Caracas Chronicles

• The Venezuelan Observatory of Public Utilities said that 61.8% of Venezuelans don’t have internet in their homes. 38% have internet service, but 50% of them negatively rated the service. 

Colombian Immigration detained former political prisoner Gabriel Valles. Their system registered an Interpol alert against Valles issued by Venezuela, but when they verified the claim they established that he’s under an asylum petition, which is why they let him go. 

• • Valles explained that his petition was approved in September and Colombia granted his protection status, so he’s on a refugee visa, with a foreigner ID and travel document. 
  • Gabriel Valles was deported from Colombia in 2014 alongside Lorent Saleh and they were imprisoned for four years in La Tumba and El Helicoide.  
  • The book Ahora van a conocer al Diablo, edited by Dahbar Editorial, collects ten stories of people who were tortured in Venezuela. Gabriel Valles’s story is in the book, written by journalist Sinar Alvarado. 
  • The fact that Venezuela still has active alerts against former political prisoners puts them at risk and prolongs the torture they endured. 
• The hearing of Ascanio Tarascio Mejía and Estiben Zárate, charged with the murder of Captain Rafael Acosta Arévalo, was postponed because the prisoners have COVID-19. 
• Patients in the hematology unit of the J. M. de los Ríos Hospital aren’t receiving chemotherapy because the unit is presenting failures, vulnerating their fundamental rights, said Katherine Martínez, representative of Prepara Familia.
• The National Assembly elected in 2015 said that the ICC Chief Prosecutor’s announcement was “determining”. Deputy Yajaira Castro de Forero said that “Maduro and his close circle should be the first ones to present their checks and balances.” 
• The ad hoc board of PDVSA, appointed by the Assembly elected in 2015, issued a communiqué in response to criticism. They reject being accused of not providing checks and balances statements, because they presented the results of their management and operations in August 2020 and June 2021. They said that they presented a budget for 2021 in November 2020, with enough information, including the inherent dangers of inaction. They say the accusations of corruption are baseless, because “no corruption acts have been found in ad hoc PDVSA or their corporate chain.” 
• The European Popular Party decided to not participate in the European Parliament mission in the election, saying that the EU’s foreign policy service’s report is “devastating” and proves that the country is undergoing a situation that prevents free elections from happening. PPE spokeswoman Dolors Montserrat said that “Borrell’s mission will only legitimize a dictatorship and stain the reputation of the EU (…) We’ll never do anything that would give credence to Maduro.” 
• The vice president of the National Electoral Council (CNE) Enrique Márquez tweeted that there’s an electoral simulation program on the CNE website, to teach citizens how to vote. 

Diosdado Cabello asked party members to distrust EU observers since their work is based on “discrediting” the process. “I’d like to denounce these people that allegedly came as observers (…) They still think they’re the empire and we’re the colony,” he said from a campaign event in Anzoátegui.

• On Monday, Colombian defense minister Diego Molano spoke about Hezbollah operating in Venezuela. Vladimir Padrino López tweeted that he made up a new enemy so they could “Ask for dollars” and the chief of CEOFANB said he was a “bootlicker” and accused him of scamming countries with “imaginary enemies”. The rumors of Hezbollah operating from Venezuela have been making the rounds since 2018. 
• Foreign minister Félix Plasencia assured that they want to be “on equal terms” with the U.S., but warned that dismantling the sanctions policy is necessary, including considering our country a threat, so the countries can get along. 
• The president of the Venezuelan Pediatric Society, Tamara Salmen, rejected the use of the Cuban vaccine candidates in children and teenagers. Announcing they’ll be used only manages to “make parents afraid of vaccinating their children.”  The National Academy of Medicine reiterated their concern about using Soberana 2 and Abdala.
• The situation of displaced populations is “getting more complex” said UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi, who said that Latin America is a “complicated area” because the Central American and Venezuelan crises add on to the Haitian and Nicaraguan crises. There are around 16 million people (refugees and forcibly displaced people), 6 million of which are Venezuelan. Paloma Favieres assured that Spain has received 90,396 Venezuelans since 2019. 
• Deputy Romel Guzamana warned that illegal mining is affecting Indigenous territories in southern Venezuela and that there’s criminal devastation of rivers, mountains and rainforests. 
• Luis Alfonso Violria, a politician from Trujillo and alleged advisor to Conrado Pérez and Luis Parra, was arrested carrying 336 bricks of cocaine. Pérez and Parra traveled in secret to Europe in 2019, to speak highly of Alex Saab. The cocaine was hidden in two vehicles, three firearms were also confiscated. 
• Biologist Cristina Fiol denounced the illegal sale of date palm trees, indigenous to Nueva Esparta. The plants were uprooted from beaches in the state.