(Caracas) Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro “demanded”, on Friday, his US counterpart, Joe Biden, to release about 10 million dollars of Venezuelan funds allocated to the “Cofax” system to redistribute vaccines against “Covid-19”.
The Venezuelan head of state denounced the “criminal theft” and stressed that this ten million dollars, the last payment from his country to benefit from the “Cofax” system, had been frozen due to the US sanctions imposed on Venezuela.
The Covax system came and recently announced to us in an official letter that the last ten million dollars […] Banned by the US government […] what is this called? Criminal theft, criminal penalties and criminal actions of the United States of America against Venezuela! He confirmed during a televised speech.
“I demand […] He added that the Joe Biden government is halting this embargo of Venezuela money for Kovacs vaccines and that the Joe Biden government is releasing vaccine money to the people of Venezuela.”
Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodriguez explained the blocking of this $10 million by a Swiss bank as part of an “investigation”.
The United States has decided on a set of sanctions, especially financial, against Venezuela, which, like much of the international community, does not recognize the current president.
Venezuela claims to have paid $120 million for vaccines through the Covax system co-led by the World Health Organization (WHO), but its regional office, the Pan American Health Organization, says it has no confirmation of this payment.
However, one of its officials, Ciro Ugarte, noted the remaining balance of $10 million while on Wednesday he confirmed that the process of sending vaccines to Venezuela was “underway.”
Venezuela, a country of 32 million people, has more than 247,000 cases of the COVID-19 virus and 2,781 deaths, according to official figures that the Venezuelan opposition and NGOs such as Human Rights Watch have disputed as an underestimate.