Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Sunday proposed paying for vaccines against the novel coronavirus with oil, though he provided few details about how such a scheme would work.
The crisis-stricken OPEC nation’s crude exports have plummeted to their lowest levels in decades since Washington sanctioned state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela in 2019, cutting off Venezuela’s exports to the United States and dissuading many other customers from buying Venezuelan oil as well.
Maduro said Venezuela was working to pay for vaccines from the World Health Organization’s (WHO) COVAX mechanism - which provides vaccine access to poor countries - both through Venezuelan funds frozen in overseas accounts due to sanctions, and through oil shipments.
Venezuela has received vaccine doses from allies Russia and China. The government and the opposition had been in talks with the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) over Venezuela’s access to vaccines through COVAX, but the government said last week it would not accept the AstraZeneca PLC vaccine, one of the main inoculations deployed by COVAX in Latin America.
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