Vaccines for Venezuela: the bold step that the United States has already decided and which seeks to implement

Washington DC – Nicolás Maduro thinks the United States is a government of “miserable people who hate and despise Venezuela”. He said this a few weeks ago when he checked that his country was not on the list of those receiving vaccines as donations. Beyond the verbal pyrotechnics of the head of the Venezuelan regime, the reality is different: The United States has already decided to deliver vaccines to Venezuelans.

The operation is not easy. A month ago, Infobae posed a question to Gayle Smith, the U.S. government’s global Covid-19 response coordinator, at a meeting in Washington.

Is Washington considering donating vaccines to Caracas, despite the enormous political distance between the two countries? The question has made Smith, who is responsible for handling million dollar vaccine donations to low- and middle-income countries, which Joe Biden’s government is making noticeably nervous. Smith is one of the officials helping to carve out a benevolent face for the United States, which wants to once again become the main and indisputable player in the region.

“Our vision is that vaccines must be available to citizens everywhere if we are to end the pandemic. Whether or not we provide them is another matter. So I can’t talk about details, but I believe in principle that vaccines should be available everywhere. “

Has there really been no debate on the subject within the government? Didn’t the idea circulate? Smith received the crossover question with added tension and tried to squeeze in the answer, “I’m not going to get into the internal discussions we’ve had about how to distribute the vaccines. But I can tell you what the axes are. The first is that we believe vaccines should be available everywhere. And like the United States that we are, we will do everything to maximize coverage. Coordinate with other countries and offer donations ”.

Debate in Joe Biden’s government ended with a decision, as he was able to confirm Infobae with different actors linked to the issue in Washington and Caracas: bring vaccines to Venezuelans living in Venezuela (the UN estimates that six million will have emigrated by the end of this year), a step which is a major political bet, and therefore so difficult and delicate.

“In two years, all the countries of the world will give a speech, and there are only three possible: we thank Vladimir Putin for solving our covid problem, we want to thank Xi Jinping for solving it or we want to thank the United States and the West, ”he said. Infobae Daniel Runde, former senior development aid official to George Bush Jr.

“My preference is that all countries in the Western Hemisphere, including Venezuela, give the third speech, thanking the United States and the West.”, added the now senior vice president of the International Center for Strategic Studies (CSIS), one of the Think tanks most influential people in Washington.

“Solving this problem is the strategic grand prize of the first half of the 21st century. It grants the license to be hegemonic. This license for the United States is in danger if we do not solve the global covid problem. Biden named Gayle Smith who is an amazing person. It would be very good, a gesture of greatness on the part of the United States, not to politicize the issue. The Venezuelan people will never forget that if the United States makes a donation, they will remember us in 50 years ”.

The weekly “The Economist” estimates that the United States and the West would miss the “opportunity of the century” if they did not carry out the mass vaccination in the countries of the world which do not have access to vaccines. “It would not only be financial madness, but also moral failure and diplomatic disaster.”

Felipe Solá, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Argentina, a country which maintains an ambiguous position towards the Maduro regime and has ceased to recognize the government of Juan Guaidó, said Infobae during his recent visit to New York which supports the donation.

“Absolutely. I believe that when a people are like the Venezuelan, who are in a very negative situation, the donation of vaccines is not at all negative. Access also, possibility of purchase. I agree that There are 500 million vaccines that the United States gives to dozens and dozens of poor countries, but we also want there to be, and we regret that Venezuela is not, a policy for income countries intermediate ”.

Venezuela’s dual command – Maduro and Guaidó’s regime as president in charge – makes it difficult for vaccines to get into the country, but the US Treasury Department is about to take a big step: unlock the money Venezuelan, at the time under embargo, so that Guaidó could pay for the logistics to distribute the vaccines in the country.

Cold chain and distribution, two essential aspects

Vaccines alone are not enough. These are millions of dollars that will go directly to UNICEF and the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) to make sure the vaccines don’t go bad.

Putting the issue in the hands of Unicef ​​and PAHO is also a way of “helping to make vaccination accessible and depoliticized, and not a tool of social control or a treat cherished by corruption”, Guaidó government sources in Washington said.

Meanwhile, Maduro continues his fight with those responsible for the Covax mechanism. Last week, he asked to send the promised anti-ovid vaccines to Venezuela or, if not, “get your money back”.

“Enough of mocking the Venezuelan people of the Covax system, someone got their hands over there so that the vaccines don’t get to Venezuela,” Venezuelan president said after his state ultimatum VTV.

In June, the Venezuelan regime denounced that part of the resources deposited for the acquisition of anti-covid vaccines from COVAX had been blocked by an international bank and was the subject of an investigation.

There are twelve million vaccines due to arrive via the Covax fund administered by the World Health Organization (WHO) and PAHO, but there is also another, as yet undetermined, number of vaccines that the Biden government wants. send to Caracas with its mark. What remains to be defined is how he will deliver them.

International observers who follow the Venezuelan reality from Washington and Caracas have emphasized Infobae What the arrival of vaccines donated by the United States would be extremely important given the “cross signals” between Caracas and Washington to “create a space for direct negotiation”.

Of course, they warn: if we aspire to open a negotiating route, the arrival of vaccines in Venezuela should not be “in exchange for nothing”. Avoid “politicizing the problem”. And they cite the experience of the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) as a model for a possible path.

“What the (American) administration told us is that Venezuela is one of the countries to which they are considering donating vaccines,” confirmed to Infobae Miguel Pizarro, United Nations Commissioner of the Guaidó government. “The way for Venezuela, as for other countries, is to receive them through the Covax mechanism or the mechanisms of humanitarian agencies to guarantee their access and their implementation. The decision of the moment depends on the planning of the expeditions on the American side“He added.

The United States aims to be an actor to improve the health situation in Venezuela and to pave the way that Runde mentioned: that Venezuelans thank the West and not Russia and China. A step in line with what the Biden administration had already anticipated on June 15 during the summit with the European Union.

“The United States and the European Union represent 780 million people who share democratic values ​​and the world’s greatest economic relationship. We have the opportunity and the responsibility to help people earn a living and ensure their security, fight climate change and defend democracy and human rights. After World War II, we laid the foundations for the global economy and the rules-based international order based on openness, fair competition, transparency and accountability. Some rules need updating: to protect our health, our climate and the planet, to ensure that democracy works and that technology improves our lives, ”the statement read.

And then the US and the EU get to work on the region. Point 4 proposes “to put an end to the Covid-19 pandemic through global cooperation (…) We pledge to continue to support the Covax mechanism and to encourage more donors to make 2 billion doses of vaccines available. in the world by the end of 2021. We aim to vaccinate at least two-thirds of the world’s population by the end of 2022 ”.

Point 32 of the joint declaration is also very relevant: “We also commit to strengthen our cooperation with the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean to support socio-economic recovery, fight against economic vulnerability and promote more democratic governance. strong, including support for a negotiated outcome. this leads to free and fair elections in Venezuela ”.

The vaccines for Venezuelans living in Venezuela thus have the ultimate objective of helping to unblock the political situation in the country. But, for this to be possible, it must be done with discretion and delicacy, in order to bring the two powers which are vying for the control of the lives of Venezuelans to an agreement. The pandemic could do it.

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