SSP condemns IMF decision to block Venezuelan application for Coronavirus aid

By Bill Bonnar, SSP International Secretary

The Scottish Socialist Party condemns the recent decision by the International Monetary Fund to block Venezuela’s application for an emergency aid package to tackle the Coronavirus pandemic.

The World Health Organisation has declared that the Coronavirus pandemic is a ‘public health emergency of international importance which requires the union of all countries working together to minimise its consequences’.

It would be interesting to learn what WHO officials think about the United States’ actions and the way they have tried to use the pandemic to further their own political agenda. More than anywhere, this is apparent in its actions against Venezuela.

Even before the current crisis, the Venezuelan health service has been reeling through a combination of budgets cuts and draconian American sanctions; many of which specifically target the health service. It is part of the American strategy to beat the Venezuelan people into submission and impose regime change.

With the Coronavirus pandemic, this has now been intensified. A request to the IMF for a $5 billion emergency aid package specifically aimed a strengthening the country’s health response to the pandemic has been refused; the IMF is now imposing their own sanctions on the country. It is a decision with Washington’s fingerprints all over it.

It also contrasts with Cuba’s response, which was to rush emergency medical aid to Caracas – on top of the support they are already giving to other countries fighting the pandemic.

For those familiar with the American aggression against Venezuela this will come as no surprise. All of the sanctions and other draconian measures have specifically targeted the Venezuelan people. The idea is to intensify their suffering to the point that an exhausted people will support any kind of change, even that imposed by a foreign enemy power. For Washington, Coronavirus is simply another weapon in the armoury.

The Scottish Socialist Party will continue to support the Venezuelan revolutio, its people, and government in its struggle against American repression.

Venceremos