The Sector Vice-president of Planning of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Ricardo Menéndez, participated this Tuesday in the Fourth Meeting of the Forum of the Countries of Latin America and the Caribbean on Sustainable Development, where he proposed the creation of a sovereign and autonomous fund of the the United Nations System for the fulfillment of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).
During his speech, Vice-president Menéndez stressed that this fund cannot depend on sponsors “so that it can be the United Nations, firm, the one that exercises precisely the policies of the SDGs and helps to ensure that there is no interference in any country.”
Likewise, he urged the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) and the United Nations (UN) to order a Bank of Inputs “for production and food security of the nations so the countries can go to the United Nations System and be able to access those resources that feed the economy and the dynamics within our countries.”
He reiterated that due to unilateral coercive measures, in recent years Venezuela’s income has been reduced to 1%. “We have lost 99% of the income in Venezuela, that is, of the 56 billion dollars that we received monthly, we receive less than 740 million dollars a year.”
Likewise, he indicated that international financing has become more expensive by more than 2 thousand percent and additionally there was the blockade of more than 5 billion dollars in international accounts. “Resources that should be available to attack the pandemic, serve the agribusiness or the pharmaceutical industry”, he added.
“Venezuela has full resources to vaccinate 100% of its population, but we ask the United Nations System to help us unblock the resources in the banks of the United States and Europe”, exhorted Vice-president Menéndez
Finally, he added that Venezuela has fully incorporated the United Nations SDGs into the Plan for the Homeland, with the intention of overcoming the current situation due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the aggressions by US imperialism and its allies.