Flipping the Table

Your daily briefing for Tuesday, July 26, 2016. Translated by Javier Liendo.

For Tuesday, July 26, 2016. Translated by Javier Liendo.

Nicolás presided over the commemoration for the 40th anniversary of the death of Jorge A. Rodríguez, the father of Foreign Affairs minister, Delcy Rodríguez, and Mayor of Libertador, Jorge Rodríguez. The Teresa Carreño Theatre was once again the scenario of a PSUV act, polarizing and fairly useless in terms of the imaginary dialogue. Nicolás invested less time honoring the father and much more in his terrible lecture on the local left wing’s stale phrases, spoken as if they hadn’t had 17 years in power and every institutional resource to honor victims and families. They’re more useful to him like this, in the endless suspense of their reasons to hate others, to never forgive. Prohibido olvidar, he said several times, disregarding reconciliation, as he justified and celebrated the violence of previous leftists, talking about “guns to defend dignity.”

That aside, he referred to past governments as if he was speaking of his own: cynicism as an expression of hatred, a political system that betrayed democracy, the oil boom and corruption in power. Agitated, he asked if anyone could be so stupid as to believe that those who caused a crisis would solve it. But he meant the private sector, not the PSUV. He expressed his indignation for “an attack to prevent the people from deciding their course,” as if the recall referendum wasn’t precisely that. “There’s no time to lose! There’s no time for hesitation! There’s no time for traitors!,” he yelled, before stating that there has never been and will never be an agreement with imperialism and the bourgeoisie. He asked about the traitors who, in view of the possibility of political defeat, sold their souls to the devil, and I could only think of Efraín and Franqui.

Luis Almagro

The secretary general of the Organization of American States said that we’ve reached the third phase of the activation of the Inter American Democratic Charter: “The first phase was confirming the violation of the democratic order. The second was convening the General Assembly. This phase is for evaluation and the fourth, for taking appropriate measures,” he explained. Regarding Padrino López’ co-presidency and the subordination of the Cabinet to him, he said it meant Nicolás’ resignation to his administrative capacities.

He lamented that the mediators for dialogue haven’t achieved any degree of certainty, adding that involving more mediators could help bring the process together, but insisting that it shouldn’t take precedence to the the recall’s activation. “Nobody can say that I’m supporting belligerence or conflict with anyone, the worst that we could do is concealing realities,” he said, remarking that the Executive Branch has failed in guaranteeing essential rights. He stated that the goal is for Venezuela to achieve democratic stability, the release of political prisoners, the end of cruel treatments and the opening of a channel for humanitarian aid.

Measuring him without his nephews

According to Venebarómetro’s latest poll, Nicolás would lose a recall vote against him by a large margin, with 64% of voters in favor of ending his mandate. As unbelievable as it sounds, 29.3% of respondents support him to remain in power, even though his administration is negatively evaluated by 73.4% of voters, who also think that the country’s going through its worst situation yet, with a 92.9% calling it bad.

Efraín and Franqui

The National Assembly’s Interior Policy committee will discuss the case of Cilia Flores’s nephews next Wednesday, July 27th: “As soon as the case of these young men was revealed, we requested the Prosecutor’s Office to open a criminal investigation, for any crimes they might have committed in Venezuela,” said Delsa Solórzano, head of the committee, indicating that both men carried diplomatic passports without holding any offices to justify it. After placing flowers on his father’s tomb, mayor Jorge Rodríguez also spoke about Cilia Flores’s nephews, only to say that they were victims of a vulgar abduction, exactly what the New York District Attorney’s Office just denied with evidence.

More for Delcy

As Uruguay’s Foreign Affairs minister, Rodolfo Nin Novoa, is to explore with his country’s Parliament the appointment of Venezuela as head of the Mercosur and Colombia’s Foreign Affairs ministry guarantees that the border will be open with normality in a few days -fortunately, because Latam Airlines announced they’re shutting down their operations in Venezuela-, the CASLA Institute in Prague will present 55 cases of torture in Venezuela before the Hague’s International Criminal Court. This report doesn’t constitute an accusation and will be classified until the Hague’s prosecutor orders the instruction, and the decision to open a trial is made.

We conclude with the meeting held between Peru’s president, Pedro Pablo Kuczynski and Mitzy Capriles, wife of Antonio Ledezma, Metropolitan Mayor of Caracas, which resulted in Kuczynski’s commitment to promote the creation of a group of nations allied with Venezuela to help recover democracy, accepting the proposal to lead a great crusade in defence of democratic liberties in the country.

Too much

The Center of Documentation and Social Analysis of the Venezuelan Teacher’s Federation established the price of the Basic Food Basket for June of 2016 in Bs. 365,101. A family would need 24.3 minimum wages to cover the price. It increased Bs. 61,485.60 in a month (20.3%), which means the average daily increment for June was Bs. 2,049.52. In a year, the basket’s price increased 573.6% (20.7 minimum wages,) which is an average monthly increment of 47.8% and 1.6% daily. All prices increased, and food is the area in which a family spends the most. The price gap between controlled prices and market prices is 2,116.7%.

¿Vive?

The Executive Branch’s priorities tend to be questionable due to how far they are from people’s actual needs. This Monday, they opened the “expo” -must be hard to write “exposición”- Chávez Vive 2016, in the Interior Ministry’s headquarters. I’m not sure how worshipping a dead leader helps protecting our citizens; but the explanation for the National Institute of Land Transportation was harder still. The third logo on the exhibit’s sad poster, belongs to the Müller Rojas Revolutionary Leftist Front. But it’s the fourth and last logo that caught my attention. Representaciones Alveiro, whose slogan, “Advancing with the revolution” is absurd for a private company. As the law demands, their Tax ID Number (RIF) is on the logo and if you look for “J-30808637-1” on the National Contractors Registry, it isn’t registered, its process pending conclusion. How can they be “Advancing with the revolution” if they can’t legally be its suppliers? If any business has flourished with chavismo, it’s graphic printing. They renew posters and banners with astonishing frequency, useless material that’s never to be used again. Chavismo’s posters have stopped being spontaneous and hand-made years ago. Obviously, Representaciones Alveiro are chavismo’s suppliers, but how, if they’re not legally registered?

Starting on Monday, August 1st, bus tickets will be Bs. 45.

Naky Soto

Naky gets called Naibet at home and at the bank. She coordinates training programs for an NGO. She collects moments and turns them into words. She has more stories than freckles.