(ANSA) - CARACAS, 4 JAN - Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has announced that the governments of England, Portugal, Spain and the United States have denied Caracas the release of the country's funds kept in their banks requested by Venezuela to purchase anti-Covid vaccines .
In a speech on state TV Vtv, Maduro announced the existence of a "geopolitical war" on vaccines between the governments of the United States and Europe to see "who dominates and who commands in the world".
The Venezuelan president asked himself "what is the position of the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, and of the World Health Organization (WHO), in the face of this appalling war".
"Do the people of the South, Africa, Asia and Latin America have the right to have access to vaccines, yes or no? Will only the protected and the multimillionaires of the world have access?".
In rich countries, he continued, vaccinations have begun and "attempts have been made to impose western vaccines by starting campaigns against those of Russia, China and Cuba, and the others who are outside the orbit of Western domination".
In this context, the head of state stressed that his administration had to make enormous efforts "because the Venezuelan financial resources to buy vaccines are frozen and controlled by the governments of England, Portugal, Spain and the United States and their banking institutions".
"We asked - concluded Maduro - that they give us back that money to buy vaccines through the WHO, but they said no, and for this reason we reject the geopolitical and mercantilist use of vaccines". (ANSA).