“Oil for vaccines”: dictator Nicolás Maduro’s proposal to obtain coronavirus vaccines for Venezuela

Venezuela’s dictator Nicolás Maduro seeks to swap “oil for vaccines” against covid-19, amid a new wave of pandemic in the Caribbean 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 it would devote part of its production to guaranteeing all the vaccines that Venezuela needs. Oil for vaccines! “said Maduro, who faces sanctions imposed by Washington on state-owned oil company PDVSA in an attempt to remove him from power.

“We are ready and prepared, vaccine oil, but we are not going to beg anyone “He added, referring, without specifically mentioning it, to a previous announcement by opposition leader Juan Guaidó on agreements to release funds from Venezuela stranded abroad to pay for vaccines from Covax, a system of the World Health Organization (WHO) which seeks to ensure the equitable distribution of vaccines in developing countries.

Maduro initially insisted on asking the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), a regional body of the WHO, to manage that the frozen funds can be used to pay for the 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 oil for vaccines would come into play.

In addition, according to Maduro, Covax only covers 20% of the vaccines Venezuela needs. These doses were however those of the Anglo-Swedish laboratory AstraZeneca. But on March 15, Venezuela informed PAHO that it would not accept the British vaccine.

Although Maduro said there were discussions for PAHO to send “vaccines already selected” and “approved” by the Caribbean country. Until now, the regime only authorized the use of the Russian vaccine Sputnik V and that produced by the Chinese company Sinopharm.

None of these vaccines have yet been delivered to the Caribbean country due to unpaid debts it has with WHO.

This week, the health union and the Venezuelan opposition have called on the Maduro regime to lift the veto on the AstraZeneca vaccine, given the scientific support available for the antidote.

But the dictator himself replied that he would not allow entry into Venezuela of any vaccine “that has not been authorized” by the country’s scientific institutes, while anticipating that It is planning a mass vaccination against covid-19 with two of the Cuban vaccines being tested, Sovereign 02 and Abdala.

For its part, the Chavista regime reported on Saturday that it had discussed with the WHO the supply of vaccines via the Covax mechanism, without however providing details on the meeting that the authorities held with the director general of the instance, Tedros Adhanom.

“(We had) a contact with the Director General of WHO, Dr Tedros Adhanom (…) precisely to address the issue of vaccine supply for Venezuela within the framework of the Covax mechanism”, a- he said in statements released to the public. television. VTV the vice-president of the dictatorship, Delcy Rodríguez.

The official pointed out, without giving further details about the meeting, that aspects related to a possible supply of covid-19 vaccine were discussed, which included information on “available vaccines (and) timelines to be addressed. “as part of the Covax mechanism.

“We want to thank (Tedros Adhanom) because we know that this humble man at the head of this world organization is waging a great battle for all of humanity, for the peoples of the world,” Rodríguez said.

Venezuela began immunizing health workers in February, but gave few details on its immunization schedule.

According to official figures, strongly questioned by the opposition and NGOs, the country has recorded some 150,000 cases of coronavirus and just under 1,500 deaths. However, authorities have recently expressed concern about the increase in infections and the emergence of the highly contagious Brazilian strain of the virus.

Crude production in Venezuela, a former oil power 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 3 million barrels a day that this country put on the market when Maduro came to power in 2013. The Chavist leader has promised to increase that figure to 1.5 million this year, but specialists are skeptical.

Venezuelan supply collapse began before sanctions, between reports of mismanagement in the oil industry and cases of multi-million dollar corruption.

Maduro’s proposal recalls the United Nations oil-for-food programImplemented to meet the humanitarian needs of the Iraqi people after the Gulf War, amid economic sanctions imposed after Iraqi troops invaded Kuwait in August 1990.

With information from AFP and EFE

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