Caracas Chronicles

• Maduro approved creating a tax of up to 20% for financial transactions made in foreign currency. They said that the partial reform on the law of tax for large financial transactions or IGTF will guarantee the favorable treatment of payments and activities carried out in bolivars and cryptocurrency over those made in foreign currency, meaning: in order to preserve space for bolivars in the payment system and to increase fiscal tax collection, chavismo is making using dollars for payments more expensive. Once more, they decide to attack the symptom and not the cause. 
• During his speech, Jorge Rodríguez proved that he isn’t interested in proportionality of the quotas of transactions made in foreign currency or the impact the IGTF will have on the formal economy and its alleged recovery. They didn’t explain that this tax will affect everyone, no matter their income or that it will have an impact on inflation and it will become an important incentive to go back to an informal economy, hitting the banking system and weakening the possibility of having access to the credits they announced yesterday. 
• ANC-imposed prosecutor general Tarek William Saab reported the detention of a chavista former mayor of the Freites municipality in Anzoátegui, Daniel Haro Méndez, for being tied to a gasoline contraband network. Saab warned that they haven’t ruled out detaining other people tied to a drug trafficking network that mayor Keyrineth Fernández and deputies Taína González and Luis Viloria Chirinos were part of. He added that they issued arrest warrants against Omar Hurtado and Aquiles Hurtado, alleged leaders of a cartel in Falcón, who allegedly would have received the drug shipment mayor Fernández was transporting. Saab said that they’ve conducted 11 raids in Falcón pertaining to this case.
• The Americas is the most unequal region in the fight against COVID-19, according to PAHO director Carissa Etienne. At least 14 countries in the region haven’t been able to vaccinate 40% of their population. Venezuela is over that figure, but PAHO’s figures contradict the regime’s: PAHO confirmed that only 47.6% of the country had been vaccinated until February 2nd. 
• Zulia Governor Manuel Rosales has been admitted to the hospital as a precaution after he tested positive for COVID-19. 

A group of Colombian doctors created a glossary of terms used by Venezuelan COVID-19 patients in order to better understand them and orient them on their treatment. 

• Esmeralda Arosemena, special rapporteur of the IACHR for Venezuela and Nicaragua said that neither Ortega or Maduro are giving any signs of constructive dialogue to end the crises and exhorted the international community to make a stronger commitment to fight the drama we’re going through. She emphasized the humanitarian crisis and the remains of the justice system serving the dictatorship. 
• Luis Rendón’s family members and friends took to social media to protest this medical student’s death. He was found dead in Ciudad Bolívar after he was declared missing on January 27th. 
• The Inter-American Press Association denounced further violations of freedom of expression in Venezuela. They reject the government blocking digital media outlets and the illegal use of personal information to harass journalists. 
• An activist for the Venezuelan community in Colombia, Francine Howard, denounced that Colombia registrar services have arbitrarily voided 42,000 IDs of Venezuelan citizens without previous notification. The registrar’s office said that the suspension responds to a depuration of the registry for the presidential election. 
• The EU will offer support to Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Perú for their efforts in integrating millions of Venezuelan refugees and migrants. 
• Since migrants aren’t crossing the Colombian borders as they used to, the gang called Tren de Aragua has extended its operations all the way to Cúcuta, where the population has been forced to pay weekly fees to ensure their “safety”. 
• Gerardo Blyde asked the regime to stop the process of appointing TSJ justices and go back to the negotiation in Mexico. Blyde reported that the Vatican and the UN will coordinate a group of countries willing to participate in the negotiation process with Maduro’s regime. This group will work as a guarantor of the agreements reached in the negotiation. 
• Colombian defense minister Diego Molano denounced the deployment of the Venezuelan Armed Forces on the border with technical support from Russia and Iran. He called it foreign intervention. The mobilization is happening near Arauca, where FARC and ELN clash over control of the drug trafficking routes.