Briefing

An Unprecedented Effort

Your daily briefing for Thursday, September 14, 2017. Translated by Javier Liendo.

Naky Soto

Today, the Organization of American States (OAS) beings a two-month period of public hearings in which a team of experts will determine whether there’s any basis to denounce the Venezuelan regime for crimes against humanity before the International Criminal Court (ICC).

It’s the first time the OAS takes this kind of initiative, and they do it thanks to secretary general Luis Almagro, with the support of the specialized work of former ICC first prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo, as special advisor on crimes against humanity. Moreno Ocampo will lead the sessions and a panel of experts will analyze the available information.

Venezuelan representatives won’t attend the hearings because they see them as an illegal process. Right after installing their ANC, uh!

In case there’s any substance to denounce Venezuela, the OAS will decide what country will submit the case before the court, in the understanding that the support of several member States could be considered a reference, which would force the ICC’s Prosecution to open a preliminary review.

Just to be clear, no nation has ever submitted a reference against another nation before the ICC.

Arrival

Regarding the meeting in the Dominican Republic, the government’s delegation is reportedly made up by the Rodríguez siblings and Roy Chaderton.

The mayor, breaking his own record of cynicism, claimed that the government and the opposition are “very close to settling some sensitive issues.” Delcy added that dialogue and peace are the only way for Venezuela, that’s why she’s bent of passing the Law on Hate, of course. The Democratic Unity Roundtable restated that they’ll meet the mediators to decide whether to resume negotiations, emphasizing their demands.

The opposition’s representatives are: Julio Borges, Eudoro González, Luis Florido, Timoteo Zambrano and Gustavo Velásquez. They’ll meet first with Dominican president Danilo Medina.

Spanish Foreign minister Alfonso Dastis told his counterpart Jorge Arreaza in Madrid that wishing for dialogue isn’t enough, that a real negotiation must take place at once.

Tell Reverol

Besides the tremors reported by the Venezuelan Foundation of Seismological Research (Funvisis) in Zulia state, the rains continue to wreak havoc in several regions in the country, starting with the national road between Machiques and Colon, which was flooded by the Palmar river, affecting inhabitants of the Múcura sector. Over 80 sectors of Puerto Cabello municipality experienced flooding. Preliminary reports show that about eight thousand people were hit by the overflow of rivers Aguas Calientes, Goaigoaza and Sanchón. Mayor Juan Carlos Betancourt declared a state of emergency in Puerto Cabello, saying that those affected by flooding will be relocated to the facilities of the “Manuel Peñaloza” Indoor Gymnasium.

Human rights

David Vallenilla, father of the namesake boy who was murdered during protests, denounced this Wednesday the obstacles in the investigation of his son’s case. The prosecutor assigned by the Prosecutor’s Office to the case, was denied access by Brigadier Táriba Guillén to La Carlota air base, where a National Guard sergeant murdered David, and the case was transferred to Control Court 21, which has had no judge since December 20th, 2016.

Lawmaker Américo de Grazia said that witnesses claim to have seen Army officers killing 11 miners last Saturday, dismissing the regime’s shootout version.

Lastly, after Diosdado Cabello’s announcement in his TV show, judge Aris La Rosa decided to lift precautionary measures against Teodoro Petkoff, but kept the proceedings against Diario Tal Cual’s board members: Manuel Puyana, Juan Antonio Golia and Francisco Laysisse, although he incurred in denial of justice a long time ago, the periods for the trials have expired and proceedings should prescribe, everything seems to indicate that the diligent judge will keep dancing to the plaintiff’s beat.

Sanctions

The European Parliament’s plenary urged the European Union yesterday to impose selective sanctions on individuals involved in human rights violations in Venezuela, which could include freezing their assets and banning them from entering the Union’s territory. Additionally, the Eurochamber condemned the ANC’s elections held on July 30th, saying that they constitute a violation against branch autonomy, and restated that Parliament “does not recognize these elections nor the actions or decisions adopted by the recently established assembly due to its lack of legitimacy.” They expressed deep concerns about persecution and repression against the National Assembly’s democratically elected members and rejected the removal of the prosecutor general and the TSJ justices recently appointed by the AN.

European Parliament Speaker Antonio Tajani tweeted that he’ll invite prosecutor general Luisa Ortega Díaz to the Eurochamber to discuss Venezuela’s situation.

https://twitter.com/EP_President/status/907994453742440449

Not for now

While representatives of the governments of Colombia and Brazil met to discuss experiences on the impact of Venezuelan migration in their country, the summit between the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (Celac) and the European Union is in question due to the Venezuelan crisis, and could even be suspended altogether.

Antonio Tajani already said that he won’t attend the summit and urged the European Union as a whole to do the same.

Upon arriving in Washington, Salvadoran Foreign minister Hugo Martínez spoke about his country’s support for renewed dialogue efforts and about the experience of starting negotiations “After 75,000 casualties.” Although the Venezuelan crisis isn’t included in his schedule, plans for the Celac-EU summit to be held in his country will be discussed in the meeting of American Foreign ministers on Venezuela, set for September 18th, after the UN General Assembly.

Yesterday, the United States House Subcommittee for the Western Hemisphere spoke about Venezuela, acknowledging their limitations to intercede in our crisis and saying that neighbouring countries must intensify their pressure to accomplish change in the country.

…

Luis Almagro and Antonio Tajani have taken up the mantle of Venezuelan democracy as their own, a task with colossal political cost but profoundly important for our country.

Naky Soto

Naky gets called Naibet at home and at the bank. She coordinates training programs for an NGO. She collects moments and turns them into words. She has more stories than freckles.

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