Briefing

You Need Over 700,000 Bolivars for a Single Dollar

While the indigenous Yukpa people arrived to Caracas from Perijá (and faced repression), the regime celebrates the National Food Day by giving more power to the CLAP scheme

Naky Soto
Minimum wage, meanwhile, stays the same.

Photo: The Epoch Times

  • The black market dollar surpassed the 700,000 bolivar mark on Wednesday, closing at 709,000 according to the average on Monitor Dólar. The increase accelerates, while BCV continues to finance the PSUV campaign, increasing public expenditure with bonuses. 
  • Dozens of members of the indigenous community Yukpa, have protested on Wednesday, in Baralt and Urdaneta avenues in downtown Caracas. They want to access the Miraflores presidential palace to explain their woes; in the last few years, aggression against indigenous communities have increased in their territories and their rights have been violated. This year, the CNE eliminated their right to vote directly and turned them into second-class citizens. Yukpas live in the Sierra de Perijá, at both sides of the Colombia-Venezuela border, and they traveled from Zulia state, this time mobilized by a flood.The testimonies collected throughout the day reaffirm their poor access to healthcare services, utilities and food. Last night, at the infamous Llaguno Bridge (the same spot where many victims fell during the 2002 coup), a PNB officer was injured by an arrow amid the repression, and at least one more protester sustained injuries, too. Journalist Rosalí Hernández explained that the Yukpas haven’t talked to any authorities, they’ve only been contained by colectivos, who threaten them and block the protest from being covered by the media. 
  • To honor the creation of the National Institute of Nutrition, every year since 1951 we celebrate the National Food Day on November 18th. Maduro, however, decreed on Wednesday that starting 2021, food will depend on CLAP committees and lied when he said that they manage an adequate distribution of food. This month, a CLAP box contained 8 kg. of rice, 2kg. of pasta, 1 kilo of corn flour and 1 kilo of sugar. Meanwhile, NGO Prepara Familia denounced that children at JM de los Ríos Hospital get “bread or arepa without stuffing in the morning, rice and beans for lunch and dinner, no salt or condiments.” Delcy Rodríguez reported 300 new cases of COVID-19 and 2 deaths, bringing the total to 98,350 cases and 860 deaths they’ve admitted to. “With 1,346,693 deaths in the world by November 17th, the average is around 4,195 per day. That’s more than four times the deaths by flu (1,097). More than HIV (2,110) and malaria (2,002) together. More than tuberculosis (3,014) and Hepatitis B (2,430),” said journalist Jeanfreddy Gutiérrez, using figures around the world. 
  • So you can measure the next big lie about purchasing Russian vaccines, the deputy director of the PAHO, Jarbas Barbosa, explained that vaccinating only 20% of the population of LatAm and the Caribbean will cost over 2 billion dollars: “Distributing the vaccine will be challenging and expensive (…) And even though it’s costly, it’s a smart and necessary investment.” 
  • The UN Independent Fact-Finding Mission will receive new testimonies on human rights violations, so the UN invited people, organizations and groups interested in presenting new information and relevant documents to come forward, with special emphasis on those related to possible cases of extrajudicial executions, forced disappearances, arbitrary detentions, torture or other cruel, degrading or inhuman treatment, including sexual or gender violence. There are thousands of cases left to document. 
  • The Center for Defenders and Justice registered 46 new cases against human rights activists in October and warned on November 18th that this systematic policy of criminalizing the defense is worsening. They highlighted the continuing attacks, especially the stigmatization of international cooperation. 
  • Venezuela had one of the steepest drops of commerce of goods because of the pandemic: between January and June there was a 68.8% drop, according to the IBD. The report included that in order to attract new investment, countries must have an ambitious agenda of policies for international insertion and consolidation of regional value chains. 
  • Fedeagro’s executive director Pedro Vicente Pérez warned about the loss of the winter crops because of the fuel shortage in the country. Pérez told news site Efecto Cocuyo that the most important crops at the moment are the corn and rice crops, which can’t be transported because of the scarcity of gas and diesel fuel to take them to the industrial facilities.
  • Nicolás’s Foreign minister Jorge Arreaza, reported that the Spanish chargé d’affairs in Venezuela, Juan Fernández Trigo, already presented his credentials. “I’d like to point out that all my actions will be based on respect, an attempt of being objective and since it couldn’t be any differently, with an absolute respect for the Vienna Convention and for diplomatic relations,” said Fernández Trigo. After Leopoldo López’s escape and the end of the previous ambassador’s mandate, Spain has decided to maintain the relations through a chargé d’affairs. 
  • Venezuelan authorities allowed around 500 citizens to return to the country through the Simón Bolívar International Bridge to San Antonio del Táchira, on the border with Colombia. The Táchira river is overflowing and blocks the return through illegal pathways.
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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