Ahmed Kaballo reports on the shortages in medicines caused by US led sanctions, and the measures being taken by Venezuela to obvert the impact. Read his thoughts and message (posted on 7 March) below the video.
I met with Venezuela’s Deputy Healthcare Minister Gerardo Briceno yesterday and learnt about the multifaceted ways in which the economy war against #Venezuela has contributed to the lack of medical supplies and the effect it has had on the health sector since 2014.
1. Because of U.S bullying tactics , many multinationals that provided medical supplies have left, others have refused to sell to #Venezuela and the ones that, still, do exploit the situation and charge 45%/50% more then what is charged to #Colombia because morality isn’t going to stop them making some extra dollars.
2. Venezuela has attempted to buy from #China and #India but payments get blocked. They tried through the #PanAmericanHealthOrganization to buy medical supplies from Brazil paying via a Portuguese bank but it never went through and the money wasn’t returned. This prevented the vaccination of around 2.6 million children.
3. Euroclear, a key pillar of the international financial exchange system, was used for transactions but they withheld 1.25 billion much needed dollars which could’ve funded some health programs for a year.
As a result of the intermediaries that have withheld funds, including the bank of England, the Venezuelan government are now looking for alternative ways to trying to get around the banking system and the Oil minister has gone to #India to discuss the idea of oil for medicine.
4. Health indicators were improving year by year from 1999- 2014 then they started to dip because of issues mentioned but despite destabilisation attempts, withholding funds and a rampant black market, according to the minister, the health indices are still higher than before 1998.
5. Please check out Minister’s twitter @Gerardo_saludve for a detailed breakdown of how medical supplies have been exploited by external forces who don’t mind using the life and health of Venezuelans as either bargaining chips to force Venezuela to give in to #Washington or pharmas to make more money.
6. Finally, the Minister admitted that they struggle to get this info out, and the mainstream media purposely omit it. So please share, share, share! Go on his Twitter page and translate into your language.
#Venezuela’s VP is in #Russia at the moment trying to get more medical supplies.
Let the 🌍 know why!
Via Ahmed Kaballo, Facebook
