Eduardo González
The 7.5 million vaccines against COVID-19 that Spain pledged to donate during the last Ibero-American Summit in Andorra will begin to leave for Latin American and Caribbean countries within two weeks, as announced yesterday by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Arancha González Laya.
González Laya made this announcement during a joint telematic press conference from Madrid and La Paz with her Bolivian counterpart, Rogelio Mayta, and the Minister of Health of the South American country, Jeyson Auza, on the occasion of the announcement of a new shipment of humanitarian aid to Bolivia consisting of 100,000 rapid antigen tests and 15 respirators, anesthetic and sedative drugs and other supplies to facilitate medical interventions in critical cases of COVID-19.
This shipment “brings us closer as brotherly peoples and ratifies our very good bilateral relationship”, declared Mayta during the meeting, in which journalists from both countries participated. “It is worth highlighting this, because about a year ago, Bolivia and Spain had relations that were cold to say the least because of a usurper government that, with a hyperideologized and paranoid position, went so far as to declare Spanish state officials persona non grata for helping Bolivian asylum seekers from political persecution in the residence of the Mexican ambassador,” he continued.
This aid “is not a favor from someone in a position of superiority, but from a brother from whom we take something on an equal footing” and before whom, in the future, “we will know how to live up to what they are giving us”, Mayta concluded. For his part, Auza wanted to “thank Spain for this solidarity shown” and affirmed that, “with collaboration, responsibility and solidarity, we will surely get through perhaps the worst moment of health in contemporary history”.
In the same meeting, González Laya declared that “in a pandemic there are no superiors or inferiors, there are intelligent and fools, and while the intelligent ones know that we have to work together, the fools think that the way out is with unilateral and nationalist solutions”. “Bolivia and Spain are intelligent and we know that what will help us to get out of this tremendous situation is collaboration”, because “they are brother countries and when one brother has needs, the other brother comes to his aid”, she continued.
According to the Minister, “the way out of the crisis is to vaccinate, and that is why it is so important to make progress in vaccinations”. “At the Andorra Summit, Spain made available to the Ibero-American family 7.5 million vaccines that will begin to be sent out in about two weeks, destined for the Latin American countries that currently need them,” she announced. The details of this shipment, he specified, will be provided “shortly”, but “what has already been accomplished are the procedures for the signing of the agreement between the Ministry of Health and COVAX so that the vaccines will be distributed through COVAX mechanisms, because it is the most efficient and intelligent way”.
“We will start in Latin America and the Caribbean within two weeks and the pace of shipments will depend on the availability of vaccines purchased by Spain for its own use, once at least 50% of the Spanish population has been vaccinated,” she said. The distribution “will correspond to COVAX among the countries that have requested it, and Bolivia has requested it, and according to the needs of the countries and the scales it has developed”.
The commitment to send 7.5 million vaccines was announced by the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, last April during the Ibero-American Summit in Andorra. COVAX is a mechanism co-managed by the Vaccine Alliance (GAVI), the Coalition for the Promotion of Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and the World Health Organization (WHO) to ensure fair and equitable access to vaccines for all countries in the world.
Aid to Bolivia
The shipment of new COVID-19 material to Bolivia, the second operation of its kind, has been underway since June 30, with the support of the Bolivian Embassy in Madrid. This shipment represents a volume ten times greater than that of the first operation, which took place in the first half of March. The Spanish donation amounts to a total value of 2.2 million dollars (1.8 million euros), to which must be added the cost of the air freight, entirely provided by the Bolivian government through Boliviana de Aviación (BOA).
The Spanish contributions have been made by the Ministries of Health and Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation. All the material will be delivered to the Bolivian Ministry of Health, which will be in charge of distribution in the country’s public health system. According to Foreign Affairs, Spain has been the first country to respond to the Bolivian request for emergency assistance to face the COVID-19 pandemic through an appeal to the European Civil Protection Mechanism.
