Venezuela deepens cooperation with UN in fight against COVID-

President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela Nicolás Maduro held a telephone conversation with UN Secretary-General António Guterres about the necessary humanitarian cooperation of the multilateral organization with the Latin American country in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. After sharing his reflections on the propagation of the pandemic across the world and the risk of its expansion to the south, the Venezuelan president thanked the UN secretary-general for having included Venezuela in the group of countries that will receive special attention by the UN in its COVID-19 Global Humanitarian Response Plan. During the conversation, President Maduro explained the strategy implemented by his government to early address the propagation of the pandemic. UN secretary-general recognized the timely measures adopted by the Venezuelan government and shared his suggestions on some courses of action to make Venezuela’s strategy more effective. End of “sanctions” The Venezuelan president also acknowledged recent statements by both the UN secretary-general and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet to call for an immediate lifting of unilateral coercive measures, not just because they oppose the United Nations Charter, but also because they posed obstacles on countries to appropriately face the pandemic. Likewise, he praised UN secretary-general’s call for an immediate ceasefire on Monday, March 23, and affirmed that, while no armed conflict is underway in Venezuela, the South American country observes his call. On this matter, President Nicolás Maduro denounced the destabilizing actions hatched from Colombia against the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and its legitimate authorities. The Venezuelan president and the UN secretary-general committed to keeping contact and real-time necessary coordination.