Caracas Chronicles

• Maduro’s vice president Delcy Rodríguez did her accountability speech before her brother, in Maduro’s AN. She repeated many things that aren’t true, like the country reducing inequality, when the de facto dollarization has further divided society. She didn’t mention the reduction of purchasing power but said that inflation dropped in 2020. She compared 40 occasions of increasing the minimum wage during the democracy vs. 52 times chavismo has increased minimum wage in 22 years. She said chavismo has had a better management of the pandemic than other countries. Delcy assured the economic aggression got worse because of U.S. and EU sanctions and blamed the U.S. and the Assembly elected in 2015 for all our problems. 
• The new UN World Report on Human Trafficking revealed that the drop of the GDP in Venezuela since 2014 has influenced the increase of victims of people trafficking: hundreds of Venezuelan victims have been found in 21 countries in South America, Central America and Europe.
• According to the INAESIN’s Observatorio de Conflictividad Laboral y Gestión Sindical there were 1,350 protests in 2020,  31.2% more than in 2019. Most protests were tied to better salaries (83%), and the demands for a change in government.
• COFAVIC assured that sthere were 338 attacks against human rights activists or organizations in Venezuela from October 2018 til October 2020. 
• 82% of the attacks registered by COFAVIC have been perpetrated by state institutions. 
• Yesterday, journalist Luis Gonzalo Pérez was held at gunpoint while he was on the Francisco Fajardo highway in Caracas. 
• Paolo Balladelli, chief of the PAHO/WHO mission in Venezuela said there’s a 1.4 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine destined for Venezuelans thanks to the Covax mechanism, but to have access to them; Venezuela has to pay its 11 million dollar debt by February 9th. Miguel Pizarro said that payment and a neutral plan for vaccination are mandatory in order to get vaccines to the country. The experience with the equipment and antigen tests delivered in 2020 sets a terrible precedent.
• On Tuesday, medical journal The Lancet published a study proving that Russian vaccine a Sputnik V has a 91.6% efficiency rate. 
• Venezuelan journalist and politician Pastor Heydra died of COVID-19.Heydra was a minister during Carlos Andrés Pérez’s government. 
• Journalist Roland Carreño has been detained for 100 days after the regime accused him, without evidence, of conspiracy, illicit traffic of weapons and financing terrorism.
• IPYS denounced attacks of Armando.Info journalist Roberto Deniz, who had to flee the country alongside Alfredo Meza, Ewald Scharfenberg and Joseph Poliszuk in 2017.
• The Assembly elected in 2015 asked the countries in the region to protect Venezuelan women who had to leave because of the crisis. They exhorted the OAS to consolidate a joint regional initiative. 
• A Trinidadian judge ordered the release of a 17-year-old Venezuelan woman and her five-month-old baby. They’re going to be looked after by a Venezuelan pastor who lives in Trinidad and Tobago.
• The International Contact Group said on Tuesday that the only way out of the crisis is to re-start political negotiations soon and urgently establish inclusive dialogue and a transition process leading to elections, for which it’s mandatory to appoint an independent CNE. Chile and the Dominican Republic participated in the group for the first time. 
• OFAC issued a new license authorizing transactions for operations in Venezuelan ports and airports. On general license 30A, the sanctions on INEA are lifted. The measure can be interpreted as a review or adjustment of the Venezuelan sanction scheme. 
• In Spain, the Ciudadanos party subpoenaed Foreign Minister Arancha González Laya before Congress to clarify if former President José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero has influenced diplomatic affairs of the Executive and if Zapatero has a relation or does mediation work with Maduro’s regime, revealed Europa Press. 
• Russian justice sentenced opposition leader Alexei Navalni to three and a half years in jail. 

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On Tuesday, Maduro celebrated the 22nd anniversary of Hugo Chávez’s first oath of office. He was bold enough to say that it’s been 22 years of victories.