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<div class="header reader-header reader-show-element"><font
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href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/15097">https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/15097</a></font>
<h1 class="reader-title">Guaido Accused of Blocking Vaccines as
Venezuela Sends Covid-19 Aid to Brazil</h1>
<div class="credits reader-credits">By Paul Dobson - January 18,
2021<br>
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<p>Mérida, January 18, 2021 (<a
href="http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/">venezuelanalysis.com</a>)
– Venezuela’s self-declared “Interim President” Juan
Guaido has allegedly refused to use funds under his
control to purchase additional Covid-19 vaccines for the
country.</p>
<p>According to<a
href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-venezuela-politics/venezuela-says-guaido-nixed-deal-to-buy-coronavirus-vaccines-opposition-denies-idUSKBN29J2AL">
documents</a> seen by Reuters,<a
href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/14244">
Guaido’s</a> team turned down overtures from the
Venezuelan Central Bank (BCV) to free up US $120 million
worth of frozen assets in the UK. The BCV reportedly
proposed bypassing the US blockade and purchasing
UK-produced vaccines through the<a
href="https://www.gavi.org/"> Gavi financing program</a>,
which looks to boost poorer countries’ vaccination
programmes via the World Health Organization’s (WHO)
COVAX system.</p>
<p>“The impact of the pandemic in Venezuela has worsened,
and President [Nicolas] Maduro’s government has been
unable to effect payment to Gavi to secure access to
Covid-19 vaccines by any other means,” a statement from
BCV lawyers Zaiwalla & Co. reads.</p>
<p>In response, Guaido’s legal counsel Arnold & Porter
allegedly responded that “our clients cannot consent” to
the proposal. Guaido’s team has since claimed that the
response is a fake.</p>
<p>London and Washington continue to recognise Guaido as
Venezuela’s legitimate leader, despite the opposition
man being<a
href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/15089">
shunned</a> by the European Union last week and his
position as National Assembly president expiring.</p>
<p>The UK and US have <a
href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/14850">frozen</a>
a range of Venezuela’s foreign-based assets, including<a
href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/14880">
US-based oil subsidiary CITGO</a> and<a
href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/15014"> US
$1.8 billion of gold</a> stored in the Bank of
England, with some of them having been <a
href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/14853">transferred</a>
to Guaido’s “administration.”</p>
<p>Caracas’ efforts to use the UK-based gold for a
UN-mediated purchase of healthcare equipment were
similarly <a
href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/14929">derailed</a>
last July, with Guaido contesting the BCV’s control of
the reserves. The US-backed opposition sectors were <a
href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/14853">revealed
</a>to be using funds under their control to pay
loyalists up to US $5000 a month, while Guaido himself
is currently facing a series of<a
href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/14545">
embezzlement</a> and corruption charges.</p>
<p>The seizure of Venezuelan assets has come alongside an
escalation of US sanctions against the Caribbean country
which also<a
href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/14615">
prohibit</a> firms from trading with Caracas or
processing payment for goods or services. Equally, the
policy opens the way for<a
href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/14791">
secondary sanctions</a> against any non-US firm or
government dealing with Venezuela. The sanctions have
been widely <a
href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/14823">condemned
</a>by the international community and<a
href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/14446">
described</a> as “collective punishment” by the Center
for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR).</p>
<p>As a result, Caracas has been increasingly forced to
turn to international intermediaries, including the WHO,
the Pan-American Health Organization and the United
Nations or allied countries, to oversee payment or swap
deals to acquire goods including vaccines.</p>
<p>To date, Venezuela has<a
href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/15086"> only
managed</a> to purchase Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine,
which was formally authorised for use last Wednesday and
is expected to be rolled out before April. The Caribbean
country identified 497 morecases and five deaths on
Sunday, bringing the total to 119,803 cases and 1,105
deaths.</p>
<h2>International solidarity against the pandemic</h2>
<p>Despite a recent increase in coronavirus cases,
Venezuela continues to suffer far less than its
neighbours, many of whom are beginning to apply a range
of vaccines.</p>
<p>During a high-level delegation to Cuba over the
weekend, Vice President Delcy Rodriguez reiterated<a
href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/15080"> calls</a>
for the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our
America (ALBA) to create a vaccine bank for the benefit
of member countries. While in Havana, she also announced
that a bi-national observatory is to be formed to
evaluate and counter the impact of Washington’s “illicit
and illegal” unilateral coercive measures against both
nations.</p>
<p>Likewise, a National Scientific Centre for<a
href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3312702/">
Ozone-therapy</a> was inaugurated in northern Caracas
on Sunday, which Maduro described as a “pioneering
project for Latin America.” The centre will reportedly
look to “develop the application of ozone-therapy as a
complementary medical treatment for different
pathologies, with special emphasis on Covid-19.”</p>
<p>Venezuela also took action to assist in an escalating
Covid-19 emergency in the Brazilian city of Manaus over
the weekend under the banner of “Latin American
solidarity before anything else!”</p>
<p>The isolated city in the bordering Amazonas State,
which has difficult communications with the rest of
Brazil but houses 2 million people, has been overrun by
Covid-19 in recent days, with Reuters<a
href="https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN29L0KD">
reporting</a> that its healthcare system is “at
breaking point” and that mass graves are being dug. AFP
has<a
href="https://www.eluniversal.com/politica/88541/venezuela-ofrece-oxigeno-para-atender-contingencia-sanitaria-de-covid19-en-brasil">
quoted</a> on-the-ground scientists as saying that
“oxygen tanks have run out and some hospital units have
become a type of suffocation chamber.”</p>
<p>In response, 107 Venezuelan and Brazilian doctors from
Caracas’<a
href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/video/6703">
Salvador Allende Latin American Medical School</a>
(ELAM) were dispatched south of the border on Saturday
to assist, in coordination with regional Brazilian
authorities.</p>
<p>Alongside the so-called Simon Bolivar Medical Brigade,
Venezuela also sent 136,000 litres of oxygen --
equivalent to 14,000 individual tanks – as part of the
humanitarian land convoy. The convoy, which will travel
1500 kilometres from Venezuela’s Puerto Ordaz to Manaus,
is expected to arrive on Monday night or Tuesday
morning.</p>
<p>Maduro explained that his government “has extended its
solidarity to the people of Amazonas because they are
our brother people. The Brazilian people should know
that we are willing to help Brazil as much as we can.”
Brazil’s far right President Jair Bolsonaro <a
href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/15002">fails
to recognise</a> Maduro as Venezuela’s head of state
and has broken off diplomatic relations between the two
countries.</p>
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