Caracas Chronicles

The Local Dispatch features selected stories from local journalists and media organizations who are reporting news from deep inside Venezuela. These are the types of stories that have no visibility abroad, even when they paint the most accurate picture of what’s actually happening in the country. The dispatch is published weekly.

“Extermination policy”: Venezuelan elders speak out on the International Day of Older Persons

For Venezuela’s pensioners and retirees, life has long been about surviving the socioeconomic collapse and the implosion of the welfare state. The images shared this Monday paint a bleak picture of the race against time that elderly Venezuelans face. On the International Day of Older Persons, retirees protested in parts of Caracas.

Luis Cano, president of the Pensioners’ and Retirees’ Front, was asked about their daily challenges. Like thousands of others, he relies on remittances from a relative abroad to buy his medication. But with money stretching thinner both here and there, Cano has had to resort to herbal remedies. “We don’t want to depend on alms, so we will keep protesting in the streets for dignified aging,” Cano told Crónica Uno. Union leader and professor Raquel Figueroa described the situation as a form of “extermination” by the state: “Retired teachers who only receive a pension from the Ministry of Education get absolutely nothing.”

Venezuelan pensioners receive 130 bolívares a month, equivalent to $3.50 (yes, you read that right). They also get a $30 bonus, but the basic food basket costs $539, according to the Venezuelan Teachers Federation. That’s why a group has asked the United Nations to pressure the government on this issue, as reported by Efecto Cocuyo. In a document submitted to the UN chief in Venezuela, they called for the intervention of the Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food. They also urged the Venezuelan government to sit down and negotiate solutions with relevant organizations.

Raymar and Carolina: two more women kidnapped for “WhatsApp crimes”

PROVEA denounced the forced disappearance of two women on Sunday, who were returning to the country from Cúcuta: 37-year-old Raymar Pérez, and Carolina Chirinos, 36, Venezuelan mothers and housewives. The DGCIM arrested them after searching their phones at a checkpoint in Táchira, where they found “compromising” chats, according to Raymar’s relatives who spoke to El Pitazo. Carolina’s husband, a Peruvian citizen traveling with them, was also detained. They were en route to Valencia to settle into a newly built home, but their whereabouts remain unknown.

This isn’t the first case of women being detained over a chat or “compromising” message on their phones. Osmary Sánchez Chirinos, 26 years old and 10 weeks pregnant, was arrested days after the presidential elections. A chavista accused her of “inciting hatred” in a WhatsApp group in Coro.

Human rights lawyer Tamara Suju provided an update on Osmary’s case. She’s locked up with ten others in a 3×3 meter cell, sharing a mattress with another person. She has a urinary infection, fever, and high blood pressure. Due to the severity of her case, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights issued precautionary measures in her favor. At least 155 women have been detained since July 28, according to Foro Penal—protesters, reporters, teachers, and even underage students. This detailed report by Kaoru Yonekura in La Gran Aldea breaks it all down.

Witches’ broom: the disease still hitting Venezuelan cocoa

Cocoa producers have been sounding the alarm for some time. Production in Sucre, the country’s main cocoa-producing state, has almost halved. In 2022, they produced 10 million kilos; now, it’s down to 5 or 6 million, according to El Nacional. Fe y Alegría reported that only 25% of Venezuela’s cocoa crops are still producing, per the National Association of Venezuelan Cocoa Producers.

For years, Venezuelan cocoa has been afflicted by the fungus Moniliophthora roreri, which invades the plants, rotting the pods and causing a deformity known as witches’ broom. The fungus isn’t the sole culprit—Brazil shares this issue but has designed public policies to tackle it since 2000. Juana Gómez, treasurer of the Venezuelan Cocoa Producers Association, said they’ve been warning about this for six years. According to this explainer from Noticias Todos Ahora, nearly 2,000 producers raised the issue with Sucre’s governor in 2021.

In the state, Fundación Prosperi plays a key role in the agricultural sector, supporting cocoa farmers. In 2023, it invested $25,000 to clear 63 farms of the fungus, according to El Tiempo and Costa del Sol. The producers emphasize the need for rapid cooperation between the government, private sector, and entities like Fundación Prosperi. The solution seems clear: significant investment is needed to provide access to fungicides, equipment, and research and development.

In April, Maduro announced a plan to control the fungus by applying “Tricolerum” to the plantations (supposedly a biological agent developed by local scientists). And here’s the kicker: in late June, Maduro inaugurated the “National Center for Research, Development and Innovation of Venezuelan Cocoa” in Miranda state.

A year ago, blog editor Tony Frangie wrote in El Estímulo about the agricultural pest currently ravaging cocoa, banana, citrus fruits, potato and other plantations—an undermentioned effect of the Venezuelan crisis and the country’s agroindustrial collapse. 

Suggested reads:

El Estímulo: Outside Tocuyito, the infamous Carabobo prison, families of those arrested after the presidential election are enduring agonizingly long waits, hoping for news of their loved ones.

Efecto Cocuyo: “Mom, I love you but cannot bear this anymore. I want to kill myself.” Six minors detained during the electoral protests struggle behind bars as they face trial. Their relatives are now breaking the silence.

Crónica Uno: The Venezuelan Corporation of Guayana, once the engine driving development in the country’s south, had shelved 250 projects by 2018 meant to boost agriculture, livestock, and raw material production.Tal Cual: The destruction of the Guayana Regional Herbarium, a botanical research center that reportedly had some 13 thousand classified species.