Briefing

5.4 Million Venezuelans Outside Their Home Country

It’s the worst migration crisis in the history of Latin America and the second worst in the world, after Syria's; CANTV workers and retirees demonstrate on the streets; The plans for both the “election” and the consultation move forward

Naky Soto
The true legacy of the revolution

Photo: The New Humanitarian

  • David Smolansky said that the number of Venezuelan migrants is 5.4 million, called our migration crisis the worst crisis in the history of Latin America and the second worst in the world, after the Syrian crisis, which happened as a consequence of war. 
  • On Thursday morning, the indigenous Yukpa community demanded a meeting with “Chávez’s son,” leaving Caracas in seven buses that Defense minister Vladimir Padrino López provided. No media was able to say which authority listened to their demands and what they offered.
  • The founder of the Committee of Families of Victims from El Caracazo (Cofavic), Liliana Ortega, said that the delay in statements by international organizations and measures against human rights violations generates frustration: “These mechanisms don’t provide solutions for hundreds of cases, they pick emblematic cases and through them, they illustrate the severity of the situation, because they don’t have the operational capacity to go over thousands of cases in Venezuela.” 
  • Oil workers protested the detention of Eudis Girot, executive director of the Sole Venezuelan Federation of Oil Workers. They think his detention is a response to his position on the oil industry and the complaints he has made about lack of gas due to the crisis in refineries. It’s another case of repression. 
  • Members of the Communist Party of Venezuela protested in front of state-owned TV station VTV to denounce censorship against candidates of the Popular Revolutionary Alternative, an alliance of left-wing organizations that split from PSUV and have been harassed by the power they support. 
  • Active and retired workers of CANTV, the state-owned telephone company, protested against politically motivated layoffs and denounced that this company has become “a complaint center.” For over two months, they’ve been firing people for not being chavistas and have fired people with no previous notice. 
  • AN Speaker and caretaker President Juan Guaidó said that he’s looking for international support to help the population affected by the rain and floods in the last few weeks. He said that natural disasters are worsened by the humanitarian emergency and the blocking of aid and solutions. 
  • Guaidó also said that it’s important to give context to the consultation of the upcoming 6th of December: “We’re defending democracy,” he said and added that Maduro doesn’t want legitimacy, he just wants to annihilate the National Assembly and the democratic alternative. He reiterated that the route that the opposition must follow entails combining international pressure, internal mobilization and solving the humanitarian emergency. Deputy Freddy Guevara thinks the task for the consult is clear: empty polling centers on December 6th and take the streets in mass on December 12th to reject the fraud. 
  • PSUV campaign chief Jorge Rodríguez announced that when they return to the National Assembly, they will investigate opposition deputies because “There can’t be impunity.” It’s impressive, no abiding by biosafety rules in any of the events today. Propaganda at the expense of the attendees’ health. 
  • In a country where there’s a power outage every day, where 60% of the population is cooking with wood, showering with buckets and where there’s no gas, Maduro had an innovation and technology sovereignty day. It was a bad sci-fi screenplay, as it’s normal with chavismo. He signed a couple of decrees to create Aerosur, a transport company and center for aeronautical maintenance, both thanks to his “Anti-Blockade Law.” He also said that they make planes, boats and drones in the country, with Venezuelan aluminum. Produced where? Because it wasn’t in Guayana. He inaugurated the offices of the Empresa Aeronáutica Nacional S.A. (EANSA), even though the Caracas Metro isn’t even charging an entrance fee. He said he approves 2 million euros for maintenance of Line 2 and that Metro workers are powering the first train with “Venezuelan technology.” He also said that IOM and UNHCR haven’t helped Venezuelans to return, that the resources have been “stolen” by President Iván Duque and that all the returning migrants have done so thanks to the state-owned airline CONVIASA. One lie after another.
  • Rudy Giuliani, lawyer of President Donald Trump, didn’t show proof of the alleged electoral fraud in the U.S., but alongside his colleague Sidney Powell he insisted that the software for counting votes by company  Dominion Voting System was created in Venezuela under Hugo Chávez’s direction. It’s absurd that the Office of the Presidency of the U.S. denounces that chavismo stole the election. The tale they just gifted to these infamous people is inexcusable. The worst part is the links between Giuliani and the bolichicos; chavismo has actually fed Giuliani.
  • OAS Secretary General Luis Almagro assured that the fraudulent election in December doesn’t threaten the AN or Juan Guaidó’s legitimacy, and warned about how bad it would be to normalize relations with Nicolás’s regime: “It would be devastating for democracy in the Americas.”
  • The new U.S. Ambassador to Venezuela, James Story, considers that the popular consultation called by the National Assembly will be a success and will be a milestone for reactivating internal pressure. He also said that Nicolás has political and judiciary problems: “We’re talking about trial for drug terrorism, drug trafficking and now he has more problems in the UN,” he said about the seriousness of being part of a government responsible for crimes against humanity. 
  • The trial that will determine if Nicolás’s regime or Juan Guaidó’s ad hoc administration gets control of the Venezuelan gold at the Bank of England has one more petition made by Guaidó’s caretaker government to the British Supreme Court. Judge Sara Cockerill heard both parts and postponed the process until the next visit, which would mean the trial to establish who’s recognized as the legitimate government by the British government will be in January.
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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