Caracas Chronicles

• Maduro started doing his TV show again to celebrate National Food Day in a country undergoing a complex humanitarian emergency. 
  • He said the Venezuelan food situation is stable thanks to chavismo and CLAP. 
  • Minister Carlos Leal said “the protection of CLAP has reached over 7 million families” and that they’re working on “bringing food to families twice a month.” 
  • Maduro said that public and private banks must speed up the process to finance CLAP projects and asked for the creation of a fund for these organizations handled by chavismo under Delcy Rodríguez’s supervision. 

• The Supreme Tribunal of Justice (TSJ) suspended the hearing for the ODEBRECHT case, scheduled for March 17th. The Brazilian construction company seeks to sue the Transportation Ministry for unilaterally suspending several construction sites. The NGO Transparencia Venezuela said that the other two hearings had also been suspended, so the judicial limbo this corruption case is in will continue. 
• Minister Remigio Ceballos reported that they’ve destroyed 515,511 firearms since 2003. 

Venezuela is in debt with the PAHO and even though the agency hasn’t stopped sending vaccine shipments, it’s absurd that the State doesn’t fulfill its obligations amid a pandemic. 

• Maduro announced they’re creating a new social media platform for Venezuela. They’ve tried it before and it hasn’t worked. 
• AD’s Carlos Prosperi questioned the alleged electoral process called for by Bernabé Gutiérrez, who controls the party’s symbols after a ruling by the TSJ. Prosperi said that the legitimate authorities will continue traveling in the country to promote political change. 
• Julio Borges published a piece denouncing Russian presence in the region and using Venezuela as a base of operations, for being the country “where Putin has the most influence (…) Caracas and Moscow have signed over 300 agreements in the last 20 years.” 

The U.S. reiterated that they haven’t altered course in terms of the policy for Venezuela, after the recent trip by a government delegation to Caracas, and exhorted the government to return to the negotiation table with the opposition.

• The oil barrel reached 71.02 dollars after the end of February according to the OPEC monthly oil market report. Ecoanalítica estimates that the country could make 22 billion dollars this year if we keep producing 650,000 BPD. 
• Despite the war, Moscow and Kyiv are more optimistic regarding the peace agreements. President Biden said that the country will keep sending weapons to Ukraine, including hundreds of drones, air-defense systems, and ammunition. Biden said Putin was a war criminal and the Kremlin immediately reacted, saying Biden’s comments were “unacceptable and unforgivable.” U.S. Press Secretary Jen Psaki later toned down Biden’s words and assured the President was just speaking “from his heart.” 
• The International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordered Russia to suspend its military operations in Ukraine. The ICJ rulings are binding and can’t be appealed, but the court doesn’t have the resources to enforce compliance. 
• ICC Chief Prosecutor Karim Kahn warned from Ukraine that shooting civilians is a war crime. He said he doesn’t want the war to violate international humanitarian laws, but Russia does that every day.