Five-Day ‘Terrorist Attack’ Against the Banco de Venezuela

Banco de Venezuela once again failed to restore its online banking service. It's been five days since it went offline, and it's affecting 14 million users. Venezuela accumulates 35 consecutive quarters of decreasing economic activity. A senior citizen died while he was standing in line to get the vaccine at the Alba Caracas Hotel.

  • On Monday, the fifth day after the Banco de Venezuela platform stopped working and affected 14 million users, the bank once again failed to restore service. They had promised their digital platforms and online services would be up and running at 2:00 p.m. What started on Wednesday 15th as a “failure” was turned by the authorities into a “massive hacker attack” by Friday 17th. But the problems persist after five days and they haven’t been able to address account holder complaints. This situation is worsened by the current state of the Venezuelan economy: hyperinflation, miserable wages, cash shortages, and the fact that the system went offline during the quincena, when workers usually get paid their biweekly—which they mostly use to buy food. 
  • The Venezuelan Observatory of Finance presented their economic report, which shows a 2.2% drop in the last 12 months—actually, “an improvement” compared to the previous trimester when they calculated 33.7%. Venezuela accumulates 35 consecutive quarters of decreased economic activity, with a GDP that has lost over 80% of its size since 2012. There was a 55.2% drop in the financial sector, an 82.4% drop in the public sector, and a 2.4% increase in the oil sector. This impacts worker, retiree and pensioner income as well as Venezuelans’ purchasing power. 
  • Foreign minister Félix Plasencia met with his Turkish counterpart Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu. Both condemned the sanctions and meddling but didn’t say anything about human rights or crimes against humanity.
  • Journalist Roberto Deniz was attacked again by the propaganda system, which is now accusing him of having millions of dollars, without evidence.

A senior citizen died while he was standing in line to get the vaccine at the Alba Caracas Hotel.  Only 200 thousand doses of Sputnik V arrived on Monday. 

  • Dr. Flor Pujol said that we must accelerate the vaccination process and that there’s an increase in the spread of the delta variant in areas of Miranda and the Capital District.
  • The director of NGO Médicos Unidos de Venezuela, Jaime Lorenzo, assured that the lack of data creates “a problem to characterize the disease” that affects the strategy against coronavirus, which is fought “with vigilance and follow-ups to make the right decisions,” he said.
  • CECODAP’s Carlos Trapani warned that there’s been an increase in the suicide rate and the deaths of children and teenagers: “Over 3,700 children have died because of violence between 2017 and 2019.” In 2021, CECODAP documented 28 suicides and 547 dead children in police actions.

Salva Foods workers, packers of the food distributed by CLAP, protested because they haven’t received their wages in two months, and said that the food they get as part of their benefits is always in terrible condition. Another of Saab’s merits.

  • The Coalición por los DDHH denounced that political prisoner José Gámez’s health has severely deteriorated. Gámez was arrested in 2015 and accused of conspiracy. 
  • Journalist and political prisoner Roland Carreño has pericarditis as a consequence of COVID-19. 
  • Alimentos Polar requested the exoneration of tax on corn imports. With an insufficient domestic crop, they think that this exoneration is necessary to not threaten the restocking of raw materials, the supply chain, or hurt the consumers with higher prices. 
  • Water minister Rodolfo Marcos Torres said that Hidrocapital is working to repair the failure at Sistema Tuy III that happened on Sunday. 
  • Hugo “El Pollo” Carvajal had a hearing of over an hour before the Spanish Audiencia Nacional, as a witness of a judicial process for terrorism. His lawyer, a judge, and a prosecutor were present. The Spanish Supreme Court rejected suspending the agreement that authorized the extradition to the U.S. 
  • Rome’s Court of Appeals rejected the extradition of former Oil Minister and PDVSA President Rafael Ramírez, requested by Maduro’s regime. 
  • Colombian intelligence documents say that FARC dissident Javier Alonso Veloza, a.k.a John Mechas is in Zulia. 
  • A court in Madrid rejected the regime’s request to access 25 million euros blocked in Spain. 
  • Raúl Morodo, former Spanish ambassador in Venezuela (2004 – 2007) and his son, refused to give their statements before the Audiencia Nacional for embezzlement for 30 million dollars from PDVSA. 

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.