The government of Nicolás Maduro on Thursday accused the president of Colombia, Iván Duque, of being “racist and xenophobic” because he refused the vaccines against covid-19 to the Venezuelans who live in that country and who have not yet regularized their documentation.
“This is terrible discrimination, a burden of racism, xenophobia and hatred against Venezuelan migrants in Colombia. We cannot allow this,” said Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez.
For this reason, the vice-president explained, she presented a “strong protest” to the Venezuelan representatives of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, with whom they held a “very important” meeting.
“I denounced the terrible, barbaric, depraved statements made by Mr. Iván Duque (…) such a violent expression that it violates the human rights of Venezuelan migrants,” he continued.
Duque said Monday that Venezuelan migrants who are not regularized in Colombia or do not have dual nationality will not be able to access the vaccines that will begin arriving in February 2021, a statement that has drawn much criticism.
Colombia is the largest beneficiary of the Venezuelan exodus and, as of October 31, the country had 1,717,352 citizens of that country, of which 55% are in an irregular situation, according to the immigration authority.
CALL BACK
Rodríguez reiterated on Thursday the call of Venezuelans to return to their country, as he once again denied the veracity of the migration figures managed by bodies such as the UN, according to which about 5.4 million Venezuelans emigrated last year.
“Returning to Venezuela (…) we know that there are not many, these figures have been manipulated, we are talking about a figure that has no basis or possibility of transport that would allow such mobility, it is false,” he said .
The vice president recalled that this year about 200,000 Venezuelans returned to the country in the midst of the pandemic and due to the government’s return plan, known as the “Vuelta a la Patria”.
“We demand respect for the human rights of Venezuelans in other countries, who have set out in search of a horizon,” he said.
He also pointed out that about six million Colombians live in Venezuela, which “have never been denied anything.”
LIFT PENALTIES
At the meeting, which was attended by Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza and the country’s human rights representative Larry Devoe, the Maduro Executive stressed the need to lift the economic sanctions imposed in recent years, especially in the United States. .
“We report on the steps taken by President Nicolás Maduro to unblock the resources that allow Venezuela to access the Russian Sputnik V vaccine and others that are already recognized to address the covid-19 pandemic,” Rodriguez said.
He said Venezuela “has the resources to pay for its vaccine,” but that it “was blocked by orders from (US President) Donald Trump,” alluding to the more than 300 sanctions that, according to the Chavista Executive, it has imposed. imposed by the USA. United States of America
In addition, he added, Venezuela has “many liquid financial resources in Europe”, so the government is “arranging for them to be released to access and pay for the Russian vaccine”.