Venezuela Has Blocked 36 News Websites Since December

The VE Sin Filtro organization documented that at least 59 websites corresponding to 68 domains were blocked in Venezuela between January and December 2021. 36 of those websites were digital news outlets

  • Unlike his peers, ANC-imposed chief prosecutor Tarek William Saab gives periodic updates of his administration. His checks and balances speech on Thursday didn’t show anything new. He repeated his usual method: a lot of numbers that can’t be verified and assured that investigations in the country have changed since he was appointed. He answered some of  Elvis Amoroso’s questions on investigations, confiscations, detentions, and possible raids on the caretaker government. He talked about conspiracies to murder Nicolás and coup attempts. “An ICC investigation isn’t necessary and we’ll prove it.” He added that they have nothing to fear and that’s why they’re accepting an ICC office in Caracas. Saab didn’t mention that the ICC investigation is on crimes against humanity. The Human Rights and Democracy Coalition reported that the ICC office is already working at the TSJ building. 
  • Espacio Público registered 17 cases and 25 freedom of expression violations in March: censorship, intimidation, verbal harassment, threats, and administrative restrictions. State institutions were highlighted as the main entities violating freedom of expression in the country.
  • VE Sin Filtro documented that at least 59 websites corresponding to 68 domains were blocked in Venezuela between January and December 2021. 36 of those websites were digital news outlets. 
  • The Tupamaro party demanded the release of their secretary-general José Pinto, who was arrested in June 2020 for his alleged involvement in the murder of a 16-year-old fisherman. They say Pinto is a political prisoner and that he’s facing an unfair judicial process. 
  • The Corporación Venezolana de Guayana (CVG) reported it can’t afford the 1,704% increase of the minimum wage that Maduro decreed in March, because none of Guayana’s basic industries has the liquidity to pay for it.
  • Maduro’s interior minister Remigio Ceballos reported that they’re deploying over 150,000 police and military officers to work in the Safe Holy Week Plan.
  • Because of the risk of an enforced disappearance case, Amnesty International asked to reveal the whereabouts of Yanomami citizens Borges Sifontes and Gabriel Silva, who are key witnesses in the case of the murder of four members of their tribe in the Parima B sector of Alto Orinoco. They went missing after military officers took them to Caracas.

81.65% of students in public schools are attending classes from two to three times a week, 60.55% of them for an average of two to four hours per day, according to a survey by Asociación Civil Con La Escuela.

  • Marianella Herrera from the Venezuelan Observatory of Health explained that eating patterns in Venezuela haven’t changed much. Venezuelans are still trying to be efficient in doof consumption and distribution. Among other facts, because food insecurity persists, the protein intake is too low and the collapse of basic services also limits what citizens can eat.
  • Camilla Fabri’s aunts, Arianna and Patrizia Fiore, were arrested in Italy because of an investigation connected to money laundering schemes. The authorities believe that they were acting as Fabri’s middlewomen. Fabri is Alex Saab’s wife.
  • The UN General Assembly expelled Russia from the Human Rights Council because of human rights violations perpetrated by troops in Ukraine. Venezuela couldn’t vote, conveniently. Ukrainian foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba attended the NATO summit and warned that Russia is preparing to attack eastern Ukraine, and that the battle for Donbas “will take place in days and will look like battles of WWII.”

Read more: How Maduro Became Useless in the UN General Assembly

  • The EU approved the ban on importing carbon from Russia. The European Parliament asked countries of the bloc to impose an “immediate and complete” embargo on Russian exports like oil, carbon, gas and fuels. Members of the G7 announced new sanctions against Vladimir Putin’s government: they’ll ban new investments in key sectors of the Russian economy, including the energy sector and strengthen restrictions against state-owned companies and Russian banks.

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.