Caracas Chronicles

• The third currency denomination in 13 years takes place today, October 1st, 2021. Here’s a brief explainer: 
  • The BCV has taken 14 zeroes off the bolivar in total. 
  • One million bolivars (worth 0.20 dollars) will become one bolivar starting today. 
  • One bolivar of the ones we have today was 100 billion bolivars in 2007. 
  • The black market dollar rate increased to 5,035,381 bolivars per dollar. Venezuelans decided to buy dollars with the bolivars they had left before the new currency redenomination. 
  • This redenomination was unavoidable but most likely useless. Chavismo hasn’t announced any measures to fix the economy it has destroyed, which means this bolivar’s capacity could be lost soon, as it has happened before. 
  • Delcy Rodríguez said that public and private banks are ready for this currency denomination, and for a digital process. 
  • Police and military units were deployed in Caracas as if they were ready to repress a protest. 

Read more about how the de facto dollarization is unstoppable, but the BCV won’t disappear and Venezuela will continue to use bolivars for certain things: Dollars Are Here to Stay, But Bolivars Aren’t Going Away

ANC-imposed prosecutor general Tarek William Saab said that Venezuela doesn’t need an institution like the International Criminal Court to get justice, because, according to him, the justice system works. Saab said that “no one is going to come to teach the Public Ministry about human rights” and said that human rights activists were “buffoons” and lacked “moral authority”. Saab talked about Sargeant Arli Cleivi Méndez Terán being absolved of the murder of David  Vallenilla and said he’s in jail. He said the judge didn’t consider how he broke the principle of proportionality and excessive use of force. 

• The EU mission and the National Electoral Council signed an agreement for the November 21st election. Around 100 experts will start arriving to the country in the next few days. CNE president Pedro Calzadilla expects to sign other agreements with other international institutions as long as they abide by Venezuelan law. 
• Rafael Dochao Moreno, chief of the EU delegation in Venezuela, promised that the mission will follow “all European standards” and assured that they’ll issue a report detailing everything after the election. 
• The Alianza Nacional de la Lucha contra el Cáncer de Mama wants to promote taking urgent measures to tackle it. There are over 7,000 cases per year in the country. 
• Delsa Solorzano warned that the regime is trying to empty La Tumba because of the arrival of international observers: “They’re moving political prisoners because observers are coming. This is evidence that it’s a place where they commit atrocities (…) They want to erase the evidence of human rights violations.” 
• The correspondent of Spanish network Telecinco, journalist Ángel Cedeño, died after he was taken to several hospitals in Caracas. His colleague Esther Yáñez said that Cedeño had fainted and was taken to three hospitals until the Hospital Universitario admitted him. He was 38 years old. 
• Maduro wore a military uniform for the event celebrating the CEOFANB’s 16th anniversary, where he flattered Hugo Chávez’s wits to create the institution and a “truly Bolivarian” armed forces. 
• The extension period of the National Assembly elected in 2015 expires on January 5th, 2022. Cecilia Sosa Gómez and Delsa Solórzano talked about the need of extending its mandate again, to provide the caretaker government with continuity and sustainability until free and fair general elections are held in Venezuela. 
• The spokesperson of the Servicio Europeo de Acción Exterior, Nabila Massrali, said that the EU’s position towards Maduro’s regime is the same: “Observing the election doesn’t mean we’ve changed our policy on Venezuela and the demands we’ve made to the country,” she said. 
• American senators Marco Rubio and Rick Scott sent a letter to Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador where they expressed their discontent for receiving Maduro during the CELAC. They feel AMLO failed to abide by “international commitments” to tackle transnational organized crime.