The current socialist government, the same that offered refuge to Edmundo Gonzalez, is under siege after a series of revelations about its party’s dealing with the chavista elite. At the center of all is José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero
Thousands of asylum requests pile up in neighboring countries following July 28. However, with diplomatic relations breaking down and the lack of a common regional policy, Venezuelan migrants are running out of options
In the third issue of The Local Dispatch, we feature Maduro's fractured Christmas bonus, rural Venezuela's antivenom crisis and flood displacements in Bolívar.
Maduro reaffirmed Padrino López and Hernández Larez in their positions, but dismissed Hernández Dala and González López. The former was replaced with Diosdado’s cousin.
Nicolás Maduro made significant changes of the regime’s military and intelligence leadership. He dismissed two of the most powerful men in these bodies over the past decade: Major General Iván Rafael Hernández Dala, who controlled the General Directorate of Military Counterintelligence (DGCIM), and General-in-Chief Gustavo Enrique González López, who led the Bolivarian National Intelligence Service (SEBIN), an institution now controlled by Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello.
Major General Javier Marcano Tábata was appointed to lead DGCIM while Alexis Rodríguez Cabello, cousin of Diosdado, will now lead SEBIN: highlighting the hardliner minister’s rising control and influence within Chavismo after the July 28th elections.
Nevertheless, Maduro reaffirmed Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino and CEOFANB head Domingo Hernández Lárez.
El Cuartico podcast’s Estefanía León “plays a principal role in a larger Venezuelan comedy boom, whose protagonists work and live mostly outside their country, now free, for the most part, to say what they want”, The New York Times’ Julie Turkewitz writes, “Some nations elevate their novelists or poets to positions of cultural eminence; Venezuela has long viewed its comedians as among its most important societal expositors.”
Belarusians couldn’t trigger a transition by calling out Lukashenko’s 2020 election fraud with protests and solidarity. What lessons are useful to Venezuelans?
In the second issue of The Local Dispatch, we feature the tragedy of pensioners, “WhatsApp crimes” and Sucre’s cocoa problem
This service is enabling five million Venezuelans to buy now and pay later, fueling consumption across the country
The closing of air routes, the fear of political retaliations and a deep fall of consumer spending in August put a halt, maybe temporary, to the country’s comeback to international live music
Signs of the extensive election fraud in Venezuela—and the regime's futile attempts to cover it up—have continued to emerge since Election Day
