Briefing

"They offer everything to Venezuelans, what guarantees are left for Colombians?” Claudia López, Mayor of Bogotá

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet presented the second oral update on the human rights situation in Venezuela; Maduro’s Foreign minister, Jorge Arreaza, issued a communique warning that he’ll have to revise the relationship with the High Commissioner’s Office; Claudia López makes xenophobic comments about Venezuelan migrants, again.

Naky Soto
  • UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet presented the second oral update on the human rights situation in Venezuela. Bachelet asked Maduro’s regime for an investigation on extrajudicial executions and stopping the persecution and harassment policy against NGOs, the media, and opposition leaders. Her office registered at least 66 cases of intimidation, harassment and criminalization of journalists, media outlets, human rights activists, union leaders and members of the opposition in the last six months. 
  • She mentioned the minimum wage, now worth less than one dollar a month. She suggested that one-third of Venezuelans are in food insecurity, but that we can’t even prove that number, because we need updated figures. She warned that Venezuelans are vulnerable to human trafficking networks and mentioned the deaths of at least 28 Venezuelans in the Caribbean in 2020. The High Commissioner asked for lifting the sanctions so Venezuela can access the COVID-19 vaccine. In June, Bachelet will update about the Venezuelan State’s compliance with her recommendations. 
  • Some representatives from NGOs spoke after Bachelet and shared more figures about our human rights crisis. Cáritas de Venezuela director Janeth Márquez denounced the regime’s regressive behavior against humanitarian organizations. 
  • The chavista ambassador to the UN in Geneva Héctor Constant said that the Human Rights Council vigilance on Venezuela is the product of a decision made by a group of countries that violate human rights and added that Bachelet’s observations are biased and haven’t been verified. 
  • Maduro’s Foreign minister, Jorge Arreaza, issued a communique warning that he’ll have to revise the relationship with the High Commissioner’s Office. 
  • The regime’s ombudsman, Alfredo Ruiz, went to Maduro’s AN to present some sort of report. The figures he read can’t be proved and could be ruled out after how he praised the Executive Branch. 
  • Maduro’s Assembly approved the draft law for the Juvenile Jobs Mission and the draft law for communal cities, to rule the relationship of the communes in the national territory and approve providing funds of the State. 
  • The prosecutor general imposed by the ANC, Tarek William Saab, reported that they arrested 12 regional police officers for the murder of Jhonny Boscán, a 21-year-old UNES student in Zulia. What they reported as a clash, was an execution. 
  • In their report “Fuerza Armada Nacional: nombramientos militares en Venezuela (2019-2020)”, Control Ciudadano reported that 64.3% of the military appointments in this period were for generals and admirals, and states that the total figure of active generals and admirals is a lot higher than in other countries’ armed forces.  
  • Michelle Bachelet warned that the appointment of a new board of authorities of the National Electoral Council (CNE) is a milestone to determine the credibility of the elections. Too bad the committee of nominations in Maduro’s AN published the list without listening to her. The list includes five of the current CNE rectors and ANC-imposed comptroller general Elvis Amoroso.
  • FEDEAGRO warned that the diesel fuel shortage puts the next crop cycle at risk. 
  • It’s not the first time that Bogotá mayor Claudia López attacks Venezuelan migrants.  “We have very violent Venezuelan immigrants here (…) they murder first and then they steal(…) They offer everything to Venezuelans, what guarantees are left for Colombians?” she said yesterday. She emphasized that the violence “isn’t the exception” and that the guarantees for Venezuelans hurt Colombian citizens. Colombian vice president Marta Lucía Ramírez rejected this xenophobic expression. 
  • Spain exposed cases of arbitrary detentions, torture and extrajudicial executions and regretted that there’s been no progress in the accountability and clarifying the responsibility of chavista authorities. Argentina exhorted the regime to follow the High Commissioner’s recommendations and to end the attacks on NGOs, human rights activists and journalists. 
  • Juan Guaidó supported the struggle for rescuing democracy of the people of Myanmar, who are still protesting the coup in their country. He had a meeting with Thinzar Shunlei Yi, coordinator of Myanmar’s Democracy Committee. 

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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