'Vaccine for votes': the militants of Nicolás Maduro's party, among the first to be vaccinated with Sputnik V

Ludmila Vinogradoff

02/11/2021 6:01 AM

• Clarín.com

• World

Updated 02/11/2021 6:01 AM

The vaccination of Venezuelans is politicized.

Nicolás Maduro announced that next week

some 100,000 doses of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine

will arrive in Caracas

and the first to be vaccinated will be health workers and Chavista militants from his We are Venezuela party.

In his radio and television address, Maduro said that "we are going to vaccinate all medical personnel, health personnel, the most vulnerable sectors."

Referring to the vaccination of these sectors, he promised that the first beneficiaries of the Russian vaccine

are the militants of the We are Venezuela Movement.

The Movement We Are Venezuela (MVS) party, with a socialist and anti-imperialist tendency, was created by Maduro in June 2017 and legalized before the National Electoral Council (CNE) in January 2018. It is curious that he prioritizes vaccination over his political formation and not to the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (Psuv) founded by Chávez, with Diosdado Cabello being his vice president.

It is also surprising that Maduro signed a contract with Moscow in December to purchase 10 million Sputnik vaccines, classifying them as the best in the world.

So far it has omitted all the announcements about this hiring, except for the first 100,000 doses that will arrive in Caracas next week and

that would reach only 50,000 Venezuelans

(two doses per person).

The political discrimination of immunization, announced by Maduro, anticipates that they will

use it to get "votes for the vaccine"

, ahead of the regional elections of governors and mayors scheduled for mid-year to perhaps favor his son Nicolasito, who is candidate for governor of Vargas (the coast of Caracas).

This same coercive mechanism of "he who does not vote does not eat" was applied by Chavismo in the legislative elections of last December 6.

Cash issues

But the vaccination of Venezuelans to protect themselves from the coronavirus not only faces politicization and discrimination from the regime but also the lack of financing to acquire it internationally.

And it is that the Maduro regime

owes between 11 and 18 million dollars

to the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), which blocks the supply of anticovid vaccines.

This Tuesday the deadline for Venezuela to pay for the vaccines against covid-19 that it has reserved through the global access fund (Covax) of the Pan American Health Organization expired.

Paollo Balladelli, PAHO representative in Venezuela, reported the deadline a week ago.

Between 1,425,000 and 2,409,600 doses

of AstraZeneca vaccines

must be paid

for, which would arrive in the country at the end of February.

The medical union and experts have expressed concern over the absence of a political agreement between Juan Guaidó, recognized as interim president of the Republic, and Nicolás Maduro

for payment with Venezuelan resources abroad.

Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó during a press conference in Caracas (Venezuela) Photo EFE

"The political scenario is complicated and incongruous, as well as not very diligent in not fulfilling the commitments with international bodies," said Douglas León Natera, president of the Venezuelan Medical Federation, to

La Prensa.

Interim President Guaidó announced this week that he

is willing to manage

the supply of vaccines internationally, but so far there has been no agreement with Maduro.

"We are in frantic discussions with anyone we can contact to move this forward due to the consequences it will have for the Venezuelan population," said Ciro Ugarte, director of health emergencies at the Pan American Health Organization, the Latin American arm of the WHO.

.

"What we want is for the Venezuelan population to be vaccinated, and as we see now, that is not yet possible."

While Maduro presents as a solution for those infected with covid-19 the

“miraculous droplets” of Carvativir

, whose chemical composition is a mouthwash that all medical and scientific associations have rejected and questioned.

The creators of Carvativir are merchants who have had propaganda bellows only with the head of the regime.

PB

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