Caracas Chronicles

• HIV+ patients don’t have access to the medicine necessary for their treatment and 643 people have died since 2020 because of a late diagnosis.  
  • Eduardo Franco, secretary of NGO Red de Gente Positiva, said that NGOs lack the resources because fighting HIV in the country requires over 33 million dollars per year. 
  • UNAIDS estimated that 104,000 Venezuelans are HIV+.
  • AIDS and HIV+ patients in Venezuela have survived thanks to NGOs and international cooperation. 
  • In 2016, the State decided to stop purchasing antiretrovirals.

• The Delegate Commission issued a statement on the electoral results:
  • They defended Freddy Superlano’s victory in Barinas, rejected the ruling of the Supreme Tribunal of Justice (TSJ) and the National Electoral Council complying with it. 
  • They say it proves that no Venezuelan branch or institution respects the right to elect or be elected. 
  • CNE board member Enrique Márquez finally spoke up and said that TSJ rulings against the election in Barinas could “undermine the CNE’s responsibilities,” something that already happened in practice. 
  • Deputy Juan Pablo Guanipa assured the CNE is controlled by the regime despite having two board members tied to the opposition. 
  • The Venezuelan Communist Party was the political organization that wrote the most accurate communique on the arbitrary actions by the regime using the structure of the State against the voters’ will in Barinas. They called it “a giant political scam.” 

• Maduro questioned his governors and mayors’ management for distancing themselves from the people and hunkering down in their offices. “Indolence, corruption, and inefficiency are worse than the American blockade.” 
• Foreign minister Félix Plasencia quoted Josep Borrells’s tweet about collaboration during the elections and invited him to remove sanctions against the regime because “it’s the best way to help Venezuela.” In November, the EU extended sanctions one more year.  

Venezuela is the second country in Latin America with the most hunger warned FAO in this year’s food security report. 

• Despite this fact and other equally serious indexes, the regime campaigned because they met with the UN coordinator in the country, Gianluca Rampolla, to start working on the sustainable development goals “and not leave anyone behind.” 
• The Press and Society Institute denounced two radio shows on Impacto 107.1 FM (Barinas) that were suspended by CONATEL, “Noticiero Impacto” and “La Mejor Barinas”. CONATEL has suspended four radio shows in Barinas amid the electoral crisis, on top of shutting down a radio station after the election. 
• Active and retired CANTV workers in Carabobo protested to demand better wages and a new conversation on their collective contract. Workers of the health and education sectors protested in front of the Education Ministry in Caracas to demand better salaries and conditions. 

Doctors Without Borders reported they started the process to leave the Vargas Hospital in Caracas, ending their humanitarian labor after the cooperation agreements expired. 

• An unidentified migrant woman died on the Chile-Bolivia border, for a total of 19 deaths in 2021. 
• Venezuelans in Florida created the Venezuelan American caucus, an organization to promote democracy in Venezuela, push for policies that help migrants and endorse candidacies that represent their interests. 
• The U.S. Treasury Department removed Clíver Alcalá from their drug traffickers list, even though he’s in prison in NYC under drug trafficking charges. He was sanctioned for using his position in the FANB to help Colombians get weapons. “Out of three other Venezuelans sanctioned alongside Alcalá in 2011, two were taken off the list today, but Freddy Bernal is still sanctioned,” reported AP journalist Joshua Goodman. 
• The director of the Colombian National Police, Jorge Luis Vargas, said that FARC leader Iván Márquez is running his drug trafficking operation from Venezuela, under the protection of the regime.