Caracas Chronicles

Photo: El Informador retrieved

September 4th was National Public Employee Day in Venezuela, and unions got together to demand better wages, an agenda they’ve been keeping for a couple of weeks now, because the official minimum wage decreed by Nicolás in April, 40,000 bolivars (at today’s exchange rate that’s 1.67 dollars) hasn’t changed, despite hyperinflation. “It’s the worst moment for public employees (…) we’ve never been in such a precarious situation,” said Carmelo Sánchez, Inces worker, who also explained how imposing a single minimum wage, eliminating salary tabulation, became a policy that’s “killing the working class with hunger.” Nicolás eliminated certain benefits, violated collective agreements, persecutes those who complain and violates unions’ liberties. But he wrongly calls himself the presidente obrero…  a presidente obrero who has destroyed salaries as he did to the economy itself. 

Let’s Talk Human Rights

Eliécer Aguiar died, at 12 years old. Another patient in the Nephrology wing of the J.M. de los Ríos Hospital. Eliécer was waiting for a kidney transplant, even though it’s been two years and three months from the suspension of the National Program for Organ Donation. Eliécer is the ninth kid that dies in that wing in 2019, despite the IACHR’s precautionary measures. Two inmates died in the PNB garrison (Zona 7) in Boleíta, except they were decapitated by their cellmates. Over a thousand inmates in this center started a riot in this preemptive detention center, to demand being transferred and denouncing the unsanitary conditions and overcrowding they endure. The inmates’ families said that PNB officials even charge for allowing visits. 

The Non-Country

– Nicolás’s variety show on Wednesday, was about the productive work he doesn’t generate or enable. He ordered to publish the list of the agreed prices system. He reiterated his call on private producers to recover the economy and made the military official who serves as Food Minister lie about CLAP boxes. 

– The official dollar’s over 2,000 bolivars over the blackmarket dollar, which dropped 12.6% 

on Wednesday, compared to the beginning of the week. The official BCV rate is 23,840 bolivars per dollar. 

– Tal Cual published an article that explains how changing cooking gas distribution from communal councils to governations, has caused the price to increase by 15,000%. 

– MasterCard will no longer work with Banco Agrícola de Venezuela or  Banco de la Fuerza Armada Nacional within the next few days, said Sudeban, and also assured they’d activate other “payment processors” to keep “operability and interconnection” without mentioning which companies would those be. 

We, the Refugees

• UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said that the situation of indigenous Venezuelan migrants in Brazil is “pretty tragic” and that they have less opportunities than the rest, because they’re not part of the Operación Acogida program, which places immigrants in other areas, depending on job availability. 
• The governments of Ecuador, Chile and Peru agreed on creating a working group to exchange experiences in the management of migrant flows and come up with a mechanism to share information about approved and denied visas for Venezuelans. 
• The Red Cross expressed concern about the situation in the Colombia-Venezuela border, because many migrants face violence that can make them even more vulnerable, referring to the use of trochas, the fact that these paths are controlled by armed groups and the possibility of being extorted or attacked.
• Ivanka Trump, U.S President Donald Trump’s daughter and advisor visited a Colombian camp for Venezuelan migrants and met with Juan Guaidó’s representatives. After her visit, the U.S. approved 120 million dollars to help Venezuelans in need in Colombia.

Bachelet versus Bolsonaro

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet trusts that the dialogue, that hasn’t resumed between Nicolás’s government and the opposition, will allow establishing a permanent UN mission to keep track of everything that happens. Bachelet shared some of her impressions about some of her biggest concerns regarding human rights and data from Brazil angered President Bolsonaro: “Between January and June 2019, only in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, we’ve been informed about 1,291 people killed by the police, it went from 12 to 17%,” she said. Responding to her comments, Bolsonaro didn’t only post a tweet accusing Bachelet of meddling with Brazilian sovereignty, but declared to the press that “if it weren’t for Pinochet’s men, who defeated the Left in 1973, including her father, today Chile would be Cuba.” He also said she defends “vagabonds’ human rights”, an unacceptable statement, that vindicates a cruel dictator and insults Bachelet’s father’s memory. 

Movements on the Board

– Russia considers that inaugurating a Venezuelan Affairs office in the U.S. Embassy in Bogota is illegitimate, said spokeswoman María Zajárova, who also expressed they condemn Juan Guaidó’s “parallel government”, because, according to Russia, it delays the search for a negotiated solution to improve the humanitarian situation and get back on the sustainable development track. Hilarious, María.

– Because of Nicolás’s orange alert, the Colombian government said that “for a long time” they’ve felt the threat by the Venezuelan regime. Foreign Minister Carlos Holmes Trujillo said that the threat is reflected on the regime’s “terrible actions” creating situations of crisis that compromise the stability and security of the region. 

– Representatives of Venezuela’s caretaker government submitted to the ICC the agreement to reject FARC presence in Venezuela, with the goal of preventing crimes against humanity.  

– UK Foreign Minister Dominic Raab condemned the crisis in Venezuela and assured his government will provide 40 million British pounds for humanitarian aid. 

– Nicolás announced on Wednesday night the deployment of an “anti aerial missile defense system” in the border with Colombia, and said that President Iván Duque is trying to create conflict in order to “have a show at the UN.” 

… 

On Wednesday night, during his TV show Con el mazo dando, Diosdado Cabello repeated Nicolás’s messages and assured that Colombia “has false positives ready in Venezuela”, with the excuse of persecuting terrorist groups tied to chavismo. “We’re in orange alert,” he said and that “Cuba and Venezuela worked the hardest to ensure peace in Colombia.” He warned that they’d bring reports to the UN about an alleged support from the Colombian government to terrorist groups in Venezuelan soil, said that the opposition handed an aluminum company in Costa Rica to Un Nuevo Tiempo and said that they “kicked out” Juan Guaidó’s ambassador in Colombia, Humberto Calderón Berti, because of a problem with money.