Caracas Chronicles

Photo: El Nacional, retrieved.

• Nicolás’s regime has confirmed a single case of COVID-19 on Tuesday, a 32-year-old patient in Baruta municipality, Miranda state, who allegedly got it from her brother. The official figure increased to 166 cases in the country, with six patients in the ICU, said Delcy Rodríguez. She adds that over 2,000 Venezuelans have returned to the country via the Colombia-Venezuela border, where there are strict controls and the rapid response test is done. She explained that the sanitary controls on the border are done to stop contagion. 
• Nicolás had been MIA for days, but he reappeared yesterday next to Cilia Flores, who also endorsed the quarantine and proved she didn’t have a stroke, as it was reported last week. “We’ve managed to contain the pandemic,” said Nicolás, not wearing a facemask, and ordering hospitalization for every COVID-19 case, to avoid contagion in families. He said that the humanitarian aid donated by the UN, Unicef and Russia would arrive in the country on Wednesday and repeated his version of having 23,500 hospital beds available. He said it’s expected that at least 15,000 Venezuelans return to the country and warned that in Manaus, Brazil, the number of cases is growing exponentially, and that’s why a “sanitary barrier” must be coordinated with authorities in Santa Elena de Uairén.
• Health Minister Carlos Alvarado said that the team of Venezuelan scientists is being advised by Chinese specialists, who approved of the treatment, using chloroquine, interferon, antivirals and steroids for the inflammatory phase of critical patients. 
• Nicolás tied Juan Guaidó to the murder—on Monday night, April 6th—of lieutenant colonel Ernesto Solís Mares, commander of the Tarabay Fort and his driver, second sargeant Gustavo Flores, in Tumeremo (Bolívar). In December 2019, the Prosecutor’s Office had opened a file against  Solís Mares for forced disappearances, rape, extrajudicial executions, theft and extorsion, among other crimes. Journalist Germán Dam (@GEDV86 on Twitter) summarized with enough data the late commander’s actions, including a recruiting network for Colombian guerrillas. Nicolás expressed his condolences to the military institution and the families of both officers. 
• The National Assembly is investigating the sale of Rosneft’s stock of mixed Venezuelan companies to a company under Russian control. The AN will demand Rosneft and Russia provide information about the truth of the sale of the assets and the stakes in Venezuelan companies like Petrovictoria, Petromiranda, Petromonagas, Petroperijá and Boquerón.
• Juan Guaidó announced the creation of a special police security and intelligence commission that will report to his caretaker government to generate strategies of citizen security and cooperation with international intelligence agencies.David Smolansky (advisor for security and immigration), deputy Carlos Paparoni (commissioner of financial intelligence and organized crime) and Iván Simonovis (commissioner of security and intelligence of the Venezuelan Embassy in the U.S.) will be in this commission. The commission will continue tracking accounts abroad tied to corruption schemes and drug trafficking, they’ll also present strategies and options to rejoin treaties for fighting these crimes. 
• Citgo revealed the financial results of the 2019 fiscal year, showing improvement in their management after years of chavista administration. The company’s financial and operational performance translates into 246 million dollars of net revenue in 2019, a stable liquidity position, one of the company’s best years in environmental performance and security. 
• Freddy Bernal reported that the regime sent 2,350 military officers to the border, to strengthen security and face the mass return of Venezuelans. He added that a “human barrier” with officers was created to limit transit through those pathways. 
• Electric Energy Minister Freddy Brito Maestre said on Tuesday that the new blackout that left several Zulian municipalities in the dark, was the product of sabotage registered in the Cuatricentenario de la Costa Oriental del Lago substation. It’s the third general blackout affecting Zulia in less than a week. 
• Aristóbulo Istúriz, with an exposed nose above his facemask, officially suspended classes for the rest of the school year and promised remote learning strategies using digital platforms, insisting that they’d prioritize television and radio for education.
•  U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Tuesday that “it’s time for Maduro to go” and thanked dozens of countries that expressed their support for the Framework for a Peaceful Democratic Transition for Venezuela, presented last week. “The goal is replacing Maduro and his illegitimate dictatorship with a democratic transition government that can hold free and fair elections, presidential elections that represent all Venezuelans.” 
• The IACHR considers that the FAES is a risk to Venezuelans’ fundamental guarantees, so they joined UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet’s petition for “dissolving FAES”. 
• Ecuador’s National Justice Court Tribunal declared former president Rafael Correa guilty of corruption and sentenced him to eight years in prison. The sentence accuses Correa of leading a corruption network between 2012 and 2016, through which he received “unlawful contributions” for irregularly financing his political movement, Alianza País.

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82,000 people have died in the world since coronavirus first appeared, last December. The figure of positive cases reached 1,428,428 today, according to Johns Hopkins University. Europe has over 690,000 cases, America over 386,000 and Asia-Pacific (including China) 113,000 cases. The ILO reported on Tuesday that the deep economic global crisis has caused workplaces’ total or partial shutdowns and that the pandemic has affected 2,673 million people (81%) out of the 3,300 that are part of the global workforce, which represents the “worst crisis since World War II.” Venezuelan figures still show inconsistencies when they’re compared to our neighbors: Brazil has 13,717 confirmed cases and 667 deaths, Colombia confirmed 201 new cases yesterday, the highest number since they announced the first case a month ago, for a total of 1,780 cases and 50 deaths. 

Wash your hands. Stay home.