Briefing

Vaccinating All Venezuelans

The 2015 Assembly reiterated their proposal to release funds rescued from corruption and put them in service of healthcare to immunize all Venezuelans; Maduro's Assembly requested to call the EU ambassador to Venezuela, Isabel Brilhante, persona non grata and recommended Maduro to order expelling her from the country and closing the EU office in Caracas.

Naky Soto
  • Deputies elected for the 2015 National Assembly (AN) condemned Maduro’s distribution of the vaccine. Deputy Gilmar Márquez assured that chavismo has made an effort to make people think that those who support Maduro will get the vaccine first. The AN reiterated their proposal to release funds rescued from corruption and put them in service of healthcare to immunize all Venezuelans. To achieve that they have to approve two funds to pay for PAHO’s Covax program. The AN rejected the report presented by UN rapporteur Alena Douhan, and called her “Maduro’s ally”. 
  • The commission for the defense of the Esequibo announced that they’ll meet with the High Command on Wednesday, that they’ll move the commission to Esequibo to hold the sessions and approve a document, and they presented a constitutional amendment to call the Esequibo part of the territory and not a disputed region. 
  • They requested to call the EU ambassador to Venezuela, Isabel Brilhante, persona non grata and recommended Maduro to order expelling her from the country and closing the EU office in Caracas. 
  • The Venezuelan Institute of Social Security (IVSS) collapsed. Millions of people paid their monthly fees so once they retired, the IVSS would pay them a pension that now represents 0.62 dollars. Prodavinci’s estimates are:
  • A professor would need to live 1459 years in order for the IVSS to pay them, at the current value of the pension, the 16,426 dollars they saved for 20 years of work. When a teacher retired in 2000, they had 117,000 dollars to carry them through the rest of their lives. Teachers who retired in 2020, only get 321 dollars. 
  • The State forfeited payments of 8,396 million dollars necessary to cover the value of a basic food basket in the last 20 years. 
  • Every Venezuelan who has retired since 2000 stopped receiving 3,711 dollars. 
  • Dr. Julio Castro reported that Venezuela could start getting Covax vaccines in May. An advisor of the caretaker government told Reuters that this plan depends on the authorization of the U.S. Department of Treasury, to use the funds for payment. Castro insisted that the “great strategy for 2021 must be vaccinating as many people as possible” so the Health Ministry must generate alliances to strengthen their logistics and guarantee vaccination. He explained that the second challenge this year will be having a robust system to oversee the potential arrivals of new mutations and that if we vaccinate 80% of the population we can go back to normal. 
  • A group of 28 deputies elected in 2016 were barred from running for office for 15 years. The list led by Juan Guaidó (barred since March 2019), includes Mariela Magallanes, Tomás Guanipa, Carlos Paparoni and Renzo Prieto (who disappeared and was taken two jail in two occasions), among others. 
  • Táchira governor Laidy Gómez said that she’ll organize political teams to retake electoral culture, to achieve unitarian candidacies. She wants to ratify leaderships in regional elections in as state where chavismo imposed an authority like Freddy Bernal. 
  • José Brito, recently sanctioned by the EU, also expects the prêt-à-porter opposition to form perfect alliances to present candidates to the electoral process. 
  • In an opinion piece published on The Washington Post, experts Francisco Dallmeier and Cristina V. Burelli asked for “urgent international actions” to stop environmental destruction in Venezuela. 
  • CTV representative Tito Blanco asked for declaring a state of emergency because of the precarious salaries and working conditions: “It’s impossible for the union movement to establish any dialogue process,” he said. 
  • Two oil tankers left on February 20th and 21st via Cuba, with gasoil, fuel oil and oil, reported El Carabobeño. 
  • The Department of State ratified that the sanction policy is still “a valid and applicable” tool to punish those who undermine democracy and human rights. 
  • The ambassador of the caretaker government to the U.S. Carlos Vecchio said that the TPS for Venezuelans could be announced in the next couple of weeks. 
  • A Southern Florida court denied the request to void the warrant against Alex Saab.
  • The Department of State recognized deputy Carlos Paparoni for his role in defending transparency and accountability and highlighted his work to uncover Alex Saab’s schemes. 
  • ArmandoInfo journalist Roberto Deniz denounced censorship in Unión Radio, a network that allows José Brito to insult Armando.Info “because they revealed his role in the defense of Saab” but forbids mentions of the caretaker government. 

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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