Caracas Chronicles

• Yaelvis Santoyo Sarabia was the Venezuelan baby murdered by the Trinidadian Coast Guard when they shot a boat that had sailed from Delta Amacuro. The Coast Guard said that it was “self-defense” because the boat tried to attack them. The audio testimony of the parents is chilling: “My child’s head exploded in my hands.” The Venezuelan government took two days to respond to such a heinous crime, which its Trinidadian counterparts simply called an “incident” while prime Minister Keith Rowley expressed his “condolences” according to protocol. There’s little value to all the statements and comuniqués issued by UN agencies and the like if they don’t address the multiple claims of aggression and violence by Trinidad and Tobago against Venezuelan migrants since 2018. The least that can be expected from Trinidad and Tobago is a swift and fair trial for the shooters and the revision of their migratory policies and practices. This is also the curse of the stateless people of Venezuela, where every day we see how human rights violations are minimized. After a while, the world minimizes them too.
• Chavismo is trying to convince the public that the new tax on transactions made in dollars, IGTF, is a strategy to “increase the number of transactions made in bolivars,” when their goal is to get a cut and profit off people who use dollars. The IGTF won’t guarantee anything they’re promising: price stability, or the strength of the bolivar, or avoiding inflation.
• In another political flank, the group that was pushing for participation in any move by chavismo, even if there aren’t conditions, brought to social media some ideas about nominating justices to the TSJ. It was executed as another example of astroturfing, a coordinated campaign that pretends to pass as spontaneous exchanges among leaders of opinion. 
• On April 21st, 2021, the TSJ ruled against newspaper El Nacional, establishing the newspaper had to pay 13.2 million dollars to Diosdado Cabello who had sued them for publishing a piece by Spanish newspaper ABC, where he was tied to drug trafficking. On May, 14th, 2021, a judge ordered an embargo on El Nacional’s headquarters and assets. On Monday, judge Lisbeth Amoroso Hidrobo, ANC-imposed comptroller Elvis Amoroso’s sister, ordered the land and offices to be granted to Diosdado Cabello, to allegedly compensate for defamation. The ruling was agreed on in secret on January 27th. The SIP condemned the Venezuelan justice system for allowing this to take place. El Nacional stopped printing in December 2018. 
• The chief of ZODI-51 General Marco Álvarez Reyes was arrested for his alleged involvement in the gas smuggling case that involves mayor Carlos Vidal and former mayor Daniel Haro. The regime hasn’t confirmed it, but General Omar Pérez La Rosa took over command of ZODI-51 on February 6th, according to a tweet by governor Luis José Marcano.
• Remigio Ceballos, Maduros’s minister of interior, reported four people had been detained and a gang was stopped in Tejerías. El Koki fled, again, but Ceballos says the investigation will move forward. 
• According to the Inter-American Commission for Women, Venezuela is the 6th country with the highest teenage pregnancy rate, below Nicaragua, Dominicana, Honduras, Ecuador, and Panamá.
• @vesinfiltro reported a failure of internet provider NetUno on Sunday and CANTV on Monday. In addition, social media users reported problems with their electricity supply in at least 12 states. 

Guatemala expelled 21 migrants, most of which were Venezuelan, for allegedly breaking immigration law, with the intention of getting to the U.S. 

• Official Gazette #42304 formally announced the departure tax increase in Venezuelan airports, using the petro as the reference for domestic operations and the euro for international operations. They range from $5 to $72. 
• They’re demanding the vaccination card in bus stations in at least five states of the country, even though they admit there isn’t a formal decree establishing it as a requirement. 
• The Economy and Finance Ministry reported the liquidation and cease of operations of Citibank in Venezuela. 
• The United Nations Office on Drug and Crime announced they’ll be establishing their regional headquarters in Colombia, from where they’ll supervise and coordinate operations against drug trafficking and crime in Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, Ecuador and Uruguay.