Puebla Group's Plea to US & EU: Release Venezuela's Funds

The Puebla Group (Grupo de Puebla) has penned a statement demanding the release of Venezuela’s financial resources by the U.S., EU and European countries to ensure that citizens have access to the vaccine against COVID-19.

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The statement signed by 32 progressive political leaders of Latin America and Spain notes the retention of billions of dollars in assets belonging to the Venezuelan people. While the Bolivarian government has announced the acquisition of the Sputnik-V vaccine from Russia to be administered in the next 90 days, access to funds will be necessary in order to secure the sufficient quantity of doses to provide all citizens with the vaccination. President Nicolas Maduro confirmed on Tuesday, December 29th that everyone who lives in Venezuela will be vaccinated for free, regardless of their nationality in contrast with Ivan Duque's discriminatory policy in Colombia.

Among the 32 signatories to the declaration are former Presidents Dilma Rousseff, Rafael Correa, Lula da Silva, Ernesto Samper, Fernando Lugo and Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero.

The following is a translation of the statement issued on December 29, 2020 by the Puebla Group.

Declaration for access to the vaccine against Covid-19 in Venezuela

For those of us who signed this plea, the most important is the right to universal access to the COVID-19 vaccine. It is a matter of dignity, human rights, and justice.

History will judge us for this moment. To not support by all possible means, access to the vaccine, to all the citizens of the world as soon as possible and in particular all Venezuelans, given the special circumstances that the country is going through, is something beyond inadmissible, it would be cruel and inhuman.

There is neither excuse nor justification, nor opinion or political situation that can explain a refusal or delay.

It will never be possible to explain to Venezuelans any attitude that does not contribute to their right to life, which is the vaccine against COVID-19.

Faced with the essential right to health, there is no politics, ideology, or strategy that can take precedence over an act of vital justice.

We make a call and demand that the U.S. government, the EU and European governments, which retain assets of billions of dollars from the people of Venezuela release, those resources necessary to finance the vaccine for all Venezuelans, regardless of where they reside and have the legal status to have, which would be coordinated and supervised by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO).

The decision not to vaccinate Venezuelan migrants in Colombia is a cruel attack on basic humanitarian principles and human rights.

This manifesto, this moral plea, is open to the support of all citizens of Venezuela, Latin America and any other region on the planet. Our convictions make our determination to prevent international politics and the relations between peoples and countries from falling off the precipice of insensitivity, contempt or hatred, absolute.

We will reach out to all the governments concerned, to achieve this just and humanitarian demand.

We reiterate the call to the World Health Organization so that no people are left out of access to the vaccine for financial reasons.

We ask for your support. Subscribe, from ethics and solidarity this just manifesto.