Briefing

Food for Venezuelan Children

The World Food Programme announced the agreement to start operating in the country, with children in the most vulnerable sectors being the priority. In this phase, the WFP will provide meals to kids in schools, will invest in rehabilitating cafeterias, and will provide the personnel with food safety practices. They hope to provide meals for 185,000 children by the end of the year and they’ll work to reach 1.5 million children by the end of the 2022-2023 school year.

Naky Soto
  • On Monday, the World Food Programme announced the agreement to start operating in the country, with children in the most vulnerable sectors being the priority. 
    • WFP’s executive director David Beasley emphasized the principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality and operative independence that rule this program, a way to remind Maduro’s regime that just signing the agreement isn’t enough, but that the humanitarian operation is sustained by respecting its norms. 
    • In this phase, the WFP will provide meals to kids in schools, will invest in rehabilitating cafeterias, and will provide the personnel with food safety practices. They hope to provide meals for 185,000 children by the end of the year and they’ll work to reach 1.5 million children by the end of the 2022-2023 school year. 
    • At least 10 million people need humanitarian aid to obtain food in Venezuela.
  • Over 100 Venezuelans died of COVID-19 in the week from April 7th to April 13th. 
  • Estimates of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation show that Venezuela could have had between six and fourteen times more cases by early April than those reported by the government. 
  • At least 16 healthcare workers died of COVID-19 between Monday, April 12th and Sunday, April 18th. Four nurses, nine doctors and a radiologist technician. 

  • The mayor of Maracay, Pedro Bastidas Pedrá died of COVID-19. He was 45 years old and had been a mayor for three consecutive periods since 2008. 
  • Bolivian president Luis Arce reported about his conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin to speed up the shipments of Sputnik V and to confirm an additional shipment. 
  • Juan Guaidó met with social sectors of 24 states, and he asked them to create sector assemblies, which will be fundamental to join efforts in the demand for presidential and legislative elections: “We have to create spaces for pressuring for the solution to this conflict. In order to progress, we must first end the dictatorship, we can’t let our guard down at any point.” 
  • Over 80 Latin American organizations issued a communique to reject the actions and express their concern over Maduro’s demands to NGOs: they are forcing them to reveal the identities of their beneficiaries and the victims. This is the most recent action to restrict and intimidate NGOs in Venezuela. 
  • Deputy Karim Vera, elected to the 2015 AN, denounced that with the Communal State “the regime is conspiring and attacking its own people, they want to break the very model of our State,” since “it’s a centralized model where a few make the decisions and the citizens lose authority.” She warned that it’s the republican model of life that’s at stake. 
  • The Inter American Press Association condemned and rejected the TSJ ruling ordering newspaper El Nacional to pay over 13 million dollars to Diosdado Cabello for alleged “moral damages”. 
  • Deputy in exile Américo De Grazia announced he’ll be running for governor of Bolívar in the regional elections that are scheduled for this year. La Causa R, a political party where De Grazia is a member, issued a communique dissociating from his candidacy. 
  • Sucre governor Edwin Rojas announced that the rector of the Universidad de Oriente (UDO), Milena Bravo, abandoned the institution. The chavista administration appointed a protector for an institution that’s already in ruins. 
  • The president of the Venezuelan Association of Family Agriculture, Juan Carlos Montesinos, assured that the sector needs at least 700,000 lts. of diesel fuel per day for the upcoming crop cycle. He said that farmers are paying between $60 and $80 per 200 lts. of fuel. 
  • Acción Democrática dismissed “an alleged ruling” stemming from an “inexistent ethics tribunal” where they reported changing the party’s authorities. “Our legitimate authorities are still Isabel Carmona, Henry Ramos Allup and Carlos Prosperi,” they said.
  • The Colombian Air Force reported that a Russian military plane coming from Moscow irregularly overflew their territory on Monday morning. Kfir planes intercepted the Russian aircraft and ordered it to leave the airspace. Something similar happened in August 2019 and April and June 2020. 
  • Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel replaced Raúl Castro as the first secretary of the Communist Party. 
  • There were enough diplomatic protests questioning Maduro’s participation in the 27th Ibero-American Chiefs of State Summit that will take place in Andorra this week. 
  • Investigative journalist Gerardo Reyes published his book “Alex Saab. The Truth” where he’s defined as “a key player for the survival of a regime that didn’t have anything.” 

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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