Venezuela Denounces Blockade to Access COVID-19 Vaccines

During a meeting with the Valdai Club held in Russia, Venezuela's Foreign Affairs Minister Jorge Arreaza denounced that U.S. arbitrary sanctions prevent his country from paying for the COVID-19 vaccines purchased from the COVAX facility.

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This World Health Organization (WHO) program will not deliver vaccines in advance until Venezuela makes one final payment for the purchase. This transaction, however, cannot take place because a Swiss bank has blocked the money from this South American nation.

"Return the money and with that money, we will buy the vaccines from Russia, China, Cuba, or any other country," Arreaza stressed, adding that Venezuela has only received 1.2 million out of 10 million vaccines previously negotiated.

The Bolivarian minister also invited to create a new international system with the capacity to put an end to the intervention policies that the United States and Europe implement against sovereign countries.

At the beginning of June, Vice President Delcy Rodriguez had already denounced that the Swiss bank blocked the last four payments for the COVAX initiative and placed the Venezuelan people's money "under investigation".

So far, this multilateral initiative has received 12 transactions from Venezuela for an amount of US$110 million and only US$10 million remains to be paid. But this last payment is precisely what cannot be made due to the blockade, explained Hector Rosales, the Venezuelan ambassador to the United Nations.

Given the difficulties that Venezuela has had to buy enough supplies to fight the pandemic, Arreaza thanked the solidarity of countries such as China and Russia, both of which have made it easier for the Bolivarian nation to increase the availability of vaccines in the short term.