Caracas Chronicles

Photo: Global Research retrieved

This Sunday marked the end of the absurd edition of the Sao Paulo Forum in Caracas. Without heads of state or relevant figures, chavismo didn’t even organize a street event with the second-level delegations that enjoyed staying in five stars hotels and riding armored vehicles with bodyguards. Diosdado Cabello was the one who capitalized on the forum (as speaker and attendant) and Nicolás got the minimum: a declaration of support for his regime, the denial of the complex humanitarian emergency and with it, hunger. In the closing event, Nicolás showed the attendance as an accomplishment and said that there will come a time when all the forum’s parties will gain political power, “a definitive phase for the liberation of our peoples,” said the clairvoyant. He reserved Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel as his partner for the closing and, to be honest, he said nothing important.

Controversial for the headlines

“I celebrate Chávez’s 65th anniversary, and many are still to come,” said Nicolás, following the script to honor el finado, and later he offered statements that will surely make headlines. He said that Iván Márquez and Jesús Santrich “are welcome in Venezuela because they’re leaders of peace.” He mocked those who call him a dictator and said that “perhaps this is the proletariat’s dictatorship and I hadn’t realized,” but he also said that with her report, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, “backstabbed us (…) She came here with her smile and ended up signing a monster of a report full of lies and unsubstantiated falsehood,” and he had the nerve to ask them to go out into the streets if they “want to know Venezuela’s reality,” he asked them to go to the slums, those he didn’t dare to visit with the forum’s delegations.

Hunger

The Sao Paulo Forum coincided with the publication of the figures of the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) about Venezuela: “Today, our estimate is that 21.2 million people (77% of the population) are suffering from hunger in Venezuela. It’s a colossal increase,” admitted José Graziano da Silva, FAO’s outgoing general director, criticized for giving Nicolás a prize in 2015 to honor his “fight against hunger.” Da Silva was bold enough to add: “Venezuela has always depended on food imports and now, with the economic crisis and hyperinflation, it practically lost its currency. The U.S. blockade intensified the difficulties to import basic goods, including food, and triggered hunger in the country.“ His omissions these last few years were also responsible for what’s happening in Venezuela today. Cristina Fernández, former Argentine president investigated for corruption, said that her country’s food situation is just like ours, and got a firm response on social networks for her cynicism.

Magnifying the TIAR

The Supreme Tribunal of Justice nullified the National Assembly’s decision to re-enter the Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance (TIAR), once again, with the excuse of “contempt” that chavismo has been using since 2016 to invalidate all of the AN’s decisions. Nicolás also rejected our re-entry to the TIAR, but even more importantly, he told those who backed this decision that, in addition to be treated like traitors, Gustavo González López, head of SEBIN, “is ready to tow any traitor to jail.”  He made his threat during another militia graduation, which he expects to reach four million members next year, even though it’s a political army. He charged them with “safekeeping the right to peace, preparing to defend Venezuela with weapons against any attack and seeking the enemies wherever they are.” Regime Interior Minister Néstor Reverol ordered tougher control measures in border posts after the ruling issued by the Supreme Tribunal’s Constitutional Chamber against Venezuela’s reincorporation to the TIAR.

Flying and flying

The U.S. Southern Command denounced last week that a Bolivarian National Air Force plane “threatened” the crew of one of their military aircrafts in international waters over the Caribbean Sea, after approaching “an unsafe distance.” Meanwhile, Venezuela says that they responded to an American plane that entered Venezuelan airspace. Juan Teixeira Díaz, chief of the Integral Aerospatial Defense Command (Codai), denounced that the United States spread fake news about the incursion of its planes in the Venezuelan airspace. Craig Faller, chief of the U.S. Southern Command, rejected the accusation of a provocation and said: “Our army will continue flying and operating wherever international rules apply, and that includes Venezuela’s surroundings.” Due to this exchange, Diosdado Cabello said on Saturday that it’s likely that U.S. marines enter the country and said that Venezuela is ready to fight an “absolute war” with the U.S.

We, the migrants

Ecuador will grant immigration amnesty to Venezuelans in their territory to normalize their stay, including the application of a census and the issuance of a temporary humanitarian visa. Interior Minister María Paulo Romo  explained that Venezuelans will be registered in order to receive the humanitarian visa, which will allow those who are in Ecuador and who haven’t broken any laws to obtain labor and social benefits and even clear immigration debts. The Peruvian government issued a resolution establishing that foreigners must update the data in their Temporary Stay Permit (PTP) in the National Immigration Office’s webpage. The measure covers both those who already have records in the National Immigration Office, and those who provide this information for the first time. The government cautioned that sanctions may be applied on those who fail to go through this process.

A cheering farewell

This Saturday afternoon, an icon of Venezuelan television, famous hostess Carmen Victoria Pérez passed away. This Sunday morning, maestro Carlos Cruz-Diez, a reference of kinetic art, also passed. He left us much more than the floor of our farewells, the beautiful notion that color flows just like us, changing in movement and producing illusions. In some interview they asked him: “What color is Cruz-Diez?” and he replied: “The color of work, affection and life.”

…

Venezuela won two gold medals in weightlifting at the Pan American Games in Lima this July 28th, and a victory in softball against Peru. Génesis Rodríguez got a gold medal when she lifted an accumulated 212 kg in the 55 kg category, and Julio Mayora broke two Pan American records and took the gold in the 73 kg category.