Caracas Chronicles

• On Monday, the Venezuelan Observatory of Finance (OVF) reported that the inflation in July was 19%, because of the bolivar’s devaluation. 
  • Economist and deputy elected to the Assembly in 2015 Ángel Alvarado, reported that the prices of goods and services increased by a 415.7% average between January and July. 
  • The basic food basket reached a historical high of $303. 

• “The Bolivarian Revolution isn’t exclusionary, this revolution is absolutely inclusive,” said PSUV president Diosdado Cabello when he gave the first report of the PSUV primaries, where 3.5 million people allegedly participated, meaning 15% of the electoral registry. 

The magnitude of the irregularities on Sunday, made Cabello admit to some of them.

• • Freddy Bernal, the authority appointed by chavismo to control Táchira disregarding the results of the election in that state, explained that “victories aren’t automatic candidacies,” but said that everyone should be happy because the party responded. The PSUV also reported that they’ll now start thinking about alliances with other parties within the Polo Patriótico. 
• Criminal leaders of the La Pica jail in Monagas, part of the gang known as El Tren de Oriente, supported governor Yelitze Santaella and other PSUV candidates in a video they recorded from the penitentiary, which included all inmates yelling in support. 
• William Gómez, a chavista mayor in Táchira, denounced the primaries were being manipulated to impose candidates of “ your cupulitas (…) jalabolas.” The audio went viral and Gómez dared them to expel him from the party. 
• Former Guanta mayor, Jhonnathan Marín Sanguino, charged with corruption for business with PDVS, lives in Mexico and has three companies in the pharma and oil sectors. One of them already signed a contract with the federal government. 
• The National Electoral Council will admit or reject candidates for the November election until August 29th. Tania D´Amelio said that parties will be allowed to present their candidates starting this Monday. 
• Carlos Ocariz assured on Monday that “Miranda will never be governed by corrupted individuals or enchufados again.” After Cabello ratified his support for a non-opposition group, David Uzcátegui said that his party will make some candidacies official and pretended to challenge Ocariz to primaries in Miranda, as if Ocariz hadn’t proposed this earlier. 

FundaRedes asked High Commissioner Michelle Bachelet for attention to the case of three of their activists who were arbitrarily detained:  Javier Tarazona, Rafael Tarazona, and Omar García require humanitarian measures because of the rapid decline of their health. 

• There were 26 violations of freedom of expression in Venezuela during the month of July, said Espacio Público in their most recent report. Most of the cases are silencing complaints and blocking news coverage. 
• Monday was the International Indigenous Peoples Day, which has been used for propaganda under chavismo, while they strip them of their rights. Last year, chavismo took their right to direct and secret vote. Kapé Kapé director Armando Obdola said that at least 7,000 people are part of the forced exodus, communities seeking a better quality of life, better jobs, and fleeing irregular groups near their territories. Waraos, Pemones, and Wayú have been the most affected. 

Read more about the situation of Indigenous peoples here: 

1. The Fake Vindication of Venezuelan Indigenous People
2. Indigenous Rights in Venezuela: Unfulfilled Promises, Trampled Dignity

• Venezuela faces important demographic changes as a consequence of the mass migration of young citizens: in 2015, the National Statistics Institute (INE) estimated that we’d be 32.6 million by 2020, but the UN’s most recent projection estimates 28.4 million, a figure similar to 2010. 
  • Venezuela is the country that has lost the highest number of inhabitants in the last five years, but not all changes can be explained with migration, said Anitza Freitez, director of the UCAB Institute of Social and Economic Investigations to BBC Mundo, because we’re also facing a drop of birthrate and a mortality rate increase. ENCOVI’s demographic map includes more single-person homes, over 50% of homes headed by women, a less active population, and a more dependent population (seniors). 

• A few days from the start of the negotiation in Mexico, the U.S. ratifies that they’ll pressure for free elections in Venezuela “and we’ll do everything in our power to pressure the regime into taking concrete measures in that direction, said special advisor to President Joe Biden, Juan González.

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The UN Expert Committee on Climate Change warned that global warming is increasing and will have unprecedented consequences: in merely a decade, the temperature could surpass the levels that had been established as the limit so far.