ZCZC
BCN-14
VENEZUELA-IMPORT-FOOD-MEDICINE
Venezuela ready to import food, medicine worth $2.5 bln, vice president
says
MOSCOW, Mar 2, 2019 (BSS/TASS) – Caracas is ready to import food and
medicine worth $2.5 bln, Venezuelan Executive Vice President Delcy Rodriguez
said at a joint press conference following Moscow talks with Russian Foreign
Minister Sergey Lavrov on Friday.
“We have held talks with the European Union’s international contact group
and representatives of Uruguay, presenting a list of items that we are ready
to buy, worth about $2.5 bln,” she said. “The maritime blockade makes it
impossible to bring it all to Venezuela,” Rodriguez added.
According to her, Venezuela may use its assets frozen in European banks to
pay for food and medicine. “This is a real cooperation mechanism and not fake
humanitarian aid,” she noted.
“Venezuela only needs one thing: the illegal blockade that prevents the
delivery of food and medicine to our country and does not allow us to produce
them ourselves must be lifted,” the Venezuelan vice president pointed out.
“This crisis is being artificially created under the guidance of the US,
which is actually stealing our country’s financial assets. What is happening
is nothing but armed robbery,” Rodriguez emphasized.
Crisis in Venezuela
On January 23, Juan Guaido, Venezuelan opposition leader and parliament
speaker, whose appointment to that position had been cancelled by the
country’s Supreme Court, declared himself interim president at a rally in the
country’s capital of Caracas.
Several countries, including the United States, Lima Group members
(excluding Mexico), Australia, Albania, Georgia and Israel, as well as the
Organization of American States, recognized him. Maduro, in turn, blasted the
move as a coup staged by Washington and said he was severing diplomatic ties
with the US. On February 4, most of the European Union member states
recognized Guaido as Venezuela’s interim president.
In contrast, Russia, Belarus, Bolivia, Iran, Cuba, Nicaragua, El Salvador,
Syria and Turkey voiced support for Maduro, while China called for resolving
all differences peacefully and warned against foreign interference. The
United Nations secretary general, in turn, called for dialogue to resolve the
crisis.
On February 23, Venezuelan opposition members attempted to bring foreign
humanitarian aid into the country through the borders with Colombia and
Brazil, though the government had sealed the borders in order to prevent such
actions. The move triggered clashes between opposition activists and
Venezuelan police and National Guard units deployed to the border. Several
aid convoy trucks were burned down.
Caracas has many times accused Colombia of plotting an intervention in
Venezuela under the guise of a humanitarian mission.
BSS/AFP/HR/1450