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The government of Nicolás Maduro has branded Venezuelan migrants who have tried to return to Venezuela as “biological bombs”. However, he takes advantage of the controversy of vaccination in Colombia to call President Iván Duque, “xenophobic.”
The Government of Nicolás Maduro on Thursday accused the President of Colombia, Iván Duque, of “racist and xenophobic” for denying vaccines against the coronavirus to Venezuelans living in that country and who have not yet regularized their documentation.
“This is terrible discrimination, a charge of racism, xenophobia and generation of hatred against Venezuelan migrants in Colombia. We can’t allow it”Said the Venezuelan vice president, Delcy Rodríguez.
For this reason, the vice president explained, she presented a “strong protest” to the representatives in Venezuela of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, with whom they held a “very important” meeting.
See more: Iván Duque says that irregular migrants will not have a vaccine against the coronavirus
“We have denounced the terrible, barbaric, depraved statements made by Mr. Iván Duque (…) such a violative expression that it violates the human rights of Venezuelan migrants,” he continued.
Duque said on 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 to arrive in February 2021, a statement that has earned him numerous criticisms.
Colombia is the largest recipient of the Venezuelan exodus and as of October 31 of this year the country had 1,717,352 citizens of that country, of which 55% are in an irregular situation, according to data from the immigration authority.
Called to return
Rodríguez reiterated this Thursday the call to Venezuelans to return to their country, since he once again denied the veracity of the migration figures handled by bodies such as the UN, according to which some 5.4 million Venezuelans have emigrated in the last years.
“Return to Venezuela (…) we know that there are not many, these figures have been manipulated, they speak of a figure that has no basis or the possibility of transport that allows such mobility, it is a fake,” he said.
See more: The Colombian government’s explanation of the controversy regarding vaccines for migrants
The vice president recalled that this year some 200,000 Venezuelans returned to the country in the midst of the pandemic and thanks to the government’s return plan, known as “Vuelta a la Patria.”
“We demand respect for the human rights of Venezuelans in other countries, who left in search of a horizon,” he remarked.
He also pointed out that some six million Colombians live in Venezuela, who “have never been denied anything.”
Lift sanctions
At the meeting, in which the Venezuelan Foreign Minister, Jorge Arreaza, and the country’s representative for human rights, Larry Devoe, participated, the Maduro Executive insisted on the need to lift the economic sanctions imposed in recent years, especially from the United States. .
“We report the steps taken by President Nicolás Maduro in order to unlock resources that allow Venezuela to access the Russian Sputnik V vaccine and others that are already recognized to address the covid-19 pandemic,” Rodríguez said.
See more: Why should Colombia vaccinate migrants?
He said that Venezuela “has resources with which to pay for its vaccination,” but these “were blocked by orders of (US President) Donald Trump”, alluding to the more than 300 sanctions that, according to the Chavista Executive, the United States has imposed. USA
In addition, he added, Venezuela has “many liquid financial resources in Europe” so the Government is “making arrangements for them to be released in order to access and pay for the Russian vaccine.
