“We are in the phase of approval and release of the funds,” he said in a live broadcast on social networks. Health sector staff will be paid $ 100 per month.
By:
AFP
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The opposition leader Juan Guaidó announced on Thursday night, August 20, that Washington, his main international ally, gave him control of more than 24.5 million dollars blocked by sanctions against Venezuela, to subsidize health workers and pay “debts” of Parliament.
“We are in the phase of approval and release of the funds,” Guaidó, a parliamentary chief recognized as president in charge of Venezuela by fifty countries, said in a live broadcast on social networks.
Part of the money released, 18.9 million dollars, will go to a subsidy plan coordinated with the Organization of American States (OAS), which will benefit more than 62,000 health workers, his communications team told AFP .
“The first contribution will be 100 dollars and it will reach 300 (dollars)”, deposited monthly in a virtual wallet starting Monday, Guaidó said.
The new coronavirus pandemic found Venezuela with a precarious public health system and galloping inflation, where nurses, internists and other health personnel earn “starvation wages,” according to the opposition.
Meanwhile, 1,182,430 dollars were disbursed for “debts” of Parliament, the only power in the hands of the opposition, which include “salaries for the years 2016 and 2017 of 192 main and alternate deputies (…), at a rate of 200 dollars a month per principal deputy and 160 dollars per alternate deputy, “said a statement released by his press team.
Since the opposition took control of the Legislative in 2016, its managers have denounced on numerous occasions that the national government has not allocated the necessary resources to fulfill its commitments to workers.
The remaining 4.5 million dollars were authorized to “support health cases of Venezuelans who are at risk of life or death” in the midst of the covid-19 pandemic, the document continued.
Since the new coronavirus arrived in Venezuela in March, a country of 30 million inhabitants, 37,567 have been infected and 311 have died, according to official figures, questioned by the opposition and organizations such as Human Rights Watch as not credible.
Washington has handed over to Guaidó, whom it recognizes as interim president, the control of accounts of Venezuela in the United States and companies such as the subsidiary of the state PDVSA in that country, Citgo.
This after not recognizing the reelection of socialist president Nicolás Maduro in May 2018, considering it “fraudulent.”
In support of Guaidó, the administration of Donald Trump has issued a battery of sanctions to pressure the departure of Maduro, whom it calls a “dictator”, and in August 2019 froze the assets of the Venezuelan government in the United States.
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