Excerpt: "At the 46th session of the United Nations, Human Rights Council held on Monday, Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro repudiated the unilateral sanctions imposed by the United States and the European Union on his country and recalled that they have contributed to exhausting the epidemiological crisis."
President Nicolas Maduro delivers a virtual speech, Caracas, Venezuela, Feb. 22, 2021. (photo: Twitter/CancilleriaVE)
22 February 21
President Maduro denounced the continuous attacks against his country and recalled that those resources could have been used to fight the pandemic.
t the 46th session of the United Nations, Human Rights Council (HRC) held on Monday, Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro repudiated the unilateral sanctions imposed by the United States and the European Union on his country and recalled that they have contributed to exhausting the epidemiological crisis.
"The U.S. has applied over 450 unilateral coercive measures, which have caused economic damages for over US$30 billion, which could have been used to fight the COVID-19 pandemic and achieve better living standards for Venezuelans," said Maduro.
His statements were previously backed up by United Nations Human Rights expert Alena Douhan, who recently visited Venezuela and rendered a report on the negative impact of U.S. sanctions on this South American nation.
Although the U.S. blockade is a major obstacle in the fight against COVID-19, Venezuela has managed so far to keep the virus transmission under control.
“Douhan esp highlighted ‘devastating” impact of the blockade on ‘all of Venezuela’s population’ as well as on human rights, the economy & social coverage, directly linking it to recent migration levels, increased poverty & deteriorated living conditions” https://t.co/LbCkRGCAhO
— Jeffrey Kaye (@jeff_kaye) February 21, 2021
Besides recognizing the importance of the World Health Organization (WHO) to face the global pandemic, the Venezuelan President ratified multilateral approaches are the most effective solution to overcome it since it is a problem that equally affects everyone.
Therefore, Maduro called on world leaders to join forces and put aside selfish and individualist behaviors when addressing the COVID-19 vaccine distribution.
As of Monday morning, Venezuela had reported 136,068 COVID-19 cases and 1,316 related deaths.