Caracas Chronicles

In only six days, the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Tribunal of Justice (TSJ) declared the “constitutionality” of the Law for Special Economic Zones (ZEEs), approved on June 30th by Maduro’s National Assembly. The law was created to “attract new investment and increase export volume.” It contemplates the following: 

1. Creating the special areas is exclusively up to the President. He’ll appoint the superintendent, the board, and the authorities in each of the areas. 
2. ZEEs will be areas of free exchange, so companies will be able to use other currencies like euros, dollars, and rubles. 
3. ZEEs can be established to promote any industrial activity they want, even banks can opt to be part of ZEEs. 
4. Companies operating in ZEEs get incentives like tax benefits and their inclusion in the catalog of touristic investments. 

• Humanitarian worker Gabriel Blanco was detained on Thursday, he was charged with terrorism and association to commit crimes, said the warrant issued by judge José Márquez García. This same judge kept professor  Alcides Bracho under arrest. Bracho was the first member of the political party Bandera Roja to be arrested in this new attack that the regime hasn’t explained yet.  Gabriel Blanco hasn’t been a member of the party in five years. They also arrested Reynaldo Cortés in Guárico, the fourth Bandera Roja member, after Bracho, Alonso Meléndez and Néstor Astudillo. Yeny Pérez Almeida, wife of José Castro, was arrested in lieu of her husband.
• Maduro ratified Vladimir Padrino López as his minister of defense, a position he’s held since 2014.
• Maduro’s communications minister Freddy Ñáñez assured that the Executive doesn’t know the whereabouts of a.k.a. Iván Márquez, so they can’t confirm or deny his death in Apure or that he’s wounded in Caracas. 
• The U.S. Treasury Department renewed a license allowing certain transactions to export gas to Venezuela. License 40A authorizes activities tied to direct or indirect exports to Venezuela, the Venezuelan government, or PDVSA. Nothing new here.
• Juan Carlos Ovalles, president of Anzoátegui’s Association of Cattle Farmers and Agroproducers said that the diesel fuel shortage will continue to hurt crops this year. 
• The UN and CAF agreed to support Venezuela’s socioeconomic recovery to improve the population’s quality of life. Both organizations said that they’ll work on development and food security in addition to recovering and reestablishing basic services. 

The UK demanded the release of human rights activist Javier Tarazona, FundaRedes director. 

• Ten Indigenous associations in Amazonas said that they haven’t received an answer from the Public Ministry regarding their requests for protection. They asked the Prosecutor’s Office, the Ombudsman Office and ZODI N° 63 to investigate the murder of Virgilio Trujillo Arana, and demanded that the office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights force the State to guarantee the protection of ancestral lands. 
• Raúl Gorrín, sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department, received an OFAC license to pay $650,000 he owed to the building where he owns a luxury apartment in New York. The apartment was going to be auctioned off. 
• State-owned airline Conviasa canceled 12 flights in July serving Caracas – Buenos Aires. We don’t know if the flights will be rescheduled for a later date. Conviasa also canceled four flights between Santiago de Chile and Caracas.
• UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson resigned after 57 members of the Executive Branch resigned protesting his management and scandals. 
•  Shinzo Abe, the former Prime Minister of Japan, was assassinated last night while he was delivering a speech in the city of Nara.