Nicolás Maduro announced an oil payment program for coronavirus vaccines

President of Venezuela Nicolas maduro reported this Sunday that he approved the “Oil payment scheme for vaccines” against the coronavirus, in which he proposes to exchange the raw material by dose, in order to guarantee the immunization of 100% of the population. The announcement comes amid a new wave of disease in the country and financial sanctions from the United States.

“Venezuela has the oil companies, it has the customers, so they buy the oil from us and dedicate part of its production to ensure all the vaccines it needs. Oil for vaccines! “, said the president, who faces sanctions imposed by Washington against state-owned oil company PDVSA.

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Maduro assured that his government was not going to “beg” anyone, referring, without specifically mentioning it, to a previous announcement by the leader of the opposition. Juan Guaidó on agreements for the release of Venezuelan funds stranded abroad to pay for vaccines from Covax, the World Health Organization (WHO) system that seeks to ensure the equitable distribution of doses in developing countries.

“Venezuela does not kneel before anyone in this world. We have dignity and resources ”, Maduro underlined and underlined the “great vaccine drought” in the world, after accusing the United States of having seized the doses against the coronavirus.

First, the President insisted on asking the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), a regional body of WHO, to manage this frozen funds can be used to pay for doses reserved in the Covax for the country, between 1.4 and 2.4 million vaccines. If they weren’t unlocked, he explained, the option of swapping oil for vaccines would come into play.

“We sent letters signed by all political and ideological sectors of the country, so that PAHO receive money from hacked accounts and come the vaccines. This is the first way, ”he explained.

In any case, according to Maduro, the Covax it only covers 20% of the vaccines Venezuela needs. These doses are those of the Anglo-Swedish laboratory AstraZeneca, which were not authorized in the Caribbean country for fear of causing side effects. However, he said there were discussions for PAHO to send the “already selected” and “approved” sera.

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Crude production in Venezuela, a former oil powerhouse in decline, rebounded slightly in early 2021, rising to 521,000 barrels per day in February according to the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). The figure is a far cry from the more than three million barrels per day that the country put on the market when Maduro took office in 2013.

The Chavist leader has promised to raise that figure to 1.5 million this year, but specialists remain skeptical. The collapse of Venezuelan supply began before the sanctions, between reports of mismanagement in the oil industry and cases of multi-million dollar corruption.

Maduro’s proposal recalls the UN agenda “Oil for food”, implemented to meet the humanitarian needs of the Iraqi population after the Gulf War, amid economic sanctions imposed after Iraqi troops invaded Kuwait in August 1990.