Caracas Chronicles

Photo: RFI, retrieved.

• Delcy Rodríguez reported that eight new cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed in Venezuela. The patients are in the states of Miranda (5), the Capital District (1), Aragua (1) and Trujillo (1). A total of 189, from which 110 have already recovered (58%, a world record!). She also said that they’ve tested 203,108 people, which represents, in addition to 21,733 more tests than on Saturday, 6,863 tests for every million inhabitants. Delcy added that over 18,133,000 million people completed the survey on the Patria system and with this data they’ve done 143,717 house visits: “We’ve reached over 12 million Venezuelans to prevent COVID-19,” she said. What she didn’t explain was why, with this kind of management of the pandemic, do they require the IMF’s financial help, in addition to the tons of humanitarian aid that have been donated. 
• Later, Nicolás mentioned workers of a security company (infected with COVID-19) that provides services for a food distribution company. He exhorted the owners to not hide the names of the personnel who might have been in contact with the workers infected and asked the Prosecutor General’s involvement to obtain all the information. As a threat, he said every worker must get tested. The rest of the broadcast was devoted to the militia. 
• On the same incriminatory line, Tarek William Saab posted a tweet humiliating Venezuelans abroad and revealed his political bias. 
• Chavismo’s narrative about contagion is serious, because it focuses on guilt. The pandemic is understood as a competition and the daily reports are just done to come off as winners. As every COVID-19 patient threatens that goal, they’re blamed and stigmatized. The reasons: traveling abroad, not caring for their health, not speaking up on time or deciding to move to a country with a higher contagion rate. The dead are also blamed: they all had a pre-existing condition (diabetes, hypertension, respiratory conditions from smoking), denying the virus’ lethality. Hospitalization is also used as a threat, which will stop a lot of people from saying they’re sick. This attitude will cause the virus to go under reported in Venezuela. 
• Deputy Karim Vera warned that Táchira state inhabitants are vulnerable to Venezuelans who are returning from abroad because the sanitary protocols aren’t being enforced: they’re taken to overcrowded centers, without access to running water and they don’t receive adequate nutrition. Vera demanded that Venezuelans who test negative for COVID-10 are taken to their home states. 
• Agricultural producers protested in several states for their inability to move or sell their produce, and because nobody sells gas to them. The military “management” of fuel, turns the shortages more chaotic as soldiers handle each gas station at their convenience, charging in foreign currency while primary sectors, like health workers or food distribution, don’t get the gas they need. 
• Erick Ramírez, mayor of José Ángel Lamas (a municipality in Aragua state, one hour away by road from Caracas) posted videos to humiliate citizens who broke the quarantine. He forced them to hold a piece of paper with their information and to answer questions for the camera. This is inadmissible.
•  The dollar surpassed on Monday the 130,000 bolivar mark, closing at 132,753,21 bolivars. It’s all great! 
• Miguel Pizarro reported that a 45 ton humanitarian aid shipment arrived to Venezuela on Monday, sent by the Red Cross. “This shipment contains hygiene kits, water and sanitizing kits and first aid kits,” he said. 
• The Inter American Press Association’s biannual report included a registry of how freedom of press and freedom of speech in Venezuela are still “threatened by Nicolás Maduro’s regime.”
• The IACHR rejected the excessive use of force by the GNB in the protests of April 12th in La Guajira, where several Wayuu indigenous people were injured in a protest demanding water, food and medicine. The IACHR exhorted authorities to carry out a serious, impartial and effective investigation and asked for the cause of the protest to be solved, respecting the cultural identity and traditions of the Wayuu. 
• Coronavirus has caused at least 119,500 deaths in the world, and on Monday we moved closer to the 2 million mark: 1,919,913, according to Johns Hopkins University. In the last 24 hours, the countries with the most deaths have been the U.S., the UK and France. 
• President Emmanuel Macron announced the extension of quarantine until May 11th, when “a new phase” with a particular set of rules that will be announced. He said he doesn’t know exactly how life after quarantine will be. 
• The WHO asked for strategies that are well thought out in countries that have decided to end the quarantine. They said that the new coronavirus is ten times deadlier than the virus responsible for AH1N1, which appeared in Mexico in 2009. They said the problem with the pandemic will only be solved with a vaccine to completely stop the spread. 
• The IMF announced the approval of funds for relieving the debt of 25 poor countries, so they can put their resources towards fighting the pandemic. Almost all the countries are in Africa but they included Haiti and Afghanistan. 
• “We have many problems and we have nothing to brag about, or reasons to do so, and we certainly can’t relax. We haven’t gone through the peak of the epidemic, not even in Moscow,” said Vladimir Putin yesterday. Hopefully, Nicolás will read about this. 
• The statements by health authorities in the countries that have been hit the hardest by the pandemic are truly devastating. Guayaquil’s mayor told his citizens that it’s hard to find ventilators, oxygen or medicine, that all they have is quarantine. 

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Wash your hands. Stay home.