Briefing

Saving Tepuyes from Frivolity

Among other news, social media users helped multiply the noise against a new abuse that could have only been committed with the State’s approval: a party was held on top of the Kusari tepuy, part of Canaima National Park in Bolívar.

Naky Soto

Photo: National Geographic

  • On Wednesday, social media users helped multiply the noise against a new abuse that could have only been committed with the State’s approval: a party was held on top of the Kusari tepuy, part of Canaima National Park in Bolívar on February 4th. Osmel Sousa, Aura Hernández and Titina Penzini, among others, posted photos on social media. They were guests attending Rafael Oliveros’s party (who was sworn in by Maduro as a “tourism engine”). Biologist Carlos Pelaez explained that “Venezuela’s a mega-diverse country, among others, because the enormous amount of tepuyes’ endemic species. “They’ve been isolated from the savannah for millions of years, so tepuyes have their own species and subspecies, in a truly vulnerable environment,” he says. That’s why they’re sensitive to external threats and why the recovery is harder. Parties on tepuyes are forbidden because they violate the rules created to protect the environment’s frailty. 
  • On Wednesday, the owners of Biruma, a fruit store in Altamira, denounced their store had been demolished after 65 years of operations. Marta, Arnaldo and Doménico Paredes denounced their home had been destroyed and their belongings stolen. Nine people are now unemployed. A court in Libertador municipality ordered the demolition, arguing that a commercial building will start construction in the area. Employees assure that when the demolition order and the tractor arrived, officers of the Chacao municipality participated in the eviction, but the municipality denied the claims on their social media. The same court revoked the order later, but the store had been demolished. They’re left without a home, business or employment.
  • PAHO director Carissa Etienne warned of an increase of the coronavirus death rate in Latin America, mentioning a 9.4% increase in Bolivia and up to 42% in Venezuela. 
  • Vice president Delcy Rodríguez had a video chat with WHO director Tedros Adhanom. She asked for approval for the Russian and Cuban vaccine candidates. 
  • Maduro appointed lawyer Magaly Gutiérrez Viña as his new Health minister. She used to date Cilia Flores’s son and she had presided the Venezuelan Social Security Institute. 
  • After the operation in Aragua, Interior minister Remigio Ceballos reported the arrest of 13 alleged criminals and the deaths of five, among them Carlos Revette, a.k.a “El Koki”. He said that the operation continues in other states. 
  • The Assembly said they’re debating a Law Against Climate Change. It was reported by Ecosocialism minister Josue Lorca and president of INPARQUES. 
  • In Zulia, a member of the militia tragically shot himself on the head, trying to teach others how to use the gun. 
  • Maduro appointed Diva Guzmán as the Women’s minister, Clara Vidal returns to the Indigenous Peoples Ministry and Olga Luisa Figueroa as Fishing minister. 
  • The Coalition for Human Rights and Democracy requested the UN’s OHCHR to exhort Trinidad & Tobago to comply with international laws when it comes to Venezuelan migrants and refugees. 
  • FundaRedes published a report on the violence curve in the last quarter of 2021, showing that violence increased by 19% in border states compared to the previous quarter. Zulia led the list with 95 murders. 
  • Human Rights Watch Americas director Tamara Taraciuk condemned the ruling granting ownership of El Nacional land and offices to Diosdado Cabello and called it “a new attack against the free press in Venezuela.” 
  • Retirees and pensioners protested at La Moneda Sq. to demand a new pension according to the cost of the basic food basket. 
  • The EU EOM is waiting for the regime’s authorization to come to the country and present their final report, after sending a delegation to observe the November election. Remember that a couple of days after they delivered their preliminary report, Diosdado Cabello insulted Isabel Santos and rejected their return. 
  • Súmate said the CNE must call for new elections to replace the mayors that have been arrested, once the municipal councils declare them absent. 
  • Acción Democrática’s first vice president Edgar Zambrano insisted on holding primary elections to choose the opposition’s candidate for the presidential election in 2024. 
  • The EU and FAO launched two projects to benefit seed production and agriculture, in order to contribute with food security. They hope to benefit 19 states with a 3 million euro investment. 
  • The INAC authorized flights between Portugal and Venezuela. 
  • Tomás Páez Bravo, the coordinator of the Venezuelan Diaspora Observatory, assured that Venezuelan immigration has surpassed 7 million and that there are Venezuelans in 90 countries. 
  • Newspaper TalCual denounced that they were the victims of a DDoS attack on their website after they published a piece on the party on the tepuy, from an “unusual amount of requests coming from IPs controlled by CANTV.” 
  • U.S. under secretary for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland expressed her concern for the increase of Russian influence on the Venezuela – Colombia border. 
  • The Spanish secretary for Ibero-America and the Caribbean Juan Fernández met with the European commissioner for crisis management, Janez Lenarcic. They discussed the crises in Haiti, Venezuela and Central America, to reinforce their humanitarian strategy. 
  • Trinidadian prime minister Keith Rowley said that the murder of the Venezuelan baby was an accident and defended the Coast Guard’s actions. They haven’t said that a fishing boat could never ram a military ship. 

Naky Soto

Naky gets called Naibet at home and at the bank. She coordinates training programs for an NGO. She collects moments and turns them into words. She has more stories than freckles.

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