From the PRR

As per Bloomberg’s coverage of Atlantic Council panel in DC, US Chief of Mission of the Venezuelan Affairs Unit,
Francisco Palmieri, said they urge Venezuela
to establish a “clear time line for elections” and allow electoral missions to oversee the vote. Also, the US insists that “the Maduro government lift bans on electoral candidates that prevent them from participating in elections…”

This goes very much in line with last week’s Political Risk Report, where we explained that the three key realistic asks from the Biden administration were: setting a date; holding the presidential election independently of any other electoral process (no mega elections); and international observation. On the ban lifting we published the following:

The talks are still stuck on other issues that have been sidelined. For instance, the US government also asked Maduro to lift bans on all opposition candidates to run in the presidential election, in exchange for partial sanction relief. Regarding this request, the Maduro regime has made it clear that they are willing to lift bans on anyone except Maria Corina Machado.

We believe this is not a precondition that will block some form of agreement that is likely to be finalized before the primaries. There’s a sense of urgency from all the parties to have something in writing before October 22nd. Even Maduro & Co.: “Among other valid reasons, they all see the primaries as a potentially disruptive event that will disturb the relative cordiality that they enjoy now. Whatever Maduro agrees to put on the table could be downplayed by government actions against the primaries or the candidates.”

Prison-Kink

Javier Moro, the author of your aunt’s favorite bestseller “El sari rojo,” is publishing “Nos quieren muertos”: a book on Leopoldo López and Lilian Tintori’s story. “We conceived our daughter in prison, in a bathroom, watching the cockroaches run,” the couple told Spanish newspaper ABC in an interview. And, my God, Moro did give us some images: “They didn’t speak, they looked like a couple of mimes doing contortions, or deaf-mutes. But how tasty are the bites, the caresses, the kisses, Lilian said to herself. (…) Leo’s cry of pleasure was his response to the mistreatment.”

Spicy, let’s hope they make it a trilogy.

Venezuela on the Web

This week, Vox is taking a look on how Florida became the center of the Republican universe through your average Nitu-loving uncle who talks about el narcorrrregimen: “Carlos Campos came to Miami from Venezuela in 1979, before dictator Hugo Chávez’s socialist revolution brought about the unraveling of the oil-rich country. But it wasn’t until 2016 that Campos became actively engaged in US politics. Donald Trump’s “America First” message stirred something in him (…) He attends Alpha & Omega, a Spanish-language evangelical church in Miami, and is anti-abortion. He wants stricter border policy, believing that the US isn’t doing enough to keep out criminals and that everyone should enter the country legally — despite the difficulties that even his fellow Venezuelans have recently experienced trying to immigrate.” Check the entire story here.