Venezuela slams US veto of access to IMF resources

Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodriguez has slammed the US for vetoing Venezuela's access to $5 billion in International Monetary Fund (IMF) Special Drawing Rights.

"The International Monetary Fund refuses to give our people the $5 billion dollars that correspond to our country to fight the pandemic. The reason: the express veto of the US against Venezuela," said Rodriguez.

In a teleconference speech to the Un Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), Rodriguez added the US has "blocked" Venezuela's foreign trade through sanctions, otherwise known as "unilateral coercive measures", reports Xinhua news agency.

"We have been the target of more than 430 unilateral coercive measures that have blocked our foreign and private trade, against all legal principles of sovereign immunity," said the Vice President.


In the oil sector alone, the sanctions have led to losses of more than $63 billion, leading to "a drastic 99 per cent reduction in revenue" for Venezuela, said Rodriguez.

"These measures are crimes against humanity and violate the international system of guarantee of human rights," she said.

Rodriguez formally issued a "request for UNCTAD to group, quantify and analySe the macroeconomic impacts of unilateral coercive measures" on Venezuela.


Despite Washington's economic "attacks", the South American nation "is making progress in the recovery of its economic equilibrium, through progressive openness in foreign trade" and in the investment sector, she said - IANS