The attacker’s cynicism

Your briefing for Tuesday, April 4, 2017. Translated by Javier Liendo.

This Monday, Ombudsman Tarek William Saab said that Venezuela is a democratic State and the evidence was the live broadcast of the General Prosecutor’s statements denouncing the breakdown of the constitutional order. He also said that the recent TSJ rulings show that there’s indeed branch autonomy and that and that there was no rupture of the constitutional order because the General Prosecutor met with Nicolás. Saab pointed out that the Tribunal’s decisions must be obeyed and respected, sadly, he didn’t clarify which ones he meant: the ones that caused this whole mess or the latest ones, the ones that can’t be viewed because the TSJ’s webpage is still down.

The fact that the Ombudsman keeps acting as a PSUV pawn explains why the UN degraded his office to B category. He called for caution and patience because things happen “in factual terms, not terms imposed by the media,” maybe he was talking about the attacks that lawmaker Juan Requesens would suffer before the Ombudsman’s Office, via the violence of colectivos, the PSUV’s paramilitary groups.

One justifies while the rest denounces

Contrary to the entire world, law scholar Hermánn Escarrá said that there hasn’t been a breakdown of constitutional order in Venezuela because a breakdown only occurs when there’s a coup d’État, the branch in question is replaced or the Constitution is abrogated, and also that the justices acted in compliance with the law.

Meanwhile, the National Assembly insisted that there has been a de facto coup d’État and rejected Nicolás’s attempts to settle “the severe problems affecting citizens (…) with an agreement reached within the core of the government.” They also rejected the TSJ’s attempts at reversing course on the rupture of constitutional order and everything related to Parliament’s faculties; remarking that, on the contrary, the new rulings (157 and 158) exacerbate the coup against Parliament and increase the chasm between the regime and the Constitution.

The Venezuelan Mayors’ Association also issued a statement yesterday regarding the breakdown of constitutional order, explaining that figure of contempt and its implications. They requested the Prosecutor’s Office to begin the necessary criminal proceedings against those who have been consistently usurping faculties from other powers.

One rejects while the other confirms

Delcy issued a statement condemning the meeting held by Mercosur’s Foreign ministers, accusing them of exceeding their purview and persisting on attacking Venezuela’s condition as a member state. As if her bitterness wasn’t obvious enough, a bit later, Argentine Foreign Minister Susana Malcorra pointed out that Mercosur applied the democratic clause to Venezuela and that member states agreed last Saturday to comply with the protocol established for these cases, with ongoing meetings among their governments and with Venezuela to understand the scope of the situation and offer help to resolve the essential issues: electoral timetable, branch autonomy and political prisoners; all of this before her brilliant intervention at the OAS’s Permanent Council.

Show proof, or apologize

This Sunday, Nicolás said that he had been trying to reach Uruguay’s Tabaré Vázquez for the past week, due to his Foreign minister’s attacks, and that he didn’t understand why Rodolfo Nin Novoa was colluding with the U.S. State Department in taking this stance against Venezuela. This barbarity inspired a meeting of Uruguay’s Council of Ministers in which Nin Novoa was backed by his colleagues and yesterday, president Vázquez issued a statement categorically condemning Nicolás’ accusations, and demanding him to provide evidence of his fallacious words or else to issue a public apology, because his Sunday blunder gravely affects bilateral relations. None of the formats used by Delcy Rodríguez will be useful to answer to Vázquez, but I’m sure she can still use them against Argentine Mauricio Macri, who said yesterday that there was no democracy in Venezuela and asked the Argentine Congress to publicly declare their stance on our situation.

Treason

Proving that the rulings partially corrected by the TSJ didn’t change anything and that the crime of treason is a multi-purpose tool for the PSUV, the head of COPEI, Roberto Enríquez was arrested, held at General Directorate of Military Counterintelligence headquarters and will be presented before the First Military Tribunal of Control, according to Alfredo Romero, head of NGO Foro Penal. Although the causes and details of Enríquez’s arrest remain unknown, the charges against him include conspiracy, instigating rebellion and treason.

More treason?

The newspaper Últimas Noticias reports that SEBIN arrested “one of the financiers of a plan to cause violent actions (…) according to file FM3N-063-2016 (…) Iván Suárez Solís Tzvetkov (…) is financing the recruitment of active and retired officers” of the Armed Forces. These soldiers would allegedly participate in violent actions the Metro de Caracas and the Palace of Miraflores; the money was handled in cash and was stored along chemical explosive substances and that the third national military prosecutor, Keyla Ríos, issued a warrant to search an apartment in Libertador municipality and another in El Hatillo, because both were used to store high-power firearms and ammunition from the Armed Forces.

Opposing marches

Adán Chávez called on chavismo to march at 10:00 a.m. this Tuesday to counter coup attempts. The march will start at the corner of the Ombudsman’s Office and end at Esquina San Francisco, right in front of  the Legislative Palace. El finado’s brother said: “The right wing has brazenly violated the Constitution, and we’ll counter them by strengthening it.” Remember that the opposition is set to march today as well, from Plaza Venezuela to the National Assembly.

By the way, Tarek,

Lawmaker Juan Miguel Matheus replied to your statements and clarified that they went to the Ombudsman’s Office last Friday to file a request to denounce the Constitutional Chamber justices’ serious misconduct, which activates proceedings to remove the justices, according to article 265 of the Constitution, the second step after the General Prosecutor had said that there was a “breakdown of constitutional order” due rulings 155 and 156 issued by the Constitutional Chamber.

The National Guard used one of its aircrafts to transport the body of pran Wilmito to Ciudad Bolívar, a privilege few citizens enjoy. A criminal’s privilege.

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.