Briefing

Turkey Recognizes its Role in the Negotiations

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu revealed that his country and the EU facilitated the encounter between Henrique Capriles, Stalin González and Maduro; Guaidó and the caretaker government don’t recognize the move.

Naky Soto
Why did Minister Çavuşoğlu release the information?

Photo: Daily Sabah

  • Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said on Tuesday that Henrique Capriles and Stalin González negotiated with Nicolás, and alongside Turkish officers coordinated by the EU, pressured to guarantee international observers in the “election” of December, to which Nicolás allegedly agreed. At least, that’s according to Çavuşoğlu, who was discreet on Twitter and only said the dialogue that led to the release of political prisoners was positive. Why did the Turkish minister break the discretion with which the negotiation was handled? Why does he take credit? Turkey needs to clean up their diplomatic track record, but this “achievement” doesn’t change his regime’s authoritarianism or their severe violations of human rights. 
  • Juan Guaidó reported last night that he doesn’t recognize “the negotiations that weren’t consulted and held in the name of a person, between Nicolás Maduro’s regime and leaders Henrique Capriles and Stalin González.” They weren’t authorized by the legitimate caretaker government, the National Assembly, international allies, or democratic forces. Henrique Capriles’s answer was “there’s no negotiation between Turkey and the opposition in Venezuela. What must be done is talking to anyone who can provide a credible solution.” He added that they’ll “talk with anyone we have to in order to free Venezuelans from this crisis” and he took credit for the achievement of 100 “pardons” for his work, playing with the words on the communiqué by the caretaker government. 
  • Nicolás announced on Tuesday that eight ministers on his cabinet will resign to run for election. Several times has chavismo used ministers for propaganda in the election and after they get the positions, they leave for other ones. Chavismo has been recycling itself for years. 
  • Nicolás didn’t convince anyone when he expressed his feelings last afternoon: not as a potential victim of another magnicide attempt (he denounced that President Donald Trump is moving snipers to kill him); not as the understanding comrade with the revolutionary indignation because of the “pardons”; not in the slightest as a democrat who wants “the highest participation.” He has used this discourse before, with some variants, where he says he knows what he’s doing and asks for trust. It didn’t work with the economy. 
  • The Venezuelan Central Bank reported that inflation in July increased by 19.6%, which means that in seven months the accumulated rate is 492%. The economy is still in hyperinflation, because the annual rate (July 2019 – July 2020) is 2,358.5%. 
  • Nicolás’s Education and Commerce ministers signed a resolution for a fixed tuition rate of schools because of the crisis caused by the pandemic, after complaints made to SUNDDE, an institution specializing in sanctions, harassment, fines and prohibitions. So: in a country in hyperinflation and recession, the state blocks the increasing of tuitions. Let’s see how many schools resist.
  • The international coalition that supported the National Assembly’s proposal to not recognize the fraudulent election that ratified Nicolás, wasn’t enough for the caretaker government to achieve its goals. Chavismo is still in power, while the opposition make their differences more evident, divided by variables stronger than their ideology, asylums, exiles, with a “pardon” or on the move. Nicolás needs the National Assembly he wants to impose in 2021 to have a veil of legitimacy, to avoid more severe sanctions, to approve more debt, to contain the isolation he caused. There’s a long way to go so the attempt of a political agreement between chavismo and part of the opposition has the elements that will allow Nicolás to be called a winner, but while this happens (if it happens), the opposition divides with accusations and interpretations of what’s happening and what should be happening. Every aggression separates us from democracy. It will always be cheaper (and less risky) to offend another opposition leader.
  • The secretary general of AD Henry Ramos Allup condemned another attack on the headquarters of his party, this time in Carabobo state, by members of the board of authorities imposed by the TSJ. The deputy assured that attackers were protected by Carabobo Police and officers from the CICPC detective corps. That’s how they demonstrate what happens to those who aren’t part of political pacts.
  • On Tuesday, Nicolás’s regime released more political prisoners after the “pardon”: deputy Ismael León, political scientist Nicmer Evans and advisor Demóstenes Quijada, member of Juan Guaidó’s team. Last night, they released the secretary general of Sintraferrominera, Rubén González, a union leader detained in November 2018 and taken to trial in a military court. Five young people detained in Lara state were also released. 
  • At 10:30 p.m., NGO Foro Penal reported that, based on the list of pardons read in a mandatory TV and radio broadcast, out of 50 imprisoned people, they’ve released 34. Minutes after, they released Vasco Da Costa, who said there are patients with symptoms of COVID-19 in Ramo Verde prison.
  • Josep Borrell said that the “pardon” for 110 people via a decree by Nicolás, was a positive action. He called the liberation (which isn’t effective for all prisoners on the list) as a “mandatory condition to advance in organizing free, inclusive and transparent elections.” Provea has said that even with these liberations, “it isn’t enough to say that there are democratic conditions to hold parliamentary elections.”
  • UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet also expressed her approval: “I value this decision as a significant step in the efforts to open democratic spaces and improving the human rights situation in the country.” Foreign ministers of Argentina, Felipe Solá, and Chile, Andrés Allamand, also expressed their approval while still demanding real electoral conditions.
  • U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo issued a communiqué to remind everyone that it’s been over 1,000 days since “the CITGO Six” were detained through lies and without a trial. Even though two of them were granted house arrest, four are still in El Helicoide with fear of getting coronavirus.
  • Nicolás’s vice president, Delcy Rodríguez reported on Twitter that there were 1,028 new cases of coronavirus on Tuesday, for a total of 47,756 cases they’ve admitted to. She also reported five new deaths, for a total of 391 deaths they’ve admitted to. Between Monday and Tuesday, chavismo reported five deaths in Apure, a state where traumatologist Pedro Milán Barreiro died, the third Cuban doctor to die in Venezuela because of coronavirus in a little over a week.
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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