The Local Dispatch features selected stories from local journalists and media organizations who are reporting news from deep inside Venezuela and 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.

Mérida becomes the seventh state affected by school poisonings. What do we know?

The number of poisoning cases, with an unknown cause, continues to climb, with the first 90 cases reported in Portuguesa just three weeks ago. On Tuesday morning, four schools in Ejido, Mérida, reported 110 cases “almost simultaneously,” according to El Pitazo. Symptoms such as itching, nausea, vomiting, dizziness, and even fainting suggest allergic reactions to an unidentified substance, according Liliana Contreras, Mérida’s Secretary of Education in the chavista governorship. Contreras ruled out mass poisonings linked to viral challenges or fumigation—though the latter remains a hypothesis in Lara.

Why it matters: Contreras’ statements contradict the narrative from Maduro and Diosdado Cabello, who claim the poisonings are linked to viral challenges on TikTok, such as inhaling aerosols or paint. They’ve called on CONATEL to investigate the Chinese platform alongside TikTok’s Latin America office. Fact-checkers at Cazadores de Fake News point out that TikTok already flags and restricts such content. As Arepita notes, without toxicology reports or verified data, no theory can be confirmed.

More information: El Pitazo reports two deaths among minors in Miranda: one from inhaling a cleaning product and another from ingesting clonazepam. The Public Ministry cites three deaths overall. Yet, the chavista leadership is weaponizing the context, turning TikTok into a new “internal enemy” to justify tighter control over social media. Maduro even accused TikTok and its “invisible owners” of causing the children’s deaths. Ironically, the same politicians who weaponized Instagram and TikTok during the post-election crackdown, mocking detainees in Operation Tun Tun, now decry “harmful and malevolent content” on social platforms, including their own VenApp.

Chavista medical missions reach Monagas and Delta, but not the Wayuu

State medical teams are conducting vaccination drives in Delta Amacuro, targeting groups like the Warao, who have long faced tropical diseases and sexually transmitted infections without access to antiretrovirals. The focus is reportedly on malaria, a common outbreak during rainy seasons. Officials claim 292 surgeries have been conducted in Monagas through requests made on VenApp.

The situation differs in Zulia’s Guajira municipality. Radio Fe y Alegría reports a rise in vomiting and diarrhea cases among Wayuu communities, with children most affected. One heartbreaking case involves an 11-month-old girl suffering from malnutrition. In Maicao, on the Colombian side of the peninsula, a hospital dismissed the mother’s concerns, saying the baby was “fine.” Meanwhile, in Moina, near the border, residents lament the lack of nearby health centers or medical missions.

More information: A recent FundaRedes report, highlighted by El Impulso, paints a grim picture of indigenous communities in Venezuela: 80% of schools in Delta Amacuro operate under dire conditions, and hundreds of children in Amazonas cross the Orinoco River to attend school in Colombia.

CVG Bauxilum shuts down after last calciner explodes

The last calciner at CVG Bauxilum’s alumina plant in Ciudad Guayana exploded on Monday, halting operations. According to Correo del Caroní, corrosion, neglected maintenance, and jury-rigged equipment caused the incident. A worker revealed that the calciner had shown severe issues since 2022, including gas leaks and “hot spots,” but remained operational due to management’s refusal to halt production.

This pattern of ignoring critical infrastructure problems has become endemic in Venezuela’s state-run industries over the past two decades, driven by fears of pausing output.

Recommended reads:

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• Crónica Uno: Carabobo union leaders report that an “administrative error” by the Education Ministry—repeated for the fourth time in six years—has left 1,000 teachers unpaid.
• La Patilla: Valencia’s Chamber of Commerce details how shortages of electricity, gas, and diesel are crippling local businesses.
• Crónica Uno: Chavismo is organizing elections to appoint 30,000 “peace judges” for resolving neighbor disputes within its communal system. But who are these figures?