Guatemala canceled part of contract with Russia due to delayed delivery of Sputnik V

The Russia’s delay in delivering its vaccines Against the coronavirus, it is a problem that different countries of the world are starting to find, not just Argentina. In the last few hours, the Government of Guatemala amended an acquisition contract for Sputnik V and reduces the number of doses by 50% initially purchased and will attempt to acquire vaccines from US companies Johnson & Johnson, Moderna and Pfizer.

The Guatemalan Ministry of Health has indicated that with the decision eight million doses of Sputnik V will be received and not 16 million as originally established by both parties last April.

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The modification of the contract is due to the slow delivery by Russia, a situation that has sparked criticism in Guatemala against the President of the Central American country, Alejandro Giammattei.

The Russian delay raises more and more questions. Last week, we learned that Cecilia Nicolini, the presidential adviser of Alberto Fernandez sent a letter to the owner of the investment fund with which the agreement was made for Russian vaccines and threatened the possibility of Argentina canceling the vaccine contract Sputnik V against the coronavirus due to the delay in shipments.

Guatemala has already paid $ 79.6 million to the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) for eight million doses of Sputnik V. However, so far received only 550,000. The Minister of Health, Amelia Flores, assured this Wednesday that Russia is “committed” to deliver “in full” the eight million doses “before December 31 of this year”.

The delay sparked strong criticism of local government and requests for investigation, while ombudsperson Jordán Rodas and dozens of organizations social, educational and humanitarian publicly called for the resignation of the president. On Thursday, new protests were called against him.

“After having published this commitment [con Rusia] This year we we will invest this amount in the negotiations that they already have with other companies, ”said Giammattei this Wednesday. In this sense, he added that now the government is negotiating the acquisition of vaccines from laboratories Johnson & Johnson, Moderna and Pfizer.

Guatemala has received some six million doses so far, including donations from the United States, India, Israel and Mexico as well as purchases under the Covax mechanism of the World Health Organization. health (WHO). But his vaccination campaign is stagnating: barely a million people are fully vaccinated out of a population of 17 million. Guatemala has accumulated more than 355,000 infections and more than 10,000 deaths from the coronavirus since the start of the pandemic.