Caracas Chronicles

As Irma makes its way

German chancellor Angela Merkel pledged her absolute support for the National Assembly during a meeting in Berlin with Julio Borges. A spokesman for the German government, Steffen Seibert, tweeted that “Chancellor Merkel met, among others, with the Speaker of the Venezuelan National Assembly Julio Borges and pledged her support for democratic forces.” Merkel also expressed her concern for the serious humanitarian crisis and the constant human rights violations plaguing Venezuela, and said she was convinced that diplomacy is the only solution to the crisis, and that’s why she has made several requests for Nicolás to open real negotiations.

The official statement reads: “The chancellor pledged her support for the Venezuelan people and all the democratic forces in search for a peaceful and constructive solution to the conflict. To that end, she did not dismiss the possibility of potential sanctions imposed by the EU,” to pressure the government. Foreign minister Jorge Arreaza tweeted his condemnation for the support given “to opposition politicians who have assaulted democracy and peace,” recommending Merkel to “objectively inform herself” and urging the German government to abandon its one-sided policy because “its international credibility is question.”

Tajani won’t go

European Parliament President Antonio Tajani won’t attend the EU-Celac summit scheduled for October, in protest against Nicolás. He won’t attend the plenary session of the Euro-Latin American Parliamentary Assembly in El Salvador either. Tajani revealed his decisions after meeting with 10 Latin American ambassadors who handed him the “Lima Declaration” signed on August 8th. “I think the European Union as a whole shouldn’t participate,” said Tajani, adding that this is a way to support the countries that “took a courageous decision to diplomatically isolate a dictatorial regime,” as a path to contribute to restoring democracy in Venezuela through a peaceful, negotiated solution.

The third one down

The Inter American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) announced that it will produce a third report on Venezuela’s human rights situation, following the ones released in 2003 and 2009. This report will be based on a top-to-toe review of the situation and the political and social crisis we’re experiencing, in response to requests made by civil society institutions. The IACHR remarked that since the State refuses to allow its investigators to visit the country, it’ll base the report on monitoring carried out throughout 2017, with information collected in hearings, saying that they’ll focus on the subjects of democratic institutionality, violence and citizen security, free speech and abuses against social and cultural human rights.

Grey situation

UN Secretary General António Guterres expressed his support yesterday for a democratic Venezuela where human rights are respected, explaining that the country’s experiencing “a grey situation” with extremely concerning circumstances, manifesting his hope that it’ll be possible to return to a path where everyone feels part of a stable political system. He restated that dialogue is the only way to solve the country’s internal issues and that foreign intervention and authoritarianism must be avoided. The latter’s been established for a while now.

A quarter million

Nicolás demanded the United States show respect for the country’s sovereignty in a full-page letter published in the New York Times. According to the newspaper’s advertising fees, the ploy cost us $246,562. Nicolás claims that the sanctions imposed by the U.S. will impact our economy and the means to obtain “food, medicines and production.” He also said that Trump threatens peace, stability and cooperation between the two nations, so he asks the American people to “lead efforts to neutralize the jingoistic intentions of [their] government.”

Carta abierta del pueblo de Venezuela al pueblo y gobierno de EEUU #VenezuelaEEUURespetoYPaz pic.twitter.com/1ZyqfANAMd

— Ernesto (@VillegasPoljak) September 6, 2017

Moreover, yesterday the U.S. said that Arreaza’s presentation made a mockery of the UN Human Rights Council. The statement issued by their UN ambassador, Nikki Haley, says: “Rather than welcoming the Venezuelan foreign minister, the Human Rights Council should be denouncing his government,” because the regime “continues to rob the Venezuelan people of their freedom and their prosperity (…) The fact that Venezuela is even a member of the UN Human Rights Council shows the desperate need for HRC reform,” Haley added.

Arreaza’s other mockery

Funvisis recorded three tremors this Wednesday: 2.5 magnitude to the north-west of Los Caracas (Vargas); 3.3 magnitude to the east of Los Toques (Miranda) and 3.7 magnitude to the south-west of Güiria (Sucre). The disasters in Paraparal, Aguacatal, Choroní and San Mateo haven’t been resolved, and Civil Protection reported 45 people and 10 houses affected by floods in the Colonia Tovar, also in Aragua, after the Tuy river overflowed, along with floods and material losses in La Encrucijada of Turmero. Several states report blackouts and Corpoelec is yet to explain the source of the alleged malfunctions that caused them. The National Institute of Meteorology and Hydrology (Inameh) reported that hurricane Irma won’t hit Venezuela, but José and Katia, its successors, already became hurricanes themselves. In that context, it’s absurd for Foreign Minister Arreaza to report that the government’s monitoring Irma’s trajectory and that they’ve stated their willingness to support the people in Caribbean nations hit by the hurricane while several states right here at home are flooded out of their homes without any hurricane other that Nicolás himself. By the way, Erdogan messed up by plagiarizing chavismo’s argument. Yesterday he said: “The German statements regarding Turkey remind us of nazism.”

Ay, Luisa

Construction company Odebrecht claimed that prosecutor general Luisa Ortega Díaz’s allegations regarding payments made by the company to Diosdado Cabello through TSE Arietis are false. They claim this after reviewing their documents and statements, adding that they’ve never received payment for unfinished works and that they finished “relevant projects that are fully operational.”

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The fourth military tribunal of Vargas granted Lisbeth Añez parole. “Mamá Lis” fed and accompanied political prisoners and was arbitrarily detained on May 11th by agents of the General Directorate of Military Counterintelligence in Maiquetía airport, when she was ready to depart to the U.S. to seek treatment for hepatitis C.