Venezuela government wants to use funds frozen in US to pay for vaccines 

Venezuela's government wants funds frozen in the United States to be put toward paying for coronavirus vaccines and will keep working with the opposition to negotiate this payment, the head of the government-controlled legislature said on Tuesday. 

Allies of opposition leader Juan Guaido have for months been in talks with state officials to buy vaccines through the COVAX programme using funds frozen by the US Treasury as part of sanctions against the government of President Nicolas Maduro. 

Maduro over the weekend said his government had paid some $64 million to the GAVI Vaccine Alliance, spurring doubts as to whether the government would pull the plug on talks to use the frozen funds for the inoculation campaign. 

Jorge Rodriguez, head of the National Assembly dominated by the ruling Socialist Party, said talks regarding the 'kidnapped' funds would continue. 

"If more of the kidnapped resources are used, it would be to buy the vaccines that are needed via the (Pan American Health Organisation) and the (World Health Organisation)," Rodriguez said in a news conference. 

In 2019, Washington froze $342 million held by the Venezuelan central bank in the United States, as part of a sanctions programme that sought to remove Maduro from power.  

The funds were put under the control of opposition leader Guaido and the interim government he created, but moving them requires a license from the US Treasury Department Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). 

A working group created last year to ensure Venezuela's access to COVAX, which includes health ministry officials as well as advisers to Guaido, will continue seeking to use the OFAC funds for vaccines, Rodriguez said.  

His comments were the first time a government official has publicly acknowledged the discussions with the Guaido allies, who he described as 'kidnappers’.  

(With inputs from agencies)