Caracas Chronicles

Father Alfredo Infante human rights coordinator of the Centro Gumilla, and Marino Alvarado, Provea coordinator, spoke out about the defamation suit against them by Carabobo governor Rafael Lacava. Lacava sued because of a Lupa por la Vida report in which Carabobo State Police was called one of the most lethal in the country, for being involved in 221 cases of alleged extrajudicial executions. “Our report isn’t against you, it’s in favor of life. In order for people to know the truth and so families can have access to justice,” said Infante, who exhorted Lacava to pressure the Prosecutor’s Office and the Ombudsman to open investigations. Marino Alvarado also asked Lacava to appoint a commission to investigate the alleged extrajudicial executions, stop criminalizing NGOs and design public policy that will prevent human rights violations.

Lawyer Joel García said he would represent Provea and Centro Gumilla and that after filing his POA they should get a date for a conciliation hearing. If the case goes to trial, he said, “we’re going to call all the families of the victims of extrajudicial executions as witnesses.”

• Cardinal Baltazar Porras said that the agreements achieved in the negotiation must be in benefit of Venezuelans and insisted that “a dose of common sense is necessary to find the path to strengthen political parties’ presence.” 
• UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet expects the regime and the opposition can finish the negotiation that started in 2021 in Mexico. 

White House advisor Juan González ruled out lifting sanctions if there’s no tangible steps by the regime to move towards free elections. He said that the EU’s Electoral Observation Mission was very clear on what has to happen. He added that “lifting sanctions will only fill the regime’s pockets.” 

• Armando Chacín,  Fedenaga president,  denounced that machinery and equipment are paralyzed in several states because of a lack of fuel. “We’re willing to find diesel fuel in other countries because we understand the risk, because there are crops and products that should be starting to be collected from fields.” The regime has left farmers without fuel before, having everything sent to Cuba, and blocking the private sector from importing.
• The international reserves of the Central Bank (BCV) decreased by 180 million dollars in the first two weeks of May, said economist José Guerra, because of the regime’s intervention in the currency exchange market to keep the price of the dollar low. Guerra thinks it’s “policy suicide.”
• In 2021, the BCV reserves dropped to a 50-year minimum, at 79 T. Gold reserves in 2021 were 4.5 billion dollars, 493 million less than in 2020. In 2015, the regime started using gold as a guarantee for loans. However, even after the Orinoco Mining Arc was established (with a terrible cost for the area), the gold reserve has never increased and there’s been no accountability on extraction.
• The operation in La Vega, El Valle, La Cota 905, and El Cementerio by the PNB and the CICPC because of the presence of the criminal gangs led by a.k.a. Garbis and Vampi left three dead, 30 people arrested, and one injured officer.
• Maduro’s interior minister Remigio Ceballos said that the CICPC managed to rescue Franyeli Guerrero, who had been missing since December 2021 when she was kidnapped in Barinas. We only know that four people have been arrested.
• Tierra Viva Foundation won the  Luis and Juli Carbonell Award 2022, awarded by the Academy of Mathematics, Physics, and Natural Science, in recognition of their trajectory in conservation, biodiversity, and sustainable development. 

Avianca presented a request before the Colombian authorities to re-establish Caracas-Bogotá flights, with a frequency of seven flights per week.

• The president of the Capital District Nurses’ Guild Ana Rosario Contreras reported that 70% of public sector professionals have deserted to live off entrepreneurship or because of immigration because of low wages. 
• The U.S. won’t import oil from Iran or Venezuela, said the U.S. secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm, during a Senate hearing.