Briefing

NGOs Caracas Mi Convive and Alimenta La Solidaridad Face Harassment

The bank accounts of the NGOS are frozen, and even the hourse of director Roberto Patiño’s parents was raided by security forces; More places to exchange dollars and new taxes on operations made in foreign currency, as the regime experiments with the economy

Naky Soto
Another pass from the regime against NGOs in Venezuela.

Photo: El Universal

  • NGOs Alimenta La Solidaridad and Caracas Mi Convive said their director and founder, Roberto Patiño, is being persecuted and harassed. Officers of the National Anti-Corruption Police raided their former offices and the home of Patiño’s parents. The National Baking Superintendence, SUDEBAN, froze their accounts, with which it’s risking the operation of soup kitchens and the daily nutrition for over 25,000 children and other people suffering food insecurity. It turns out that in these spaces, the value of employment, entrepreneurship and educational projects also converge, and they have a deep impact. On TV, and without mentioning Patiño, Maduro explained this persecution and assured that the U.S. is promoting a plan to infiltrate and disturb the work of CLAPs. “We discovered a plan to infiltrate the CLAPs, buy them with dirty money from the U.S. with cards (…) They’re going to try to disturb, infiltrate, buy and damage the CLAPs,” he said. With this new abuse explained with an absurd idea, Nicolás’s regime risked the only daily meal of thousands of Veneuelan children. 
  • After three years of hyperinflation caused by chavismo, Delcy Rodríguez announced three economic measures on Wednesday: increase the limit for banking transactions made in bolivars, increase the number of places to exchange currency and charge a tax on operations made in dollars in financial Venzuelan institutions. She warned that this tax would be higher than the Large Financial Transaction Tax in bolivars. Meaning, chavismo distorts once more an already destroyed economy. These measures won’t stimulate the use of the bolivar, because darwinian dollarization already ate the national currency up, they won’t stop the price of the dollar because chavismo doesn’t stop printing money and inflating the mass to cover their deficit, and they won’t allow the regime to make money using other people’s transactions, because most are personal operations abroad, not local. When distrust and control increase, their system becomes even less attractive. 
  • Nicolás adapted the screenplay for the alleged Productive Wednesday to ride the wave of Maradona’s death. Because he had to comply with a tiny part of the original script, minister José Aguilera reported that the third bovine shipment left for Iraq yesterday, with 4,000 cattle. He lied when he said that this conquest (exporting cattle) hasn’t been seen in the country in 120 years. Venezuela could supply itself and export it merely two decades ago. 
  • University Education minister, César Trómpiz, commissioned a press release with plenty of pictures of the donation of 1,800 tablets for Carabobo University professors. He said that tablets (in a country without electricity, internet or money to pay for the data plan) will strengthen “remote education.”
  • Maduro inaugurated again a plant in Cojedes: Molinos de Sur América. It’s working so well that his Commerce minister, Eneida Laya, checked it was up and running in May this year.
  • Freddy Ñáñez reported 319 cases and four new deaths of coronavirus in Venezuela, bringing the total to 100,817 cases and 880 deaths they’ve admitted to. 
  • The president of the Venezuelan Medical Federation, Douglas León Natera, said that the total flexibilization in December is irresponsible. He thinks that the number of cases and deaths will increase significantly, estimating that with the announced flexibilization we could have around 3,000 cases per day. He reiterated his doubts about the figures presented by Nicolás’s regime, because there are no diagnostics or verifiable tests, because too few tests are run and in a very limited number of labs. On Wednesday, the world surpassed 60 million cases. This week, the Americas reported over 1.5 million cases, “the highest number since the pandemic started,” explained deputy director of the WHO. 
  • A video where alleged Maiquetía workers are dancing to Jerusalema went viral yesterday. The outrage it caused is because they’re dancing in biosafety suits that hospitals should be using. 
  • There have been over 200 femicides in 2020. Several activists, women and NGOs denounced violence against women, the way the State multiplies violence with lack of justice, and the absence of public policies to protect or guarantee Venezuelan women’s lives. The Red Naranja observed the Day of Erradication of Violence Against Women painting Plaza Altamira’s obelisk in orange. 
  • Primero Justicia conducted a survey from November 15th to the 18th, calling 1,000 people in the Libertador municipality in Caracas, 51% women and 49% men. Deputy Fátima Soares presented the results: 70% of them are eating less food than in October, 72% had to consume less meat and chicken and 87% assured that their income isn’t enough to buy food for their families. 
  • Last night, there was a virtual hearing in Trinidad and Tobago, on the case of 16 expelled minors. The court decided that the minors and their parents have to remain in the island, said David Smolansky, OAS Commissioner for the Venezuelan Migrant and Refugee Crisis. 
  • Former Spanish President José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero said he’s hopeful: “With the new Biden administration, with December 6th, with an important election where citizens express their will, I’m hopeful Venezuela can begin a new phase,” said the socialist in an interview with private network Globovisión. Zapatero foresees a change is coming in the U.S. policy. 
  • Delcy Rodríguez thanked South American politicians that were at a Zoom meeting backing the “election” on November 6th. She also promoted a request that these people are working on, calling the EU to respect the “electoral result” and “support the democratic will.” 
  • Foreign minister Jorge Arreaza asked the UN to review the requests for attention to Venezuelan migrants, because he assured that “it isn’t a reflection of reality”: an authority of the government that made millions of people flee, is complaining and wants to know where’s the money to care for them. He met with UN representative Peter Grohmann, with IOM’s Jorge Vallés, and with UNHCR’s representative Matthew Crentsil. 
  • “We have agreed that there will be a sort of review, to not call it checks and balances, of the resources that have been approved for Venezuelan migrants and aren’t reflected in reality,” said Arreaza.
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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