UN council mum on Venezuela, EU members warn of virus risks

The UN Security Council took no action after discussing the humanitarian situation in Venezuela behind closed doors on Tuesday but its European Union members said the coronavirus pandemic risks having a devastating human impact in a country grappling with an already grave economic, social and humanitarian situation.

A statement by France, Germany, Belgium, Estonia and former council member Poland reiterated EU concerns about the sharply deteriorating crisis in Venezuela and its destabilizing effects across the region, including its severe humanitarian consequences.

The members said the European Union is the largest donor to Venezuela's humanitarian crisis, providing more than half of all funding, and they called for stepped up efforts to respond to the country's underfunded humanitarian emergency.

The EU members backed Secretary-General Antonio Guterres' call to work closely with the U.N. system to enable the provision of humanitarian assistance by the United Nations, the Red Cross movement and by national and international non-governmental organizations.

The EU members of the Security Council call for the depoliticization of humanitarian assistance and for safe and unhindered humanitarian access throughout the country, the statement said.

They reiterated that EU sanctions are targeted at individuals in Venezuela responsible for human rights violations and were explicitly designed not to affect the population.

Therefore, the sanctions do not impede humanitarian or medical assistance in any way, the statement said.

Diplomats said the Security Council couldn't agree on a press statement because Russia wanted a reference to the negative impact of sanctions included.

Germany's deputy UN ambassador Juergen Schulz stressed to the council that EU sanctions imposed against Venezuela, do not apply to humanitarian assistance and humanitarian activities, including medical assistance, and in no way stand in the way of or impede the global fight against COVID-19, according to the text of his remarks released by Germany's U.N. Mission.

Venezuela's humanitarian crisis was dire before the outbreak of COVID-19, Schulz said, pointing to the more than 5 million Venezuelans that have left the country, often in search of medicine and basic health services.

Even basic measures preventing the spread of the pandemic, such as hand-washing and social distancing, will be very difficult to implement in a country where only 18 percent of people have access to clean water, supplies are expensive, fuel shortages are causing growing complications for the production and delivery of food, and especially people in the informal sector are hardly able to make a living, Schulz said.