CARACAS (Reuters – Venezuela’s Vice President Delcy Rodriguez claimed Wednesday that the International Monetary Fund has yet to deliver funds as part of a program designed to aid countries in fighting the COVID-19 epidemic. The claim stemmed from a disagreement over Rodriguez’s government legitimacy.

In August, the IMF authorized Venezuela to receive around $5 billion in Special Drawing Rights (SDR) as part of a $650 billion global effort to boost liquidity for the world’s most vulnerable countries, but said it could not use them (https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/guaido-says-venezuelas-access-imf-sdrs-be-part-political-talks-2021-09-14) because of questions about whether President Nicolas Maduro or opposition leader Juan Guaido was the rightful leader.

Guaido, recognized by the United States and several Latin American countries as Venezuela’s president, said last month the two sides would discuss access to the SDRs at a negotiation process taking place in Mexico City, part of an internationally-mediated effort to resolve the country’s protracted political crisis.

Rodriguez claimed at the U.N. Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) that his country hadn’t yet received funds and blamed the U.S. Rodriguez said at the U.N. Conference on Trade and Development that no funds had been received by his country, blaming America’s “veto.”

The United States is IMF’s biggest shareholder.

Rodriguez stated that “Venezuela is repeating its denial of the IMF refusing to pay our people the $5billion our country owes in order to combat the pandemic.”

However, neither the U.S. State Department nor the IMF immediately replied to inquiries for comment. Washington sanctioned Venezuela’s key state institutions including the central bank as part of its effort to overthrow Maduro. It also accused Maduro of corruption and election-rigging.

In the past, the IMF stated that Venezuela could not access IMF funds because of a lack of clarity within the international community about the recognition of Venezuela’s de facto government.

The September report by Venezuela’s central banks showed an increase in its reserves to $5.1 billion. That is approximately the amount of South American countries’ SDRs. But the source of the money was unknown. Central bank data shows that its reserve totaled $11.2 million on Tuesday.