Briefing

DirecTv Managers Detained and Formally Charged in Court

The National Assembly rejects how returning migrants are treated, the official figure of coronavirus cases is 2,632 and the Education Ministry announced the end of the school year

Naky Soto

Photo: ABC

  • The 21st Court of Caracas decided to keep former managers of DirecTv Venezuela Héctor Rivero, Carlos Villamizar and Rodolfo Carrano in custody. The press release by the TSJ states that they were charged with committing crimes of co-authoring aggravated scams, boycotting, destabilizing the economy and criminal association. The workers, as the rest of DirecTv’s payroll, were fired on May 19th, when AT&T announced it was shutting down DirecTv’s operations in Venezuela. AT&T left Venezuela because in January 2019, the U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned Raúl Gorrín, president of Globovisión and broadened its sanctions against PDVSA. U.S. law forbids its companies from working with sanctioned individuals, but Nicolás’s regime, through CONATEL, forced DirecTv to broadcast Globovisión and PdvsaTV.
  • The Finance Commission of the National Assembly reported that inflation in the first five months of 2020 is 409.18%, more than the figures released by Venezuela’s Central Bank (BCV). However, the AN reported that inflation in May was 15.3%, a lot less than what the BCV said. 
  • The National Assembly approved an agreement rejecting “degrading, discriminating and inhumane treatment” of returning migrants by the regime. The agreement warns that, by limiting the entry of Venezuelans, they’re violating the Constitution and violating the freedom of movement. The AN also presented a special report on social conflict and irregularities seven days after dollarizing gas prices: there were 33 irregularities in the supply of gas, discrimination in distribution in 11 states and non compliance with subsidies. The average number of vehicles in line was 700 cars and the average waiting time for subsidized gas was between five and 18 hours. 
  • Wearing a white coat, Jorge Rodríguez, the regime’s Communications minister, reported on Tuesday 159 new cases of COVID-19 and one death. The total is 2,632 cases and 23 deaths. Only one case—he said—was a local contagion, 149 cases were caused by returning migrants and 9 cases by contact with travelers. Rodríguez had a theory about Colombia and Brazil under-registering their number of cases, accusing them of manipulating their data. Unfortunately, Venezuela hasn’t published their epidemiology bulletin since December 2016 and the mortality rate was last published in 2013. 
  • At least 13 indigenous Pemon people were taken from Bolívar state to the El Rodeo II jail, in Miranda state (about eight hours away by road), said Amnesty International in a communiqué demanding authorities to return Pemones to their community in southern Bolívar and improve the conditions of inmates. 
  • The IACHR exhorted Nicolás’s regime to help the indigenous Warao community to reduce their vulnerabilities against the pandemic: they asked for diagnostic equipment to medical personnel, food and water. 
  • Lawyer Milagros Rodríguez, member of Movimiento Vinotinto and human rights activist, was detained by state security forces in Sanare, Lara state, after she protested how gas was being distributed in a gas station. She was released at 11:30 p.m. 
  • The rain on June 8th and June 9th wreaked havoc in Caracas, and some areas still have no energy after the post-rain outages.
  • The Colombian Attorney General embargoed seven properties owned by Alex Saab, worth 9.7 million dollars. Among the properties in Barranquilla, there’s a manor worth 7.7 million dollars, a house, an apartment and three garages, part of his illicit patrimony that Saab made from irregular financial operations. The Attorney General’s Office confirmed that the properties are under the name of a company that served as a front business to hide the money obtained with a fake import and exports operations that represented losses for Colombia. 
  • The Spanish Foreign Ministry, through the Spanish Cooperation Agency, reported that they activated an aid agreement with Cáritas España to move $123,000 to help 3,400 people, migrant and refugee Venezuelan families in Ecuador and Guatemala’s rural population. 
  • The threat of more strict U.S. sanctions is affecting the worldwide shipping market. Chinese oil companies are considering a suspension in their lease of tankers that have visited Venezuela in the last year, no matter where the ship is now or the purpose of the trip, said Reuters. Earlier, it was reported that at least two tankers were on their way to Venezuela to load oil but turned back on the weekend and three other ships stayed far from Venezuelan waters because of potential U.S. sanctions. Donald Trump’s government warned governments, ports and insurance companies that they could be sanctioned if they helped Iranian tankers in any way. 
  • Nicolás’s Education minister, Aristóbulo Istúriz, announced that the school year will end on June 30th. Even though it’s expected that the situation will be back to normal in September or October 2020, he doesn’t rule out the alternative of the school year starting in January 2021.
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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