Briefing

A Few WhatsApp ‘Captures’

Jorge Rodríguez accused several leaders of political party Voluntad Popular of making plans to attack Maduro’s life. He showed some sketchy WhatsApp screenshots as evidence and said they had intercepted these conversations from a phone of one of the criminals who was captured at the Cota 905; which is impossible

Naky Soto
  • On Tuesday, Jorge Rodríguez accused several leaders of political party Voluntad Popular of making plans to attack Maduro’s life. 
    • He said Leopoldo López and Freddy Guevara planned the violent clashes in southwestern Caracas last week, when criminal gangs of the Cota 905 took over the city. 
    • Rodríguez said that Gilber Caro, Emilio Graterón, Hasler Iglesias, Luis Somaza, Alfredo Jimeno and someone who goes by “Gocho Javier”, are also involved. 
    • He only presented a few WhatsApp chats for evidence, and he said they had obtained them from a phone of one of the criminals who was captured at the Cota 905. 
    • He said those weren’t the criminal’s conversations, but conversations intercepted with that cell phone. Chavismo’s version is impossible. 
  • The Assembly Delegate Commission rejected on Tuesday Freddy Guevara’s arbitrary detention. Juan Guaidó assured there are no excuses or arguments to detain Guevara or reasons to keep him detained. 
    • Guaidó insisted on the need to achieve the National Salvation Agreement through a new negotiation process that allows, among other things, free and fair elections. 
    • The deputies rejected Freddy Guevara’s detention and called on the population to mobilize to demand their rights: “Despite the fear, we demand and we keep organizing, despite fear, la unidad persists,” said deputy Manuela Bolívar, and added that “the bottom line of this political message is to destroy every possibility, every alternative to end the crisis (…) The end of this humanitarian emergency, this crisis, means recovering the Rule of Law, the Constitution and that won’t get done by sending a bunch of criminals to kidnap political leaders.” 
    • All deputies expressed their solidarity with the Cuban people. 
  • The rectors of the National Electoral Council (CNE) Roberto Picón and Enrique Márquez, met with members of the EU technical mission to give them the status of all political parties that can run in the November election “and to discuss topics like financing and electoral participation,” wrote Márquez.
  • Súmate assured that the CNE appointed by Maduro’s Assembly has generated few opportunities for citizens to participate and update their information or register to vote. 
  • Maduro’s Defense Minister, Vladimir Padrino López, assured the Armed Forces reject doing politics through requesting sanctions. 
  • Prosecutor General Tarek William Saab said that he sent a document to the ICC requesting “to add more transparency” to the process with Venezuela. He insisted on creating a “substantial dialogue” with the Prosecutor’s Office that is trying to determine if there have been crimes against humanity in the country. 
  • PSUV vice president Diosdado Cabello, announced that the internal electoral campaign begins on July 5th and will end on August 5th. 
  • Jorge Rodríguez said that FundaRedes director Javier Tarazona was a criminal and a rat. 
    • Tarazona was arbitrarily detained 12 days ago. 
    • Neither his family nor his lawyers have been allowed contact with him or the other activists who were taken with him.  
  • On Tuesday, there were three “police clashes” in Miranda. Two clashes in the morning, at the Pan-American Highway and the Los Sapitos sector and in Potrerito de Carrizal in the afternoon. 
  • FAO’s 2020 report on the state of food security and nutrition in the world revealed that Venezuela is one of the countries with the highest number of malnourished inhabitants: they estimate that 27.4% of Venezuelans (7.8 million people) presented malnourishment between 2018 and 2020. 
  • Over 150 Cuban citizens have been arrested for protesting. Many of them are missing, several human rights organizations like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have demanded the Cuban government to end violence and respect the right to protest. 
  • Cuban-American senators asked President Joe Biden to do whatever is necessary to re-establish internet connection in Cuba and to not negotiate with Miguel Díaz-Canel. The EU also exhorted the dictatorship to immediately release detained citizens and journalists. 
  • Paraguay, Georgia, Brazil and the International Contact Group condemned the arbitrary detention of Freddy Guevara and the harassment of Juan Guaidó. In addition to demanding the release of Guevara, they all agreed that these actions cast doubts on the regime’s will to negotiate and dialogue. 
  • Kevin O’Reilly, the undersecretary of the U.S. State Department’s Office for Western Hemisphere Affairs, said that repression allows them to question Maduro’s “good will” to hold free and fair elections and a real negotiation to overcome the political crisis. 

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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