Caracas Chronicles

• ANC-imposed head prosecutor Tarek William Saab reported that two SEBIN officers were sentenced to five years and ten months in jail, for the murder of councilman Fernando Albán. Miguel Do Santos Rodríguez and Keiberth Cibelli Moreno admitted to committing the crimes they were charged with. It was a crime committed by the State, Saab was the first to use state media to silence those who spoke up, and what he announced today isn’t the result of a true investigation on the chain of command, to allow proving that councilman Albán was tortured by SEBIN officers until he died and his body was thrown out the window to cover up the crimes. 
  • Fernando Albán died on October 8th, 2018, under state custody. He had been arrested on October 5th and he was under forced disappearance for two days. They tied him to an attack against Maduro and he was going to be taken to court for his hearing on October 8th but Tarek William Saab reported, on a phone call with VTV,  that “he had committed suicide” after officers who were guarding him took a break to use the restroom. Minister Néstor Reverol changed this version and tweeted that he jumped out of the 10th floor of the SEBIN building. The whole state media network pushed hard to establish this as the truth but the evidence and the fact that they couldn’t keep their version straight, opened the way for the councilman’s case to become an important case in the terrible history of human rights violations. 

Between 1996 and 2020, state security forces have committed 10,238 violations of the right to live, 7,893 of which have been extrajudicial executions, according to Provea. 

• Saab reported that his office has prosecuted 820 officers for human rights violations, 210 of which have been sentenced. He said it like it’s an achievement.  
• In another exercise of “trending topic justice”, Saab appointed a prosecutor to investigate the case that went viral on Twitter about Salud Chacao refusing to treat patients for wearing shorts. 
• The UN Human Rights Council concluded that Venezuela violated Allan Brewer Carías’s right to be judged by an independent court. He was accused of conspiracy in 2005. They ask that the case against him be annulled. 
• Dr. Julio Castro assured that it doesn’t make sense to say that “80% of Venezuelans have been vaccinated” because “people under 14 years old are 28% of the population, that would mean that more than 100% of adults are vaccinated,” he wrote. 
• The 8th High-Level Venezuela Belarus Commission. Ricardo Menéndez said that they’ll handle new financial and cooperation plans. 
• Interior and justice minister Remigio Ceballos assured that there’s “an existing respect for human rights” in the country’s security forces and that they’ve taken measures to strengthen them. 
• BCV president Calixto Ortega Sánchez assured that, because of the BCV’s actions and measures, the country could leave hyperinflation behind in 2022. He didn’t explain what those actions were or what’s the plan for next year, though. 
• Economist Asdrúbal Oliveros assured that if sanctions were lifted, the economy would grow by 10%, but he doesn’t think that will happen. He estimates the government received around 2,000 million dollars in 2021 and that it could receive up to 5,000 million next year. 

• UDO dean Milena Bravo reported that they’ve only received 23% of their 2021 budget and added that other universities have only received 10% of their budget. 

Ramón Goyo, president of the Venezuelan Exporters Association, said that exports increased by 30% compared to 2020, favoring seafood, cacao, rum, personal hygiene products and the automotive sector. 

• Colombian intelligence agencies ruled out that a.k.a. Iván Márquez is in Cuba, as was said after the deaths of ‘El Paisa’ and ‘Romaña’, but he’s still in Venezuela and from there, he planned the terrorist attack on December 14th, as retaliation for the deaths of his associates. 
• U.S. deputy secretary for Western Hemisphere affairs Brian A. Nichols confirmed that a State Department delegation visited Venezuela for a consular visit for American citizens who are in jail. 
• Inparques secretary general José Matute warned that they lack the conditions or resources to see to forest fires. Neither their firefighters nor their park rangers have medical insurance.