Caracas Chronicles

• The U.S. granted licenses to Siemens Energy AG to work with PDVSA and Corpoelec in rebuilding the Venezuelan power grid. Repairs could improve electricity generation by around 1000 MW for Caracas, and overcome regular power outages, reported Bloomberg. It’s expected that the Maduro administration will make a $1.5 billion investment in the power grid. We’ll see.
• Public workers demanded respect for workers’ rights in protests in 13 states. They demanded abolishing the new Onapre rules, which resulted in a 40% decrease of their salary. A PNB barricade blocked their march in Caracas, which was planned to arrive to the offices of the Economy and Finance Ministry. “Because of the last march, the government had to pay teachers their vacation bonus, but that isn’t the main demand, nor is it firing the Onapre director, just abolishing the new rules,” said Gregorio Afonso, representative of the UCV Professors Association. Luisa Pernalete, Fe y  Alegría teacher, warned that paying the full vacation bonus doesn’t mean the wages are enough, and said the resignation rate and the fact that institutions can’t find teachers are concerning. 
• Architect José Fructoso Vivas, known as Fruto Vivas died yesterday. The regime sang his praise all day, the same day that Armando Flores Piñango, captain and political prisoner died of terminal cancer. He was arrested in 2020 for the case of Btr-80 armored vehicles. He was hospitalized for 88 days, but lawyer Tamara Suje said he never had access to medicine and tests that he required. The court never granted him the humanitarian measure that would allow him to die in peace, with his family. Foro Penal estimates that there are 246 political prisoners in Venezuela. Cepaz registered 300 cases of persecution and criminalization against civilian and military individuals and NGOs in the first half of 2022, which shows “the rights crisis, which has worsened by persecution against all persons or organizations considered enemies or dissidents,” said Cepaz. 
• After blocking the march where workers protested for their right to dignified wages, Nicolás requested businesspeople in the country to lobby several U.S. institutions to lift the sanctions against him. He said the sanctions “shook” the Venezuelan economy and made his regime establish “a war economy” which is a lie. He reiterated that they won’t be defeated by sanctions despite the U.S. warning that if the regime “went to the negotiation in good faith” they’d review the sanctions. He said he’ll build a “powerful tax system” when commercial relations with Colombia resume and proposed building a binational economic zone. He announced a “market of Iranian economy” and exhorted businesses to export to China, Russia, Iran and India, said that the “law of fair prices has died” and that he intends to bring inflation down to one digit. 
• Calixto Ortega, president of the Venezuelan Central Bank (BCV) said that there was a 14.65% growth in the third quarter of 2021, 17.04% growth in the first quarter of 2022 and 18.7% in the second quarter of 2022. If these were real, they’d be the highest in the world. 

ANC-imposed prosecutor general Tarek William Saab reported that a commission will investigate the corruption case of Monómeros in Colombia. 

• The regime “emphatically rejected” the ruling that confirmed an $8.7 billion award in favor of ConocoPhillips, because it “hurts the patrimony of all Venezuelans.”
• The black market dollar has reached 7.32 bolivars, a 25% increase in a month. The BCV dollar is 6.28 bolivars. Factors include that few dollars have been sold to the banks and that the regime has used more of its budget. Public expenditure increased 142% compared to the first half of 2021. 
• Cepal increased its regional growth estimate from 1.8% to 2.7%, but they warned that the scenario is truly complex, since the war has made an impact and there’s inflationary stress, low job creation dynamics, drops of investment and increasing social demands. 
• During the first seven months of the year, at least 44,943 Venezuelans crossed the Darien Gap. This means that 6,420 people crossed this lethal jungle every month, 214 per day and 9 people per hour. 
• The Confederación de Asociaciones Israelitas de Venezuela (CAIV) condemned the statement by Esteban Trapiello, who denied the Holocaust and said he’d like to have lunch with Hitler to ask him “why he didn’t finish the job.” 
• President Gustavo Petro rejected Diosdado Cabello’s petition to extradite several opposition leaders from Colombia: “Colombia guarantees the right to asylum and refuge,” tweeted the President. 
• The lawyer of former treasurer and Chávez’s millionaire nurse Claudia Díaz Guillén said that the U.S. government is blocking her access to information and blocking her preparation for the trial set to start in October.