Briefing

Chavismo’s Horror

GNB and Army officers opened fire against the Pemon community, injuring 14 people and killing two. Cabello and Arreaza blame opposition leaders and the Pemon. Delcy closed the border with Colombia. Maduro couldn’t be bothered to attend his own concert. Guaidó crossed to Cucuta with help from the Armed Forces.

Naky Soto
Photo: @AngelMedinaD

At 6:00 a.m. this Friday, February 22nd, in Kumarakapay (San Francisco de Yuruaní, Bolivar State) the Aretauka (indigenous communal guard) retained a National Guard and Army convoy on its way to Santa Elena de Uairen to prevent the entry of humanitarian aid. The soldiers used tear gas and gunfire against the natives, leaving the sad balance of 14 people wounded and one dead: Zoraida Rodríguez, an empanadera who was shot three times despite being at home with her children when the attack took place. The Aretauka retained the vehicle of general José Miguel Montoya Rodríguez, commander of the GN, and his two escorts. Montoya told the natives that the order to shoot against any obstacle came from Nicolás.

 

Later, another Pemon, Rolando García, who was taken to the Pacaraima Hospital in Brazil after he was wounded, also died. Caretaker President Juan Guaidó expressed his solidarity with the Pemon people and demanded generals Jesús Mantilla Oliveros and Alberto Mirtiliano Bermúdez to capture and turn those responsible in.

Afterwards, there was another attack at the airport of Santa Elena de Uairen when the Waramasen indigenous community surrounded the GN.

Diosdado Cabello denied the GN’s responsibility in the attack, calling it a “false positive” and blaming it on lawmaker Américo de Grazia. Jorge Arreaza reproduced Cabello’s statement verbatim, except that he blamed it on the “mediatic war,” but added that the wounds were made with “blades, arrows and such.” The Prosecutor’s Office hasn’t announced the start of an investigation.

Other forms of repression

Lawmaker Juan Requesens was taken this Friday from SEBIN HQ to Justice Palace for his preliminary hearing. After a six-hour wait, the parliamentarian’s hearing started, but it ended in a third suspension (until March 8th) “because there are too many elements” in his file that the diligent judge Carol Padilla hasn’t been able to review.

Also yesterday, judge María Afiuni recused the judge in charge of her cause mid-trial, and denounced him for the crime of denying justice. The judge had María Afiuni taken from the court and the trial was postponed for March 15th.

When silence defeated noise

Grupo Niche and even the copycats of Las Chicas del Can rejected the regime’s invitation to sing in their (dis)concert. Darío Vivas said in the morning: “Vallenato is coming,” in order to clear the doubt for the event’s lineup.

He lied. It took many hours for the audience, transported in Yutong buses and taking cover from the sun under some tents, could enter the stage’s area, where the sound check was done with songs from Guaco and Carlos Vives.

The shameful chavista stage  included acrobats, performers of electoral jingles and even plagiarists. The regime’s  Electricity Minister Motta Domínguez once again showed the talents of his portfolio and that’s why there was a blackout on stage. Nicolás was the great absence in this story, while it was revealed that Tareck El Aissami travelled to Moscow and once again, Delcy Rodríguez attacked the humanitarian aid, informing more Venezuelans about the possibility of its entry. Last night, while Freddy Bernal celebrated on VTV the arrival of 17 trucks with 20,000 CLAP boxes at Tachira, which they’ll distribute on Saturday among the poorest inhabitants of Cucuta, Delcy announced on Twitter that the bridges Simón Bolívar, Santander and Unión at the border with Colombia will be closed, proving the high level of coordination among Nicolás’s loyalists.

About humanitarian aid

Very early, Colombian Immigration denounced that Venezuelan soldiers welded the containers that block the Las Tienditas binational bridge, “as if it was a metaphor of the dictator clinging to power,” the Colombian institution said in its text.

Later, British Foreign Minister Jeremy Hunt said: “Maduro closing borders to humanitarian aid while innocent Venezuelans suffer is disgusting and wholly unacceptable. The blocking of any aid is inhumane, it must be allowed in. Venezuelans have suffered enough.”

Another military plane with 74 tons of humanitarian aid landed in at the border between Brazil and Venezuela, while new shipments of aid reached Cucuta from Chile and the United States.

Lawmaker Miguel Pizarro, head of the National Assembly’s Special Committee for the Oversight of Humanitarian Aid, announced that the aid will enter the country across three points this Saturday, at the borders with Colombia and Brazil, without indicating where President Guaidó will be, but emphasizing that it will be a peaceful action aimed at opening a humanitarian channel. The marches will be led by priests, doctors, nurses and patients’ relatives.

Other movements on the board

The Presidents of Chile and Paraguay, Sebastián Piñera and Mario Abdo Benítez, travelled to Cucuta to participate in the entry of humanitarian aid into Venezuela. “We’re showing the world that this process is irreversible and that a new institutional order is coming to Venezuela,” said Colombian President Iván Duque. OAS chief Luis Almagro also joined them. The Brazilian government dismissed any “aggressive action” at the border with Venezuela, after Nicolás closed it. After Jorge Arreaza met with UN Secretary General António Guterres, the institution issued a statement urging to avoid violence this Saturday; sadly, Arreaza didn’t tell them about the attack against the Pemon communities. Also, Arreaza confirmed that there will be a third meeting with U.S. special envoy Elliott Abrams, to discuss the diplomatic conditions between both nations, but Abrams said yesterday in Cucuta that the democratic world stands with Venezuela, that we need change and that change is led by Juan Guaidó.

Ah! CITGO officially confirmed the appointment of its new board of directors chosen by the National Assembly.

…

Juan Guaidó challenged Nicolás this Friday after crossing the border to Cucuta and attend Cucustock. The Supreme Tribunal of Justice (TSJ) issued an order barring him from leaving the country and still, the caretaker President explained that he managed to cross thanks to the help of Armed Force officers: “Here we are. This bridge is mine. We can, we can, of course we can,” said Guaidó in a video as he crossed the Las Tienditas bridge. The tension in Santa Elena de Uairen hasn’t declined and there’s been reports of repression on site after 11:00 p.m.

https://twitter.com/ammy_prada/status/1099137793563987968

All of this seems to be the denial of the emotion kindled by Cucustock; chavismo has no other desire but to crush hope, but they’re wrong. Yesterday saw our nation wrapped in musical notes: thank you, Colombia!

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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