government reactions maduro asked people to not politicize the pandemic, while also expressing concern as to how the country could control the pandemic with the united states-imposed sanctions. maduro called on us president donald trump to lift the sanctions so the country could acquire necessary medical supplies. juan guaidó said that since the start of the pandemic, human rights violations by maduro's administration had increased, citing the murders in the 23 de enero parish, the arrest of darvinson rojas, and human rights abuses against political prisoners, who are held in prisons with a high infection risk. guaidó announced the creation of a human rights observatory as a response. other reactions the venezuelan medical federation expressed condemnation at how a medic in zulia was forced to leave for colombia after denouncing the inability of venezuela to cope if the disease arrived; it also asked for the release of the political prisoners in the country, who are vulnerable to the virus, specifically roberto marrero, juan requesens, and other lawmakers. in the anzoátegui state, nurses denounced the lack of face masks, gloves and disposable gowns. transparencia venezuela asked for transparency and access to public information regarding the handling of the emergency. media outlets, such as el nacional, denounced the price increase of face masks. outlets have also reported on the violation of the quarantine for reasons such as buying food, medicines, and both cleaning and hygiene products, as well as the public services crisis, including the lack of drinking water, electric power, cooking gas, telephone signal and waste collection. international sanctions the virtual united states embassy in venezuela rejected claims from nicolás maduro and jorge arreaza that sanctions are preventing the government from purchasing medical supplies, saying that "medicines, medical supplies, spare parts and components for medical devices in venezuela, or to people from third countries who buy specifically for resale from venezuela are excluded from the sanctions." days later, foreign minister jorge arreaza called the statements "the height of impudence and falsehood." he declared that venezuelan government assets worth more than us$5 billion were blocked overseas, in addition to "venezuela's ban on access to the international banking system." former attorney general luisa ortega díaz declared that maduro "lied" when saying that there were no medicines in the country because of the sanctions, saying that the reasons were incompetence and corruption. the us acting assistant secretary for western hemisphere affairs michael kozak also accused maduro of lying, saying that u.s. sanctions never block food or medicine purchases. he emphasized that shortages in venezuela resulted from "the regime's theft of the nation's wealth." on 24 march, un high commissioner for human rights michelle bachelet called for any sanctions imposed on venezuela and other countries facing the pandemic such as cuba, iran, and zimbabwe to be "urgently reevaluated" in order to avoid pushing strained medical systems into collapse. in a statement, bachelet said: "at this crucial time, both for global public health reasons, and to support the rights and lives of millions of people in these countries, sectoral sanctions should be eased or suspended." bachelet also accentuated the need to protect health workers in these countries as authorities should not punish professionals that point out the deficiencies in the state response to the crisis. on 10 june 2021, venezuelan officials announced they have been unable to complete payments for available vaccines from the covax program. initially the transaction of $120 million was to be paid per agreement with juan guaidó using funds frozen in the united states via washington's sanctions against maduro, but later venezuelan officials said they would use their own funds. subsequently, swiss bank ubs confirmed that four operations, totaling $4.6 million, "were blocked and under investigation." vice president delcy rodríguez remarked the remaining payment of $10 million could not be completed. ubs would not specify further due to legal and regulatory reasons. the maduro government said for months that it was unable to pay for the covax program because of u.s. sanctions. venezuela expressed interest in the janssen and novavax vaccines after the requested shipment of astrazeneca/oxford vaccines was never approved by national authorities. in august 2021, those payments were reportedly unblocked, and venezuela will receive 6.2 million doses of the sinopharm bibp vaccine and coronavac through the program. international concern