Vice President Delcy Rodriguez denounces Venezuela’s blocking of payments to Covax for Covid-19 vaccines

The Vice President of the Republic, Delcy Rodríguez denounced this Thursday that unilaterally have been blocked and are “under investigation” the last four payments made to the Covax mechanism for the purchase of more vaccines against covid-19 and to advance in the immunization process in the country.

During her speech at the closing of the International Academic Conference “Unilateral Coercive Measures: Disrespect to International Law and Generation of Serious Human Consequences”, Rodriguez warned that these actions, generated by the blockade and the unilateral coercive measures imposed by the United States against the Venezuelan people, reflect at the same time the enormous inequality present in the access to vaccines, where “only 10 countries concentrate 87% of the vaccines in the world”.

“Today, more than 30 countries are blocked, preventing our people from having access to treatments, equipment and vaccines, and the Covax system was created to overcome this impact and Venezuela, with a great sacrifice, has paid the quota of 120 million dollars to have access to the batch of vaccines and immunize an important percentage of the population”, she commented.

She pointed out that last Monday, June 7, the Venezuelan Ambassador in Geneva, Héctor Constant Rosales, received a communication from Covax, informing him that the last four payments totaling an amount of 10,031,000 dollars have been blocked, quoting verbatim the content of the official communication from Covax: “…in relation to the four payments mentioned above confirmed that we have received a notification from UBS Bank that the payments have been blocked and are under investigation”, emphasizing Rodriguez that formally Covax acknowledges that “the resources for the payment of the vaccines for Venezuela, through the Covax mechanism, are being blocked”.

“Venezuela paid, but in the last stage they blocked the resources in the exercise of hegemonic power and of the powers that be, such as the International Financial System, in violation of international law and the United Nations Charter. We the countries feel defenseless, and we have no mechanisms where to turn to”, said Rodriguez.

Blockade is a blackmail against unsubmissive peoples

In this sense, she emphasized that “unilateral coercive measures are a terrible crime for countries that are geopolitical targets, becoming a blackmail to the peoples, their objective is the change of regime of those countries that are not submissive to the United States and its allies”.

“It is a criminal action to try to suffocate Venezuela, it has been a real economic hecatomb, hence the effort of President Nicolás Maduro to protect the most vulnerable ones, since there is an economic disturbance in the face of the financial blockade that is maintained against our country, despite the health situation of the pandemic”, she expressed

In this context, the Executive Vice President urged the countries affected by coercive measures to unite their voices to face together this blockade which is a crime against humanity: “We are 30 countries sanctioned, the list can continue to grow, our call is to the rest of the countries, to join our voices and act together” she urged.

“Venezuela is the fifth country in sanctions received in the world, it is the second country with sanctioned aircraft, it is the fifth country in sanctioned companies. We the countries that are being victims of blockades must unite; it is the third country in sanctioned ships, it is the fifth country in sanctioned companies and it is the sixth country in sanctioned people”, she finally enumerated.