Caracas Chronicles

• Maduro’s National Assembly held a session to debate the report of their special commission for dialogue, peace, and national reconciliation. The vice president of the commission, Luis Eduardo Martínez, didn’t speak about the content of the report, he didn’t say who they talked to or how the dialogue had been “reformatted.”  Jorge Rodríguez said that this was a preliminary report and that it wouldn’t be voted on. He said they’d speak to different sectors: “We can’t have a dialogue to hand out quotas because the people would turn their backs on us… We’re going to rebuild a welfare state,” said Rodríguez. He also talked about televised events with the prêt-à-porter opposition and members of the civil society, and he specifically mentioned the Foro Cívico.

Rodríguez said that, since the country isn’t at war, the negotiation would have to take place in Venezuela and not Mexico. 

• The IMF published on Wednesday their global perspective report, where they projected that the Venezuelan economy will slightly bounce back and accumulate three-digit inflation and that the GDP would grow 1.5% after almost a decade of recession. While the economy is finally able to catch its breath, barely out of hyperinflation, the Venezuelan Observatory of Finance (OVF) launched an instrument to keep track of how much money a family needs to buy goods and services, the Canasta Básica de Gastos Mínimos (CBGM). The CBGM will track the prices of food (25 products that cover 2,000 daily calories), transportation (40 trips per month), and utility bills (cooking gas and phone service). In March, it cost 841.30 bolivars or 187 dollars, which is five times the minimum wage. According to the OVF, this proves “the impossibility of a dignified life and adequate nutrition.” CENDAS reported that the basic food basket was $471 in March, and it registered a $16,2 variation, a 3.6% increase compared to February. 
• The president of the National Federation of Medicine, Douglas León Natera, assured that the right to health isn’t guaranteed because of the hospital crisis, evidenced by the lack of equipment, supplies and medicine. Over 80% of the hospital network (301 hospitals) is in ruins. 
• FundaRedes denounced that people who identified as “officers of the Venezuelan Army” forced citizens in several sectors of Apure to leave their homes. The citizens said that the houses are being raided and that they were slaughtering cattle. FundaRedes director Javier Tarazona is still a prisoner in El Helicoide.
• The Coalition for Human Rights and Democracy reported that the UN Committee Against Torture requested more information on the case of Captain Juan Carlos Caguaripano, who’s been in prison since 2017. His family and human rights activists have denounced he’s been tortured. 
• The Red de Documentación de Crímenes de Lesa Humanidad (Red-CLH) reported that they sent 36 new cases to the ICC Prosecutor’s Office. 
• Olnar Ortiz Bare, from NGO Foro Penal, denounced the conditions of one of the victims injured in the clash between FANB officers and the Yanomami tribe in Amazonas, when four Yanomami were killed. The victim is a teenager who was shot with high-caliber weapons, he’s only been given pain killers and has been kept isolated from his community. 
• The Inter-American Press and Society Institute published a report titled “Orchestrating silence” where they explain the situation of Venezuelan journalism in 2021. Freedom of expression got 62 points (0-100 scale). They said that 58.2% of people surveyed don’t go to authorities after an attack and 53.7% of professionals said they had omitted information that’s of public interest for fear of retaliation. 

Juan González, White House advisor, insisted on W Radio in Colombia that “lifting the sanctions, even in the oil sector, depends on the Mexico negotiations.” He reiterated that, for the U.S., the main actor is the caretaker government and the Unitary Platform. 

• Amid Russia’s new attack to occupy Donbas, the Kremlin delivered a new negotiation proposal. Sergei Lavrov said that the result of the negotiation fully depends on Kyiv’s disposition to consider Moscow’s demands. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that he didn’t receive any messages from Moscow and his government later proposed a negotiation in Mariupol without no pre-determined conditions: “To save our men, Azov, military, civilians, children, alive or wounded.” Germany said they’ll stop exporting Russian oil by the end of 2022, while the president of the European Council Charles Michel, reiterated his conviction that sooner or later the sanctions will also impact Russian oil and gas. 
• IMF director Kristalina Georgieva said that Ukraine will need 5 billion dollars per month in financial aid to keep its economy working and that they’re developing financing plans.