Colombian President Accused of Ordering to 'Infect' Venezuela with Coronavirus

TEHRAN (defapress) – Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has accused his Colombian counterpart, Ivan Duque, of intentionally infecting Venezuelans returning home from Colombia with the coronavirus, EFE agency reported, citing the official’s comments during a cabinet meeting in Caracas on Wednesday.

News ID: 81163

Date: 21 May 2020 - 21:32

“Two weeks ago, I denounced the order given by Ivan Duque. (There was) a very ill-fated meeting that ordered to do everything that could be done to infect Venezuela,” Maduro said as quoted by EFE, Sputnik reported.

According to the president, 66 cases of coronavirus out of 75 registered on Wednesday, were “imported” from Colombia, as “informal steps” were taken by “organized gangs” to infect the country’s citizens with COVID-19. Maduro, noting that the situation is still under assessment, suggested that Venezuelans could have been infected on the buses used to transfer them to the border area between two countries, as they were allegedly healthy when leaving Bogota and only in contact with their relatives.

“It is hard (...) but it is harder for them to pollute the country, for them to enter and pollute all of Venezuela, as Ivan Duque wishes (...) all these things that I say is because I have the evidence in hand,” the president reportedly said.

According to official estimates, 824 cases of coronavirus have been registered in Venezuela since 13 March, when the first cases of infection were reported in the country. Venezuela rushed to immediately declare a national state of emergency and introduce quarantine measures across the country to prevent the spread of the disease.

Venezuelan authorities say that out of all the registered cases, 44% were reported over the last five days. Maduro specified that all of the newly infected people travelling from Colombia, which has registered 17,687 cases so far, will remain at the land border until they are corona-free.