Venezuela's Maduro seeks to sideline opponents with 'oil-for-vaccines' plan -analysts, critics


FILE PHOTO: A nurse prepares a dose of China's Sinopharm coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine at a health center in Caracas, Venezuela March 7, 2021. REUTERS/Leonardo Fernandez Viloria

(Reuters) -Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's plan to pay for COVID-19 vaccines through oil shipments aims to sideline the country's opposition, which had made strides in securing inoculations, analysts and opposition lawmakers said on Monday.

Maduro proposed on Sunday an "oil-for-vaccines" deal, without providing details on how such a program would work. The crisis-stricken OPEC nation's crude exports have plummeted since the United States slapped sanctions on state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela in January 2019.

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