Government and opposition reach political agreement for vaccine purchase in Venezuela

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and the Venezuelan opposition led by Juan Guaidó have struck a delicate political deal to give the country access to a massive covid-19 vaccination program with assistance from international organizations.

The pact foresees that resources from assets withheld abroad by sanctions against the chavista regime will be destined to access the so-called COVAX platform, promoted by the World Health Organization (WHO).

The resources released, in dispute between the parties, will allow the purchase of 12 million doses of vaccine for about six million people. It is, in principle, the vaccine patented by the laboratory AstraZeneca, whose application was temporarily suspended in some countries as a precaution due to side effects.

The news was well received by the public, including by the critical sectors that support Guaidó in the opposition ranks, which have long been clamoring for the establishment of dialogue mechanisms to break the absurdity of the political polarization that determines life in the country. The breakdown of the oil state and the isolation of Maduro’s government have caused many people to fear for the indefinite prolongation of the pandemic’s damage in Venezuela.

The ‘Mesa Técnica’ (Technical Table), the team that established the conditions of the agreement, was composed of opposition political leaders, Venezuelan medical and academic societies, representatives of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), UNICEF, and Maduro’s Ministry of Popular Power for Health.

The consolidation and development of this task force took place amid enormous difficulties and preconditions. The announcement of the agreement was made by Guaidó himself and a commission of the National Assembly elected in 2015, with a majority of the opposition -the only instances recognized by the United States-, which continue to reject Maduro and the election of the Chavista Parliament, and which today operate in conditions of semi-clandestinity.

The Maduro administration maintains a judicial dispute with the opposition and the U.S. Treasury over the control of frozen resources abroad. Although it has authorized the agreements, it has behaved in this episode with total reserve and discretion. Part of the money is made up of the nation’s deposits frozen in a Bank of England account.

Guaidó must apply to the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) for a license to enable these funds. As part of the agreement, the opposition parliament will ask the Central Bank of Venezuela, in Maduro’s hands, to use US$30 million that will be earmarked for vaccines and access to cold chains.

“In Venezuela there is no more room for improvisation and politicization, so it is essential that vaccines are administered and distributed by humanitarian agencies. Enough of the negligence and political management that have cost lives in our country,” Guaidó said when making the announcement, which obtained for his cause an important political trump card, the first in a long time.

For his part, Miguel Pizarro, representative of the Venezuelan opposition at the United Nations, and one of the architects of the agreement, said: “We must emphasize that the funds of the nation, whose use must be requested and approved by the National Assembly, be destined directly to multilateral agencies and mechanisms for the transparency that this humanitarian operation requires.

Source: El Pais