Caracas Chronicles

Photo: El Nacional, retrieved.

• The National Assembly approved on Tuesday a commission to investigate the accusations against eight deputies of the Comptrollership Commission, signaled out in an investigation by ArmandoInfo, of lobbying and protecting the interests of Colombian businessmen Carlos Lizcano and Alex Saab, particularly their company Salva Foods, the crown jewel of the CLAP program.  Edgar Zambrano, member of the commission alongside Stalin González, Marialbert Barrios and José Luis Cartaya, said that the press will have full access to the results of the investigation, that they hope to present the next one on December 18th. Caretaker President Juan Guaidó said that the AN he presides is “radically different” from chavismo: “In a couple of hours, the investigation started and deputies came to face the consequences.”
• Bloomberg published an article explaining how the amount of dollars on the street triples the value of all bolivars in cash, and the amounts in savings and checkings accounts. Dollars “now represent more than half of all retail transactions, since the amount circulating has increased to $2,700 million,” according to data from Ecoanalítica. It’s estimated that the euros the regime obtains from oil and gold sales can be around 1000 million, circulating in our economy at the moment.  
• The U.S. Treasury Department’s OFAC established that Venezuela and Cuba moved Pdvsa oil changing the names of six ships (that they sanctioned yesterday,) and used them to sell at least 1.3 million barrels of oil to Cubametales (sanctioned in July 2019) and the money was transferred to a Russian bank account. 
• Reuters says that Pdvsa exported over one million barrels per day during November, an increase in sales despite the sanctions. According to data from Refinitiv Eikon, Venezuela increased sales to India after the refinery Reliance Industries made the decision to resume their business with Pdvsa. Singapore and Malaysia also imported Venezuelan oil. 
• TIAR countries met in Bogotá to analyze measures against people close to Maduro. Colombian President Iván Duque asked countries in Latin America to raise their voice and strengthen cooperation to apply more effective sanctions against a regime that poses a threat for the entire region. After the meeting, 29 people close to Maduro (including Jorge Arreaza, Diosdado and José David Cabello, Marleny de Cabello, Tareck El Aissami, Cilia Flores, Alexander Granko, Iván Hernández Dala, Tibisay Lucena, Maikel Moreno, Vladimir Padrino López, Manuel Quevedo, Delcy and Jorge Rodríguez, Tarek William Saab, Iris Varela, Raúl Gorrín and Alex Saab) will face economic sanctions and measures forbidding their entrance to TIAR member states. 
• USAID confirmed that Guaidó’s caretaker government doesn’t directly manage humanitarian aid funds. 
• Rufo Chacón’s interviews after he came back from Spain are inspiring, with his prosthetic eyes in place, which allow him to read, identify people, colors and objects. This guy’s optimism is impressive.