Caracas Chronicles

The National Assembly will request that international institutions perform a qualitative and quantitative audit of regional elections after disavowing the results and denouncing irregularities during the process. Parliament Speaker Julio Borges explained that they’ll meet with NGOs and multilateral bodies to force the regime to open a full audit, emphasizing that the results aren’t reliable because there’s no compliance with the law or electoral guarantees, and the rights of voters are being violated.

The AN unanimously approved an agreement yesterday declaring that the elections on October 15th were fraudulent, demanding the creation of a special committee responsible for documenting violations against the electoral process committed by the government and the National Electoral Council.

They also approved the proposal made by lawmaker Omar González to start the necessary proceedings to appoint CNE’s new authorities and their replacements.

Lawmaker Américo de Grazia gave an important account of the fraud committed in Bolívar against Andrés Velásquez.

Inconsistencies

Liliana Hernández, electoral manager of the Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD), said that there are serious inconsistencies between vote tallies and the results published on the CNE’s webpage proclaiming chavista Justo Noguera as the winner in Bolívar. The tallies show some numbers but they don’t show the entire history of what happens before and after the elections. Hernández restated the results can’t be accepted if the numbers in the CNE’s website don’t match vote tallies coming directly from voting machines, urging Plan República (which still holds copies of the electoral material) to release the tallies and refuse the fraud.

ANC or nothing

The Legislative Councils of the states where opposition candidates won (Táchira, Zulia, Nueva Esparta, Anzoátegui and Mérida) agreed to demand the elected governors to submit to the ANC in order to take office. These statements were motivated by reports that chavista Omar Hernández had been named as governor in charge of Táchira, which he denied. Obeying the regime’s single-thought rule, Legislative Councils also agreed that it falls to the ANC to decide what to do should the governors refuse being sworn in.

During a cadena, Nicolás ratified that “any governor who doesn’t submit to the ANC, won’t take office,” even though the ANC has been condemned by over 40 countries, the UN and the OAS.

Nothing Nicolás said during the inductions of Héctor Rodríguez or Rafael Lacava is worth mentioning.

Interior minister Néstor Reverol ordered the takeover of all state police departments in states where the opposition won.

Régimen interviene policías en gobernaciones ganadas por la oposición. Y así algunos le dicen colaboracionista a nuestros Gobernadores… pic.twitter.com/4C3XpdXuBs

— Dubraska (@dgala23) October 20, 2017

Biased arbiter

Yesterday, the Venezuelan Episcopal Conference (CEV) accused the CNE of favoring the government during regional elections.

A statement issued yesterday reads:

Listing the irregularities committed during the electoral process, the CEV statement says that the possibility of electing new governors was a cause for hope, but the government ended up creating more questions and has opened “the door to great tensions and conflicts in the future.”

Carlos Ocariz spoke about these irregularities (before, during and after the elections) while presenting the final technical report and explaining the evidence of “systematic electoral fraud” denounced by MUD, which includes 217,462 opposition votes that the CNE messed with, in Miranda state alone. The report will be presented before national and international bodies.

The necessary dollars

Russian State-owned oil company Rosneft will consider proposals to replace another asset for its participation in the U.S.-based PDVSA refinery, Citgo, which is held as a collateral for a loan made to Venezuela in 2016. Rosneft’s chair Igor Sechin said: “If they offer something more interesting, we’ll consider it,” and added that the company has no plans to use its participation in Citgo in any other way than as a guarantee.

Economy and Finance minister Ramón Lobo restated that the government is studying other ways to pay DICOM’s 15th auction, pending since September 5th “due to blockades.” Meanwhile, Banco del Tesoro unveiled its plan “CrediPatria Pensionados,” aimed at elderly adults who receive their pension and hold a carnet de la patria to use credit to buy “dental implants, walkers, canes and any other product that could improve their quality of life.” It’s not a joke.

Justice’s (in)action

Prosecutor general Luisa Ortega Díaz replied to Odebrecht’s request for the Federal Supreme Tribunal of Brazil to “silence” her with fines so that she doesn’t reveal the information regarding evidence of corruption of high-ranking members of the Venezuelan government. Ortega Díaz says that Venezuelans have the right to know who are involved in this scandal.

The Inter American Commission on Human Rights convened two hearings about Venezuela: one regarding democratic institutionality and another regarding violence, citizen security and freedom of expression, which are scheduled for October 24th, during the 165th Sessions Period in Montevideo, Uruguay. These are unusual hearings because they’ve been requested by the Commission itself. Venezuela’s been blacklisted by the IACHR since 2002.

Abroad

The United States condemned the government’s latest anti-democratic action of requiring elected governors to submit to the ANC to be sworn into office:

“This maneuver […] is another example of the Maduro regime’s authoritarianism and disregard for the will of the Venezuelan people,” said State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert, in a statement in which she demands a complete audit of regional elections and the creation of an independent CNE.

Costa Rica said they rejected the results of gubernatorial elections in Venezuela, saying it was a “fraudulent” and “invalid” process.

Four Venezuelan opposition justices that were sheltered in the Chilean embassy in Caracas and then escaped to Colombia, arrived in Santiago de Chile as political asylees and were met by Chilean Foreign minister Heraldo Muñoz upon their arrival.

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Conatel opened a punitive administrative proceeding against radio station RCR 750 AM, for the alleged violation of the Law of Social Responsibility in Radio and Television, when they failed to comply with Article 10, regarding the obligation to broadcast cadenas.