Caracas Chronicles

• Spanish and Italian oil companies Eni SpA and Repsol SA could start sending Venezuelan oil to Europe next month, to compensate for Russian oil, according to Reuters. It would be a symbolic victory for Maduro, even though the quantities aren’t that big. 
• The Biden administration expects that Venezuelan oil can decrease Europe’s dependency on Russian oil and that it would be an incentive to bring the regime back to the negotiation table in Mexico. Professor Francisco Monaldi thinks this is relevant and that, for now, it’s an operation that would allow PDVSA to pay back its large debt with Eni and Repsol, so it doesn’t bring new money. He said it won’t have an impact on global markets but it would allow a gas flow into Venezuela’s internal market and a hint that Chevron’s license could be modified in the future, allowing them to get paid with shipments. 
• Henrique Capriles condemned the opposition for celebrating primaries “excluding sectors,” meaning the parties where TSJ imposed authorities. He said that “a closed primary” doesn’t guarantee alternability and said that two years of campaigning takes a toll on people. He called for working on social issues and warned that the opposition must be careful with its “vocation for failing.” 
• Voluntad Popular Zulia blamed lawmaker Enmanuel Pulgar and councilmen José Sierra, Rafael Lárez, Enrique Parra, Luis Morillo, María Arcaya, Arly González and Agler Fernández, members of PSUV, for the violence during Juan Guaidó’s visit to the region. 
• The general manager of Monómeros, Guillermo Rodríguez, denied claims of corruption in the company made by AN deputies. He assured Monómeros isn’t at risk because they paid off their debt with suppliers. 

Valentín Santana, leader of the colectivo La Piedrita, who has a warrant for his arrest since 2007, threatened Fetrasalud secretary general Pablo Zambrano for calling employees to a strike. 

• ANC-imposed prosecutor general Tarek William Saab solved another social media case with the arrest of four people who were using four-wheel-drive vehicles in the Pico Bolívar in Mérida. They’ll be charged with environmental crimes. 
• The National Journalists Guild reported that journalists Ramón Centeno and Gabriel Guerra were detained at the ONA office in Caracas after they interviewed inmates for their ties with drug trafficking. They were arrested without a warrant. 
• Dr. Huníades Medina said that almost two years after the vaccination plan started, 45% of Venezuelans have received two doses.
• The president of the Public Transportation User Committee, Luis Alberto Salazar, said that raising the prices to one dollar is imminent because the cost of 0.5 dollars per ltr. of diesel fuel must be compensated and paid for by citizens. 
• The president of the Venezuelan Chamber of Automotive Product Manufacturers Omar Bautista assured that the industry has disappeared in Venezuela and exports have severely decreased. 

Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador won’t attend the Summit of the Americas, protesting Venezuela, Cuba, and Nicaragua weren’t invited. Luis Lacalle Pou, President of Uruguay, couldn’t attend because he tested positive for covid. Chilean president Gabriel Boric said it was a mistake not to invite the dictatorships in the continent.

• U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with the Holy See Secretary of State Pietro Parolin about Venezuela and “the importance of the negotiation between the regime and the Unitary Platform as the best path to solving the crisis,” said the Department of State. 
• President Volodymir Zelensky said that up to 75 million T of grain could be trapped in Ukraine this fall and that Kyiv needs weapons and the support of another country’s navy to assure that its exports will arrive to other countries through the Black Sea.