Briefing

Venezuela Reaches The Highest Peak Of The Curve

It’s been 11 weeks since the beginning of the second wave and around 9,000 official cases, the highest peak of the curve since the pandemic started in Venezuela.

Naky Soto

Photo: Ariana Cubillos / AP

  • The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Fatou Bensouda, left the office after nine years and she didn’t reach a decision regarding the situation in Venezuela. “I had committed to reaching a decision during the rest of my mandate” and added that “the chamber received documents from the Venezuelan government requesting that the chamber exerted judiciary control on our preliminary exam,” she said.
    • Bensouda added that since these presentations were done confidentially, she can’t speak about them but that she made a decision and once the chamber issues a statement, the conclusion would arrive shortly. She said she would express her decision to the new chief prosecutor for consideration. So Karim Khan will be the one to take over the case and judge Venezuela for crimes against humanity. 
  • Transparencia Venezuela published a report with new evidence that the Fondo de Desarrollo Nacional (Fonden) was used as a mechanism to spend public money without checks and balances. 
    • Between 2005 and 2015, Fonden financed 781 projects and promised to pay 174,000 million dollars. They paid 153,000 million, 87.55%. Transparencia Venezuela said that Fonden assigned over 21,000 million dollars to projects with Cuba, 2.6 times the budget that had been approved in 2021. 

  • At 72 years old, a court sentenced former governor Ramón Martínez to house arrest. He was detained in Portuguesa on June 11th. He was charged with conspiracy, terrorism, association to commit crimes and forging documents. 
  • In a country scarred by hunger and without vaccines, the regime spends public funds on a mini-series called “Carabobo, caminos de Libertad”.
  • Maduro’s Health minister, Carlos Leal, said during a FAO session that Venezuela achieved “zero hunger” since 2015 and condemned a “systematic campaign of aggression” promoted by the U.S. and asked the FAO to intervene for sanctions relief. 
  • The UNHCR and the IOM called on the international community to keep supporting Venezuelan migrants and refugees in receiving countries. “The Venezuelan exodus seems to have no end, so there’s a possibility that it will become a forgotten crisis,” said UN special representative Eduardo Stein. 
  • Colombian vice president and Foreign minister Marta Lucía Ramírez assured that Colombia sees receiving Venezuelan migrants as a moral and ethical duty. She asked the international community to react accordingly when democracies are at risk. There are over two million Venezuelans in Colombia. 
  • The OAS General Secretary Luis Almagro said he received two reports by commissioner David Smolansky detailing the crisis of Venezuelan migrants and refugees and the cost of vaccinating them. Smolansky assured that “even with closed borders, between 700 and 900 Venezuelans are forced to migrate using illegal pathways every day.” 
  • CNE rector Roberto Picón reported that they’re working on modifying the rules for international observation to allow participation of foreign missions as observers as in 2006, the last time the EU and the Carter Center were allowed in the country. 
  • The AN Delegate Commission denounced that over 90% of Venezuelans don’t get a steady running water supply. 
  • President Joe Biden met with the president of the Europe Council Charles Michel and European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen. They announced a joint commitment to support a negotiation that leads to free and fair elections in Venezuela. 
  • Cape Verdean President Jorge Carlos Fonseca ruled out intervening in the case against Colombian citizen Álex Saab. 
  • Canadian Foreign minister Marc Garneau spoke with Guaidó about the Venezuelan crisis and the joint commitment to restoring democracy, the Rule of Law and defending human rights. 

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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