On the occasion of the 75th Period of Sessions of the United Nations General Assembly, President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, held a meeting on Wednesday via video conference with UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, to discuss the importance of strengthening multilateralism amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
At the meeting, also attended by Minister of People’s Power for Foreign Affairs, Jorge Arreaza, and Ambassador of Venezuela to the UN, Samuel Moncada, the Venezuelan president outlined the strategy used by the Bolivarian Government to contain the propagation of coronavirus and provide healthcare to the people, thus achieving so far an 85% recovery rate and one of the world’s lowest mortality rate.
Likewise, the Venezuelan head of State agreed with the UN secretary-general on “the need of guaranteeing treatment and vaccines for everybody,” said Foreign Minister Arreaza on his Twitter account @jaarreaza, where he gave details of the official meeting between the two authorities.
President Maduro also presented his proposal to create a Revolving Fund for Public Procurement in the United Nations System to guarantee access to food and medicines, financed by public resources, especially for those countries such as Cuba, Iran and Venezuela, suffering from economic, financial blockades by the U.S. Government and its allies.
In his statement at the 75th Session of the UN General Assembly on Wednesday, President Maduro explained that this revolving fund will make it possible to face economic discrimination and blockades against countries and will help governments purchase essential goods and services. Likewise, he called for strengthening financing policies and funds aimed to develop local productive chains and new economic actors, as well as the creation of a Bank for Free Technologies and Universal Training Processes.
Also, President Maduro sent the UN Secretary-General a report titled “The Truth of Venezuela against the Lima Group Infamy,” a document written by the Venezuelan State’s institutions that systematizes the violations of human rights committed by those promoting violence against the country, in contrast to the report written by alleged “experts” from an “independent” international mission against the South American nation.
In this regard, the Venezuelan president ratified Venezuela’s cooperation with the UN Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, who recently recognized the progress in the technical cooperation between her office and the Venezuelan Government, including the endorsement of the renewal of the Letter of Understanding signed on September 20, 2019, for a renewable year.
Finally, President Maduro reiterated the invitation to the UN Secretary-General to send a technical commission to accompany the parliamentary elections on December 6, as established by the Venezuelan Constitution and laws.