Caracas Chronicles

• Human rights activists protested in Caracas and demanded the release of three FundaRedes activists: Javier Tarazona, Rafael Tarazona and Omar García. ANC-imposed prosecutor general Tarek William Saab said that they were detained for making “baseless accusations”. 
  • He tried to present the accusations against the regime as a crime and said that public statements without “one piece of evidence” is unforgivable. 
  • They charged FundaRedes workers with promoting hate, treason and terrorism. 
  • Saab said that Javier Tarazona is addicted to “narco-series” and that’s why he replicates this fantasy content in real life. 
  • Later he said that after they checked their phones, they proved that the charges presented by the NGO were “orchestrated by external agents to destabilize the country”. 

• Saab’s statement confirms that the regime uses the justice system for political gain. Human Rights Watch exhorted UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet to pressure the regime and release political prisoners, especially FundaRedes activists. Amnesty International said Saab’s statement against them was “alarming”. 
• The National Assembly with a 92% chavista majority approved an agreement to void over 740 executive orders issued by the Assembly elected in 2015 and the caretaker government presided by Juan Guaidó. Timoteo Zambrano warned that this agreement won’t be enough to void all acts of the AN and proposed approving another law. Jorge Rodríguez assured that all countries that support the 2015 AN are nations that want to “steal Venezuela’s riches.” 
• There were three hate crimes against the LGBTQIA+ community last month. The regime didn’t even mention them, but Maduro’s AN approved the first debate on law for promoting and using inclusive language. 
• Tarek William Saab said that the chamber of preliminary investigations of the International Criminal Court acknowledged the regime’s efficiency and exhorted the ICC prosecutor’s office to dialogue with the regime, despite the ongoing investigation on whether they should be taken to trial for crimes against humanity or not. 
• Deputy to Nicolás’s Assembly, Luis Parra, proposed debating the gas supply crisis in the country, but the PSUV majority agreed that the gas shortages are a consequence of sanctions. 
• The National Academy of Medicine asked the regime to reconsider the decision of using Abdala, the Cuban vaccine candidate because using it “has to be considered an experimental study.” Doctors demanded clarity from the regime in the figures of the pandemic, so we can develop a vaccination plan and have certainty on the state of the pandemic in the country. 
• “Our estimates, according to indirect information that we get from the UN, is that around 0.9% of the Venezuelan population has been fully vaccinated and 2.7% has received one of several doses,” said Dr. Julio Castro.
• Workers of 15 Caracas hospitals protested on Tuesday to demand the full payment of what they agreed with health authorities. 
• Julio Borges denounced that Maduro intends to finance vaccines for the countries in the Alianza Bolivariana para los Pueblos, “at the expense of millions of Venezuelans who are dying because of his mismanagement and politicizing of the pandemic.”
• Economist Ronald Balza warned that the third currency denomination won’t solve hyperinflation or the depreciation of salaries, and even though he thinks it’s necessary to do it, he demanded fiscal discipline and publishing the budget, as timely information by the BCV and reorienting the economy. Balza said that no nation has stopped publishing budgets: “We don’t know how much has been spent in the last six years,” warned Balza. 
• The director of Transparencia Venezuela, Mercedes De Freitas said that “corruption in Venezuela is the epicenter of a crisis with international reach: there are 69 countries involved, 96 ongoing cases in the justice systems of 21 countries. Almost 40% of the case files provide figures, for a total of 30,000 million dollars stolen,” and that’s only the tip of the iceberg according to De Freitas. 

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The National Institute of Aeronautics reported that commercial flights are authorized starting Tuesday. The airports of La Fría and Santo Domingo (Táchira), and Ciudad Bolívar and Puerto Ordaz (Bolívar) weren’t allowed to resume functions.