Briefing

April Was The Deadliest Month for Health Workers Since The Pandemic Started

At least 86 healthcare workers died in April. Venezuelan minors who are on their own, without their parents or legal guardians in Colombia will be able to obtain the Colombian TPS. The oil activity and the impact of the pandemic made the Venezuelan economy contract by 33.7% during the first quarter of the year.

Naky Soto
  • April 2021 has been the worst month for the healthcare sector since the pandemic started: at least 86 healthcare workers died in April, according to Efecto Cocuyo. 
  • Venezuelan bioanalysts expressed their concern regarding the announcement of new vaccination plans, since nobody knows how they were planned or how they’ll be implemented. They demand that this plan reaches the entire population, emphasizing healthcare workers. They also demand a transparent and coherent vaccination plan. 
  • Acting Assistant Secretary for the United States Department of State’s Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs Julie Chung ratified today that the U.S. backs “an integral and negotiated solution to the Venezuelan crisis” and added that this solution must cover all aspects to hold free and fair elections: “It’s up to Venezuelans to determine if this new CNE contributes to an exhaustive, negotiated solution to the crisis.” 
    • She said that Washington will keep exerting pressure for “fundamental change” to make such an election happen. 
    • She also gave a list of conditions that would allow them to believe in Nicolás’s will to change: political parties’ freedom, releasing political prisoners, a public election calendar and international observation. 
  • The Venezuelan Observatory of Finance estimated that the oil activity and the impact of the pandemic made the Venezuelan economy contract by 33.7% during the first quarter of the year. 
    • Between 2013 and 2020, the Venezuelan economy dropped by 83% but the oil sector grew by 19.4% during the first few months of the year, because of an increase in production after it fell to the lowest figures in almost eight decades. 
    • The public sector contracted by 74.3% and the financial sector contracted by 56.7%. 
  • The IMF foresees that inflation in Venezuela could reach 5,500% in 2021 and 2022, which would consolidate Venezuela’s first place on the list of the highest inflation of the world. 
    • Inflation reached 65,374% and 19,906% in 2018 and 2019. 
    • The IMF  also foresees that the GDP will contract by 10% in 2021, the most abrupt in the world this year and will continue to drop by 5% in 2022. 
  • ANC-imposed prosecutor general Tarek William Saab said that he sent another report to the ICC, a communicational study showing “how social media is being used to alter public opinion”. 
    • Saab said the ICC has time to monitor Venezuelan social media and only based on that (not based on evidence, proof, data and verifiable testimonies), could the ICC blame the Venezuelan State and its authorities of torture, extrajudicial executions and other crimes against humanity. 
  • The National Electoral Junta was installed on Thursday. Tania D’ Amelio presides and main rector Roberto Picón and substitute rector Carlos Quintero are part of it.
  • The Ecosocialism Ministry in Anzoátegui, reported that there have been two oil spills at the PDVSA’s Petrocedeño oil field this month. 
  • Espacio Público said that there were 36 violations of freedom of expression in April. The most common violations were censorship, intimidation and threats. 
  • UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet expressed her concern for “the growing number of threats and attempts to undermine and delegitimize national human rights institutions” by Latin American governments. 
  • Canada is putting together a conference in solidarity with 5.7 million Venezuelan refugees and migrants, which will take place in June 17th. 
  • Venezuelan minors who are on their own, without their parents or legal guardians in Colombia will be able to obtain the Colombian TPS. The Colombian Immigration department will take into consideration the most vulnerable cases and make them a priority. 
  • The UN reported that Venezuelans are being vaccinated against influenza in Manaus  and that they’re registering priority groups to obtain the COVID-19 vaccine. 
  • Colombia expelled several Venezuelan citizens for participating in violent protests in Cali. Colombian authorities handed the Venezuelan citizens over to PNB officers on the Puente Internacional Simón Bolívar.
  • Representatives Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D) and Mario Díaz-Balart (R), co-presidents of the Caucus for Venezuelan Democracy of the U.S. Congress, issued a joint communique warning that with this new CNE, Nicolás is trying “to hold on to power with an illegitimate institution of his own creation.” They insisted that Venezuela “needs to have free, fair, transparent elections.” 
  • Newly elected president of the Community of Madrid Isabel Díaz Ayuso thanked Juan Guaidó for his good wishes and assured that the electoral victory was a product of the diaspora that “found freedom in Madrid” when fleeing “communist tyrannies”. 

 

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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