Caracas Chronicles

Photo: El Nuevo Herald, retrieved.

• On Tuesday, caretaker President Juan Guaidó received support by the  Inter-Parliamentary Union, represented by a group of deputies: four from Spain, one from Argentina and one from Costa Rica. They all agreed on a document demanding Nicolás’s government to respect the National Assembly, declaring themselves vigilant of the Venezuelan situation until we achieve transition and free elections. Chavista deputies confronted Spanish deputies Javier Maroto and Juan Ignacio Echániz for defending Guaidó, expressing their opposition against the dictatorship and promising individual sanctions on chavista deputies.
• The AN blamed the regime for the Ikabarú massacre, where armed groups murdered at least six people. The president of the AN’s Foreign Policy Commission, Francisco Sucre, said that over 200 people have been murdered in 12 massacres in Bolívar this year.
• Deputies approved an agreement about the International Day for Elimination of Violence Against Women, demanding the State to comply with the UN’s mandate and international conventions to stop gender violence.
• Deputy Nora Bracho presented on first debate a law for financial and technical assistance to solve the severe electric crisis, a proposal by the Boston Group.
• The U.S. Justice Department is investigating Venezuelan businessmen Luis and Ignacio Oberto, connected to a corruption scheme with Pdvsa for some 4,500 million dollars. The Oberto siblings allegedly accumulated great wealth for ghost contracts that gave loans in bolivars in Panama (at the official rate) and were paid in dollars the following weeks. 
• An article by The Washington Post says that Rudy Giuliani, former NYC mayor and Donald Trump’s lawyer, stayed in a place owned by bolichico Alejandro Betancourt in Spain.  Afterwards, the Derwick owner—the company behind the disappearance of millions of dollars destined to our national electricity system—hired Giuliani to contain the investigation against him for bribery and money laundering. A month after they met in Madrid, Giuliani lobbied for Betancourt in Washington.
• Rubén González, Ferrominera union secretary general, has unfairly been in La Pica jail for over a year. He’s been sick for five days, with a fever and renal pain and Nicolás’s government doesn’t respond to his situation and outcries for healthcare. The Sociedad Venezolana de Puericultura y Pediatría said that the government is delivering supplements in markets and political rallies, breaking the humanitarian aid rules.
• Deputy Manuela Bolívar talked about three possible cases of yellow fever in Monagas and Anzoátegui. She asked deputies to remain firm in pressuring the State for information, because it’s a disease that can quickly  turn into an epidemic. 
• The U.S. Treasury Department announced new sanctions on Cubametales, punishing Corporación Panamericana, accused of being used as the middleman for buying Venezuelan oil. 
• A report by the World Bank in Lima explains that Venezuelan migrants in Peru hold immense economic potential that isn’t exploited despite their capacity to contribute with millions of dollars a year. Director Marianne Fay said that migrants and refugees could make  $660 million in revenue in the next five years if “they’re inserted into the formal market.” 
• “Latin America is going through the largest forced migration in its history, not even during independence wars or natural disasters had we faced a phenomenon like this… we’re facing an event that will deeply transform the entire region. Latin America will never be the same after all we’ve been experiencing.” There were the words of Eduardo Stein, from UNHCR and IMO for Venezuelan refugees, who estimates that there will be 6,4 million Venezuelan migrants by the end of 2020, which makes him reaffirm that we’ll surpass the Syrian migration phenomenon.