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Vanessa Silva in Caracas and Gideon Long in Bogotá
A few weeks before Christmas, Venezuela’s president Nicolás Maduro made a major announcement about his plans to tackle coronavirus. His vice-president, Delcy Rodríguez, had just arrived back from Moscow bearing seasonal tidings of comfort and joy regarding Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine.
“We have guaranteed more than 10m doses of vaccines for the first quarter of next year,” Maduro assured the nation. “Our aim is that in January, February, March, April or May — at least 10m vaccines.”
Reality has proved somewhat different, as Maduro’s government struggles to secure enough doses to cover even the most vulnerable of its people.
