Briefing

So Many Ways of Being Violent

Your daily briefing for Saturday, June 2, 2018. Translated by Javier Liendo.

Naky Soto
Photo: RunRunes

Very early in the morning, the streets filled with the elderly lining up to try and collect their pension of Bs. 1,400,000, and by order of SUDEBAN they’re discriminated by ID card number. Meanwhile, the official media system announced the payment of the Carabobo victory bonus for Bs. 4,000,000 through the carnet de la patria. During the morning, a group of non-government organizations gathered under the Acción por la Vida network submitted a document before the Interior Ministry, the Prosecutor’s Office and the Ombudsman’s Office demanding that the Executive put a check on guns and ammunition, disabling government policies that increase the presence of weapons in civilian hands (militias and colectivos) and that police bodies cease extrajudicial executions and respect the progressive use of force; all of this with the goal of reducing the figures of violence and break down the way we’ve normalized violence in the country. Over 80% of murders in Venezuela are committed with firearms. Meanwhile, the Venezuelan Observatory of Social Conflict (OVCS), an average of 28 per day: 68% of the protests in May 2018 were to demand economic, social, cultural and environmental rights. It’s serious that 12 people have been murdered in the first five months of the year while protesting: Eleven with bullet wounds and another with a blunt object.

Amazing chavismo

Governor Rafael Lacava announced on Instagram the acquisition of (very old) school buses to try and partially solve the public transport crisis. Using the stir about the issue in Argentina, chavismo announced that on Wednesday, June 20, feminists will submit a proposal before the ANC to discuss the decriminalization and legalization of abortion in Venezuela. Today the ANC “chooses” a new chairman. The campaign on social media in favor of Diosdado Cabello is at the very least laughable. While Maikel Moreno announced the Honoris Causa doctorate granted by the Armed Force University, Crónica Uno pointed out that 40% of TSJ justices had been sanctioned by 30 countries.

Grupo Zoom increased remittance exchange rate from Bs. 1,303,270 to Bs. 2,200,000, far surpassing DICOM’s Bs. 80,000 rate and getting closer to the black market rate. It was revealed yesterday that, Rafael Ernesto Reiter Muñoz, former chief of PDVSA’s Operational Management of Loss Prevention and Control, imprisoned since last October and waiting to be extradited, bought a house for almost € 2.000.000 upon arriving to Spain. That’s why the BCV TV ad announcing the Sovereign Bolivar putting the “State” in a caimanera face to face against its imaginary enemies (International boycott, economic blockade, economic war and attacks on the currency) is a huge mockery. Additionally, take out your umbrellas, Civil Protection warned that in the next 36 hours the country will face heavy rains due to a storm.

We, migrants

A little over 12,000 Venezuelans requested international protection in 2017 in the European Union (EU), taking the 16th place in the requests ranking, a 155% increase compared to 2016, according to the annual report issued by the European Asylum Support Office (EASO). By 2014, Venezuelans only made 100 requests a year. Brazilian President Michel Temer announced that he’ll visit Boa Vista and Pacaraima today to tour some shelters housing Venezuelans which, according to official statistics, are now over 40,000 people, an important majority has allegedly found employment, but there are complaints in Boa Vista about a sizable group (over 6,000) in a vulnerable situation. Mercosur issued two resolutions expressing its concern for Nicaragua’s political and social situation. About us, Mercosur mentioned the “increasing migration flow” that forces countries to “coordinate efforts to offer integral solutions”; calling the government to coordinate with the international community a path to recovery and restating “its will and commitment to support” Venezuelans in the efforts we’re demanding.

Abroad

  • Vice-President Delcy Rodríguez and Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza attended the meeting called by the Chairman of the International Justice Court (ICJ), for Guyana’s claim on the Esequibo. There, they stated their “sovereign decision to not participate in the process” because (according to them) the ICJ has no jurisdiction.
  • The UN asked for the creation of a commission to investigate human rights violations in Venezuela and confirmed that it will monitor the process from the distance due to the gravity and reach of the violations and the government’s refusal to allow the team of the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights, Zeid Ra’ad al Hussein to access the country. Zeid’s office will publish its second report on Venezuela in the next few days.
  • Ivan Duque was elected president of Colombia with 53.98% of votes. Marta Lucía Ramírez became the first woman to be elected vice-president in her country. Defeated candidate Gustavo Petro gave a poorly democratic and arrogant speech; we’ll have to see how he practices opposition to see whether he truly didn’t reach the presidency “for now.”
  • Ecuador’s Prosecutor General requested precautionary measures against their former president, Rafael Correa, including: an electronic shackle and reporting regime before Court every 15 days starting next July 2.
  • Dialogue roundtables were suspended in Nicaragua because the government didn’t send the invitation letters to the IACHR, the UN and the EU, as agreed last Friday. Additionally, the IACHR announced its support schedule, including the International Group of Independent Experts (GIEI) and the Special Monitoring Mechanism for Nicaragua (Meseni). The GIEI team would start working on the first week of July and the Meseni will arrive in the country on June 25; the IACHR must still solve financing for both projects.

…

While the FIFA announced they’d open an investigation against Mexico due to the homophobic slogans of its fans in the game against Germany, the World Health Organization published the new edition of its manual of diseases that removes transexuality from the derangements chapter, becoming an epigraph called “conditions related to sexual health,” where it’s now called “gender incongruence”; but it’s progress anyway.

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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