Caracas Chronicles

• Colombian President Iván Duque signed the new TPS decree for Venezuelan migrants on Monday, which will guarantee humanitarian aid to people fleeing the complex humanitarian emergency: “It’s an act of humanity, peace and fraternity.” This decree will help legalize the status of 960 thousand people who entered Colombia until January, 31st, 2021. They’ll get access to health, education and other social benefits. There are over 1.7 million Venezuelan migrants in Colombia, at least one million with irregular or illegal status. 
• NGO Foro Penal said that over 90% of the prisoners who were detained for political reasons haven’t had the right to go to trial. That’s 15,600 people from 2014 until now. Director Alfredo Romero explained that most of them go through preemptive detention, and those who are taken to court aren’t charged but still kept in jail. Today, 88% of political prisoners don’t have a sentence because the processes are paralyzed to not allow the right to defense. 74% of political prisoners haven’t started their trial, or had a presentation hearing and over 90% of them haven’t gone further than that first hearing and 56% of those awaiting trial have been in jail for over a year. Gonzalo Himiob assured that the figures prove that the legal process in political cases isn’t used to prove the truth or to obtain justice, but it becomes an “anticipated punishment”. He reiterated that the law establishes that preemptive prison is an exception and can’t be over two years. 
• Jorge Rodríguez said that he met with representatives of the parties allied with PSUV and representatives of what he called the “moderate opposition”. He assured that they all agreed on going to a regional election and he said it was good news. Maduro named three alleged candidates for mayor of Caracas and Rodríguez challenged regional authorities to reject participating. He said that sanctions won’t block his AN from appointing a new CNE or holding mega elections this year. 
• NGO Médicos Unidos reported on Monday seven new deaths of healthcare workers, for a total of 349 deaths. This number is still one-third of what chavismo admits to. 
• Last night, the Health Ministry approved the use of the Chinese vaccine Sinopharm against COVID-19 in Venezuela. 
• The Venezuelan Press and Society Institute registered 374 events that accumulated 636 violations of freedom of expression in digital and traditional environments in 2020. “The censorship virus”, as they titled their annual report, describes attacks that affected 325 people. 
• BCV president José Morales announced that clients can now open an account in foreign currency in the country, where they’ll convert it directly into bolivars. He said on VTV that they’ll allow payments of utilities and payrolls using these accounts even though they’ll only be moving bolivars. 
• The Baruta Municipal Council approved with chavista votes a partial reform on the municipal order on the questioning regime of municipal officers, which will allow them to remove directors from this municipality from their posts. 
• Maduro said that the visit of Spanish Foreign Minister Arancha González Laya to Colombia was a “hypocritical visit” and said that he’ll review the Venezuela-Spain relation. 
• On Monday, the Spanish government called the Venezuelan chargé d’affaires Mauricio Rodríguez to express Spain’s disappointment for the decision to expel the EU ambassador and Maduro’s statement criticizing the Arancha González Laya’s visit to Colombia. 
• González Laya asked for the same respect she’s giving to Maduro after he said he’d review the bilateral relations. “I’m not here to teach Venezuela a lesson, I’m here to try, alongside the international community, to give answers to Venezuelans who decided to leave their country and come to Colombia in search of a better life,” she said. 

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The trial against former President Alberto Fujimori and other government officials for forced sterilization of thousands of poor women, many of them Indigenous, between 1996 and 2000 started in Peru. It’s estimated that around 270,000 Peruvian women who lived in poverty had their tubes tied in surgeries. In addition to the sentences, the victims might be indemnified by the State. Fujimori, 82 years old, is currently serving 25 years for violating other human rights.