Briefing

TSJ Recognizes Parra, Duarte and Noriega as the Board of the AN

Another blow for the legally elected AN. International Donors Conference collected 2,790 million dollars for Venezuelan migrants and HRW and the UN insisted on the urgency of humanitarian action

Naky Soto

Photo: Associated Press

  • The day after the imposed prosecutor general requested Nicolás’s TSJ to illegalize Voluntad Popular, the Constitutional Chamber validated the AN’s chavista board of authorities with Luis Parra, Franklin Duarte and José Gregorio Noriega at the top, ruling out their former sentence of the AN being in contempt since 2016. The judges prohibited the installation of “a parallel or virtual parliament (…) any person or institution that makes or cedes space to this end will be considered in contempt and any act stemming from it is null.” On Tuesday, Luis Parra assured the country must travel the road to depolarization, minimize confrontation and build a political solution through the electoral road. We expected this synchronicity, considering he only has one third of the deputies standing by his move, including PSUV deputies who order him around. 
  • 2,790 million dollars in contributions by governments and development banks and 653 million in donations were collected in the International Conference of Donors in solidarity with Venezuelan migrants and refugees. Venezuela is facing one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world and it can get worse because of the pandemic. Thousands of migrants and refugees are trying to return to the country because the quarantine pulverized jobs in the receiving countries, multiplying their vulnerability and rendering them unable to pay rent, utilities or food. 
  • In the context of the International Conference of Donors in solidarity with Venezuelan migrants and refugees, AN deputies proposed asking UNHCR and the office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to confirm how returning migrants are being treated in our borders and evaluate their risks. 
  • Several factions of the National Assembly backed Voluntar Popular with an agreement and condemned tortures on detainees in Lara state, who were protesting for basic services. In the agreement, they condemn arbitrary detentions and torture, demand the release of prisoners who were detained for protesting and contemplate requesting measures for protecting human rights of the Sucre neighborhood in Barquisimeto, where most of the detentions have occurred. Luis Pérez, a man with Down Syndrome, is still detained. The deputies also approved an agreement to reject the decisions made by the regime that forced DirecTv to cease operations. 
  • Nicolás criticized the International Conference of Donors. He called them “a group of con artists talking about Venezuelan migration.” 
  • In a new report about Venezuela, Human Rights Watch estimated that the real figure of COVID-19 cases and deaths is a lot higher that the one chavismo reported, because of the low availability of test kits, the regime’s lack of transparency and “persecution against health workers and journalists who question the official version.”  José Miguel Vivanco, HRW director for the Americas, emphasized the indicators describing the serious situation in Venezuela. For HRW, the lives of Venezuelans depend on the UN secretary general leading an urgent humanitarian response, and that democracies push the regime to allow the access of humanitarian aid. 
  • UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi insisted that the situation of our refugees and migrants has gotten worse. There were bolder statements by Brazilian Foreign minister Ernesto Araujo: “Venezuelans are fleeing the worst totalitarian regime Latin America has ever seen. Many consider it a silent genocide.” The President of Ecuador, Lenin Moreno, said: “Venezuelans are fleeing a blood thirsty dictatorship. The only solution is the exit of the tyrant who illegally runs the country.” 
  • In the last 24 hours, Venezuela registered 34 new cases of COVID-19, for a total of 1,211 cases. Nicolás reported the death of a 65-year-old citizen, at the Jesús Yerena Hospital in Lídice, 11th person who died from coronavirus. There hadn’t been an “official” death from COVID-19 since April 19th. 
  • Just as COVID-19 gets worse, Nicolás said they’re preparing measures to start “the new plan of flexibilization of new, relative normalcy under surveillance” on Monday (!). Apparently, he has “analyzed all the necessary elements to adjust the country’s economic activity as the industrial apparatus and all of its productive engines.” He added that he’ll explain everything in the next few days including a new plan for gas supply. 
  • Journalist and tv personality Vladimir Villegas reported the regime pressured Globovisión, so his show is off the air after seven years. 
  • Fedeagro president Aquiles Hopkins warned the gas shortage has affected the crops of the winter season which would have allowed having produce for the last quarter of 2020 and the first quarter of 2021. Hopkins explained that the lack of gas has meant important losses in crops and has affected cattle and milk farmers. He also denounced problems like lack of seed and fertilizers: “What we aren’t producing, will become shortages,” he assured. 
  • There have been over 5.5 million cases and 350,456 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University. The U.S. has had over 1.6 million cases and 98,900 deaths. Latin America has had over 760,000 cases. Brazil has had over 391,000 and 24,500 deaths. Peru registered a total of 129,979 cases and 3,788 deaths. Colombia has had over 23,000 and 776 deaths.
Briefing

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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