Caracas Chronicles

For Thursday, October 13, 2016. Translated by Javier Liendo.

El finado decided to turn October 12th, a date which honored the encounter of two worlds, into a date of mourning. To turn discoverers into colonizers, and travellers into conquerors. That’s why chavismo pulled down Christopher Columbus’s statue in Plaza Venezuela and now they exhibit a strange version of Guaicaipuro, apparently inspired on Dwayne Johnson but with long, smooth hair, a crest and arrows, plus an angry face.

Nicolás’s argumental sancocho proved how much he knows about the subject. Every time he mentioned Bolívar and Sucre, he forced his audience to ponder how much Spanish and native blood runs through their veins. He thinks that Columbus Day is shameful and the colony was a tragedy, like everything this nation still had of a republic. His extraordinary native fervor should be explained in the challenge against Amazonas’s native legislators, which left them out of the National Assembly for over ten months. The same ones whose incorporation justify the story about “Parliament’s contempt” and the violation of the constitutional order. In Venezuela, indigenous municipalities are the poorest. For instance, review the information on Mara municipality (Zulia state) and take one more look at Guaicaipuro’s statue. But relax, in an act of profound enlightenment, Nicolás decided to create the Committee to Decolonize Venezuela, which will be headed by minister Aloha Núñez. He’ll provide the details on October 15th, while someone creates content for that absurdity.

Clearer than ever

Nicolás said that he returned from Turkey with a clearer mind thanks to Erdogan’s advise, so he repeated the phrase that the Turkish dictator’s actions will be child’s play compared to what he’ll do. What could Erdogan teach him? His most recent decisions include: extending the state of emergency decreed after the failed coup d’état; dismissing disloyal members of the military (a little under 4,000 so far); persecuting dissidents; substituting democratically elected mayors for members of his party and accusing dissidents of belonging to terrorists organizations. Sounds familiar?

The budget

Nicolás announced that he’ll approve the budget for 2017 by decree and submit it to the Supreme Tribunal of Justice “to guarantee people’s rights”. He said he was forced to comply with the TSJ’s decision, so after discussing the budget this Thursday, he’ll convene a popular assembly of the People’s Congress this Friday and approve the budget “to guarantee people’s rights, that’s my announcement and that’s what I’ll do, respecting the Constitution,” because according to him, in a democracy [?] like ours, “the budget is discussed with the people.” Sadly, he does it by violating the decision of a much larger sector of the population who elected their legislative representatives on December 6th, 2015.

What else?

He demanded the General Prosecutor to indict dissidents involved in alleged terrorists activities, because they must be in prison and pay for their fascist crimes. He claimed that the National Assembly’s on the brink of self-dissolution and precisely because of that, the opposition faces “dark and sad days, of fall and defeat.” He said that he managed to create a strategic alliance with Russia to guarantee the wheat supply until 2018 and also signed an agreement -yes, he basically attributed it to himself- to restrict oil production to boost oil prices. He also said that 2017 will be when they’ll defeat the -fictional- economic war and that “Here’s Venezuela, free, sovereign, standing” after 524 years of native resistance. I beg to differ.

Despicable Henry

National Assembly Speaker Henry Ramos Allup said yesterday that the TSJ’s decision of approving the nation’s budget without presenting it before the National Assembly is a barbarity: “That criminal constitutional chamber with only seven members who are hopping between the blank spaces of the Criminal Code, and who are free only because there’s no justice here, have decided no more and no less that it’s them who will approve and discuss the budget. Those seven criminals discussing and approving the budget, this is unbelievable,” he said, adding that this budget’s approval is unconstitutional and everything it contains lacks validity and legitimacy.

Narconephews

Journalist Jessica Carrillo (@JessyCarrillo on Twitter) tells us that judge Paul Crotty issued a 24-page document detailing the reasons why he considers all evidences presented against Cilia Flores’s and Nicolás’s nephews to be valid. He also denied their defense lawyers’ request to know the identities of all the informants for the case and ratified the hearing for today, October 13th, at 4:00 p.m. Jessica reports that unless the Attorney’s office and the defense come to an agreement, the case will go to trial starting on November 7th.

Delcy, you have work to do

Paraguay’s Foreign Affairs minister, Eladio Loizaga, issued a statement about Venezuela and its condition before Mercosur: “Venezuela’s a closed case in Mercosur until December. Our position is firm, absolutely nothing has changed,” said Loizaga in a press conference with representatives from Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay at the meeting in Belgium, where they resumed negotiations with the European Union to establish a Free Trade Agreement.

Also, the European Parliament’s Human Rights sub-committee requested the European Union this Wednesday to act to solve Venezuela’s humanitarian crisis, and to help European-born political prisoners who remain detained in the country. European legislator Beatriz Becerra denounced that this government carries out arbitrary detentions and refuses to acknowledge the humanitarian crisis, which prevents foreign aid from reaching the country.

Seven justices are better than 167 lawmakers

Lawmaker Pedro Carreño said that the National Assembly -to which he belongs- is null. That’s why the PSUV will request the TSJ to temporarily assume Parliament’s authority, claiming that this barbarity is established in the Constitution: “In chapter 1, title 8, regarding the protection of the Constitution (…) Let’s imagine that the Executive Branch needs to partially reform a law, where to go? The AN is null, but that’s no excuse for the State to stop working,” he remarked, adding that Parliament lost its capacity to decide, change and regulate. Una joya.