Nicolás Maduro criticizes U.S. Government’s refusal to donate vaccines to Venezuela

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, criticized on Thursday, June 3, 2021, that the United States government donates vaccines to the world and excludes the Caribbean country, with which it has maintained a manifest enmity for years.

“James Story (U.S. diplomatic representative for Venezuela from Colombia) has just declared that Joe Biden’s government is going to donate vaccines to the world, but will not donate vaccines to Venezuela”, said Maduro during a governmental act to promote the country’s agro-industry.

The reason for the US refusal to donate vaccines is the “hatred” of the North American country to Venezuela, said the president, while insulting Joe Biden.

“They have a hatred for us, low, miserable feelings. James Story, you are miserable, hate and despise Venezuela because we are rebels, Bolivarians, and Venezuela will have all its vaccines,” Maduro added during the event broadcast on the state television channel VTV.

Maduro assured that “over the misery of the empire, the moral and spiritual greatness of the people of Christ, of the people of God, of the Venezuelan people will prevail.”

“Miserable people, not only do they persecute so that nobody sells vaccines to Venezuela, but also, when they can, they open their rotten hearts to show their misery and hatred against Venezuelans”, added the President.

Venezuela has been carrying out, since Saturday, May 29, a new vaccination phase in several points of the country, even though it has not made public the plan being carried out, which is, according to the opposition and health organizations, discriminatory, by using as a reference the Patria System, used for the distribution of state aid.

This method is associated with the carnet de la patria, a non-compulsory document widely criticized for being considered a citizen control system for electoral purposes.

The number of vaccines available in the country is unknown and those already injected since the figure varies depending on the official providing the data.

The national progress of the vaccination, which aims to reach 70% of the population in October, has not been made public either, after Maduro extended his expectation of mass immunization, initially planned for August.

According to the latest official balance, the total number of infected persons in Venezuela amounts to 236,755 and the number of deaths to 2,674, data refuted by the opposition and the associations of independent doctors, who assure that there is a high “underestimation” in the figures.

The generous U.S. donations

The United States will begin “as soon as today”, Thursday, June 3, the shipment of millions of vaccines against Covid-19 to countries “with immediate needs” in South America, Central America, Africa, and Asia.

U.S. President Joe Biden had previously announced in a statement his plan for the global distribution of the vaccines, which includes the first batch of 6 million doses destined for South and Latin America.

According to the White House, in the Americas, the vaccines will be distributed among Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Costa Rica, Peru, Ecuador, Paraguay, Bolivia, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Panama, Haiti, and other Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries, as well as the Dominican Republic.

Venezuela was not listed as a recipient country.