign Affairs Minister Ernesto Araujo on Wednesday acknowledged that he did not thank the Venezuelan government for donating oxygen cylinders to Manaus during the collapse of its hospital network.
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Araujo made those statements during an appearance before the Parliament's Commission that investigates President Jair Bolsonaro's mishandling of the pandemic.
"I just had to make sure the Venezuelan donation arrived in Manaus without problems," the former minister said without mentioning that he did not make any arrangements for the oxygen shipment to reach the city via plane.
The Commission criticized that Araujo "did not try to arrange air transport. Venezuela's donation took almost a day to reach the Brazilian city by road."
The meme reads, "Venezuela continues sending oxygen to Manaus and Boa Vista, Brazil."
The former minister assured he contacted Chile and the U.S. to get airplanes that could load thousands of tons of oxygen. He thought Brazil had no air transport with that capacity.
"Brazil's Armed Forces have heavy-lift aircraft. If the minister had contacted military authorities, they would have sent a plane to Venezuela, and Manaus would have been supplied within an hour," lawmaker Omar Aziz assured.
In January, Venezuela sent a shipment of 107,000 cubic meters of oxygen to Manaus. "Dozens of people died in the time it took for the oxygen to reach the city by road," Aziz pointed out.