Briefing

There Could Also Be a Cooking Gas Shortage Soon

But water trucks arrived from China to mitigate the water supply crisis, while the coronavirus pandemic worsens in the region and Provea presents a terrifying report

Naky Soto

Photo: AVN

  • Néstor Reverol, Nicolás’s Interior minister, announced that 252 super water trucks will distribute water in 188 municipalities. Reverol didn’t mention who tendered this project, how the deal with China was made, who decided (and why) to spend all this money in bringing water trucks from China instead of repairing the country’s system, he didn’t explain how these trucks overcame the alleged blockade they say has been imposed on them. After purchasing portable power plants from Cuba to solve failures in the electric system, Venezuelans jump at these things. “In June, another shipment will be arriving, a new one in July and in August we’ll complete 1000 water trucks to guarantee water,” said Reverol, not mentioning what the estimated dates are for repairing or recovering water ducts or wells, or plans for maintenance of potable water dams. The Chinese Water Truck Plan came right after the Blue Tank Plan, a drastic exchange in subsidies for de facto privatization of one of the worst possible public utilities. 
  • Executive director of the Sole Union of Oil Workers  (FUTPV) Eudis Girot, denounced that the José Antonio Anzoátegui plant, which supplies cooking gas to distribution plans in the country, has been paralyzed since May 14th. Girot warned that trucks won’t carry cooking gas to facilities that distribute them in states where they refill the drums. For obvious reasons, the direct supply of gas will also be interrupted. “After that, it would be total collapse, because the gas that’s left won’t last long, it’s used daily,” he said. Girot explained that the crisis of the oil industry affects production of gas: “Plants are deteriorating for lack of maintenance, parts, investment, low supply of oil and lack of personnel,” he said. “This is a tragedy that threatens to be even more serious than the lack of fuel.” 
  • Not even 24 hours after their last bulletin, Delcy Rodríguez reported 37 new cases of COVID-19 (541 cases in total). In merely one weekend, we’ve added 82 more cases, 40 of those blamed on passengers returning from Peru in a humanitarian flight, (were they overcrowded? Didn’t they get tested before leaving? Weren’t they tested upon arrival?) Whatever it is, it’s the regime’s responsibility. She repeated the formula and only assumed four out of 37 cases as local infections. When she divided 541 total cases, she said 233 are imported (accusing Colombia as the number one transmitter); 213 are local infections and 95 are the product of contact with a person who had traveled. She said they’ve done 575,374 tests in the country, even though 41,099 Venezuelans have returned and only 115 have tested positive for COVID-19. In the words of infectologist Julio Castro, the epidemic is in a linear growth phase and the most important thing now is having an optimal measuring system to make the right decisions. This is impossible to consider when we see the recreational exercises that chavismo is doing in Miraflores. 
  • Minutes after this message, Maduro said that the country has reached its highest figure in contagion and demanded more actions: “I call for doubling all measures to protect our people,” and only mentioned the need for keeping the lockdown. He said that in Sunday’s report, there are three infected doctors and a nurse, and asked to double the protective measures for health professionals. He didn’t mention how much money he has (or how he got it) but he said that he’ll have exploratory meetings this week to obtain financial, social and political support for all businesses. Nicolás warned the WHO has said that the pandemic without a vaccine can run for over a year, at least. 
  • Ruling chavismo is still trying to appropriate the legacy of poet Aquiles Nazoa, a communist. It’s so ridiculous that they included videos of military officers reciting (?) Nazoa’s poems for his 100th anniversary. Nicolás joined in, talking about one of the poet’s books, saying that he was talking from his library in his house, “the house where I live with Cilia, our home, a house from Gran Misión Vivienda Venezuela”. With a lie that size for a premise, what’s the value of the rest of his statement? “Aquiles Nazoa is an example of being Venezuelan,” he said, after calling the poet poor, humble, creative, from the people and with a great sense of humor. In a country going through a humanitarian emergency, amid a pandemic, and with all the problems described earlier, Nicolás asked his Culture minister “to make murals all over Venezuela” with Nazoa’s image, a priority. 
  • In its annual report, Provea warns that since May 2016, Venezuela has been in a prolonged state of emergency and in an economic state of emergency, indefinite suspension of Constitutional guarantees and subordination of rights to the interests of the state. Ruling chavismo uses all its resources to repress people who object, and promotes, tolerates and covers up abuse of power. In 2019, Provea registered: 357 accusations of violations of personal integrity (5,211 victims); tortures in prisons and detention centers in the country and 23 deaths (the highest in the last 30 years); 40 accusations of torture and 574 victims, (an increase of 526.60% compared to 2018: the highest number in 31 years); 852 victims of abuse and cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment, 789 victims of threats and acts of harassment (120.27% more than in 2018).
  • There have been 4.7 million cases, 315,174 deaths and 1.6 million recovered patients of COVID-19 in the world, according to Johns Hopkins University. Latin America surpassed half a million number of cases on Sunday (503,000), while the U.S. is still the epicenter in the world, with over 1.4 million cases and 87,315 deaths. Brazil has had over 15,000 deaths and over 230,000 confirmed cases. Peru has had 88,541 cases and over 2,523 deaths; Chile confirmed 29 deaths on Sunday, the highest number of deaths for four days in a row, a total of 43,781 cases and 450 deaths. Colombia reached 14,936 cases and 562 deaths. 
  • Even though yesterday was the 30th anniversary since the WHO stopped considering homosexuality a mental illness, one third of countries in the UN apply restrictive laws against homosexuals, and in Saudi Arabia, Iran and Sudan, it’s punished by death. Around 70 of 193 member states of the UN, still apply restrictions or coercion measures against the community. LGBTQIA+ rights are human rights, yesterday and every day after.
Briefing

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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