Briefing

“The War of All the People”

Your daily briefing for Monday, July 9, 2018. Translated by Javier Liendo.

Naky Soto
Photo: Efecto Cocuyo

That will be the new military doctrine that the government will adopt if there was an armed conflict with Colombia and the U.S., according to Pedro Carreño: “Our sukhoi will be charged with demolishing the seven bridges over the Magdalena river that crisscross Colombia from north to south, to split it in two.”

Carreño mentioned all the resources that the Armed Forces have to fight and added that el finado “supplied excellent electronic warfare units to hack” pages such as Dolar Today, because you know: Inflation is “induced” and that justifies taking war actions, because Nicolás can’t be waiting to be ousted. Despite acknowledging that they’ve been unable to stop “the economic war and inflation” due to “historic enemies,” he said it was irresponsible to talk about economic and food crisis, so the opposition and the media are the ones who must understand the situation: “We’re living a period of resistance.” He restated that the ANC “will evaluate the lawmaker’s work” at the National Assembly to “apply a recall referendum” by late July, when they’ve served half of their tender. Strangely, he called the National Bureau for the Defense of Socio-Economic Rights (Sundde) anachronistic.

Spill without blessing

An oil spill in the PDVSA’s Jusepín Operation Complex (Maturín, Monagas State) was reported by governor Yelitza Santaella and PDVSA chairman Manuel Quevedo.

The shutdown of the pump at the Bajo Guarapiche water purification plant suggests that the oil reached the Guarapiche river, just like in February, 2012, but Santaella deleted the tweet where she said that and has given no further information about the spill’s magnitude. In any case, the gap between official versions is notable: from the leak of “oily waters” (according to PDVSA) to “a crude spill” (VTV). Opacity is the rule, while Maturín has no water supply. Far from this productive and ecological drama, a note about the mass held in PDVSA last Friday went viral. Although the headline says that the mass was meant to pray for the increase of oil production, strictly, the original note says that the employees prayed for “the industry’s productive recovery,” as well as “family unity, solidarity, camaraderie and for the country’s well being.” Meanwhile, the oil tanker Impros, with a capacity of 500,000 crude barrels, that sailed from Puerto La Cruz on July 1, arrived to Cuba yesterday.

More from the amazing chavismo

Nicolás claimed this Saturday that the military had elevated Venezuela to rank of power and added: “We have to strengthen military power in Venezuela every day.” After ratifying the main military authorities and making few changes, Nicolás left yesterday for Turkey to attend the Recep Tayyip Erdoğan at “the start of a new phase in his history,” although Erdoğan has been in power for 16 years and just carried out another purge of officials (18,632 in total) due to accusations of “terrorism”, which join over 112,000 officials who had already been laid off.

Before arriving to Ankara, Nicolás made a stop in Argel where he met with the Parliament Speaker. The announcement of the first agreed prices that Tareck El Aissami was going to make was “suspended”, although Jorge Amorín was appointed as chairman of Vive TV. Jesús Faría saw the light! Yesterday, he said that exchange controls had fulfilled their purpose and they should be scrapped, as well as establishing currency exchange unification to fight off hyperinflation. Brilliant.

Let’s talk about human rights

A group of prisoners denounced that detention conditions at El Helicoide had gotten worse since the May 16 riot. They said in a communiqué that they’re “on the brink of an internal upsurge” due to the orders of SEBIN director Gustavo González López, carried out by commissioners Carlos Calderón and Rony González, who have violated their rights; they changed all the inmates, they carried out new confiscations, taking the prisoners’ belongings (food, hygiene products, TVs, etc.) and they haven’t authorized their relatives visits for two months, denying them their walks under the sun, in a structure that also suffers serious water supply issues. Additionally, Theresly Malavé, the lawyer defending several political prisoners, denounced that several officers of the now extinct Metropolitan Police remain in prison, while general Guillermo Rangel López was released 11 months after he was arrested for allegedly being involved in the assault on Fuerte Paramacay.

Lula’s non-freedom

The history of former Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, sentenced to 12 years and a month in prison for embezzlement and money laundering, crossed a new hectic milestone yesterday. Early, judge Rogério Favreto, of the 4th Region’s court of second instance, ordered Lula’s immediate release, admitting an habeas corpus request filed in favor of the former president. Three hours later, anti-corruption judge Sérgio Moro, who sentenced Lula in the first place, said that Favreto has no authority to order his release, but Favreto issued a new release warrant for Lula. An hour later, the Federal Prosecutor’s Office also put Favreto’s authority in question and asked him to reconsider the decision. Later, judge Joao Gebran Neto, rapporteur for Lula’s trial, nullified the ruling and judge Moro said that although he’s on holiday until July 31, he released his opinion when he was mentioned in the habeas corpus request. Once again, Favreto ordered Lula’s immediate release: “I ratify the content of the previous decisions, determining immediate compliance with the release warrant in a term of up to an hour,” he wrote. But the head of the 4th Region’s court of second instance decided to keep Lula in jail, supporting the decision of the case’s rapporteur, Gebran Neto.

Abroad

  • Dictator Daniel Ortega dismissed early elections in Nicaragua despite pressures, deploying his official and paramilitary forces, even though the IACHR and the U.N. are currently in Managua. Human Rights Watch said that they’ve received credible complaints about murders, kidnappings and illegal raids.
  • As usual, the Venezuelan government condemned the statement issued by 53 countries that denounced its abuses before the United Nations’ Human Rights Council.
  • Colombia’s President-Elect Iván Duque said that he still means to join other heads of State to denounce Nicolás before the International Criminal Court.
  • Several air travel companies cancelled their flights to Port-Au-Prince after the violent protests in Haiti caused by the hike in gasoline prices which have left three people dead and several injured thus far.
  • U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that there was progress in almost all the central matters discussed in the meeting between Kim Jong-Un and Donald Trump. The next meeting to monitor the agreements will be on July 12.

…

Nurses and university professors are still protesting. We go on.

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.

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