Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez said on Wednesday that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has not yet delivered funds under a program to help countries battle the COVID-19 pandemic, amid a dispute over the government’s legitimacy.
By Reuters
Oct 7, 2021
In August, the IMF authorized Venezuela to receive around $5 billion in Special Drawing Rights (SDR) as part of a $650 billion global effort to boost liquidity for the world’s most vulnerable countries, but said it could not use them because of questions about whether President Nicolás Maduro or opposition leader Juan Guaido was the rightful leader.
Guaido, recognized by the United States as Venezuela’s legitimate president, said last month the two sides would discuss access to the SDRs at an internationally-mediated negotiation process in México City to resolve the South American country’s protracted political crisis.
Rodríguez said at the U.N. Conference on Trade and Development that the country had not yet received the funds, blaming a U.S. “veto.”
The United States, the IMF’s largest shareholder, has sanctioned Venezuelan state institutions in a push to oust Maduro, a socialist who it accuses of election-rigging and rights violations. Maduro denies the accusations.
“Venezuela reiterates its denunciation that the IMF refuses to deliver our people the $5 billion our country is owed to fight the pandemic,” Rodríguez said.
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Read More: Reuters – Venezuela says IMF has not delivered COVID-19 funds, blames U.S. ‘veto’
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