What Happened Last Week in Venezuela? đ A New Candidate for the Opposition (Or Not)
The opposition names a "representative" candidate, the government blocks the opposition from registering her and repression keeps getting worse.
Maria and Corina
After a series of meetings, MarĂa Corina Machado â surrounded by leaders of the oppositionâs Unitary Platform parties â announced that the opposition forces agreed that Professor Corina Yoris will be their presidential candidate in the face of Machado's ban from running for office. âWe are giving birth to the country,â said Yoris, who was a member of the oppositionâs National Commission of Primaries and is a well-known but low-profile academic. The candidate has two doctorates in History and Philosophy, she was president of the Venezuelan Society of Philosophy and was recently elected as a Numerous Individual of the Venezuelan Academy of Language, where she will occupy the Chair held by RĂłmulo Gallegos: the first Venezuelan president elected through the universal suffrage. However, by Sunday night âone day before the closing of the registration periodâ access by the Un Nuevo Tiempo and MUD cards to the National Electoral Councilâs (CNE) system remained blocked: effectively leaving the opposition without the possibility of registering Yoris or any candidate.
A few days after the announcement, Chavista lawmaker Iris Valera said that Corina Yoris âwhom she describes as a âvillain puppetââ will not be able to register for allegedly having dual nationality. However, Yoris and fact-checking sites described the alleged dual nationality as a âhoax.â
Despite the blockade of the Unitary Platform, the CNE allowed Chavismo and the subordinate âoppositionsâ to register their candidates. The ten registered candidates are NicolĂĄs Maduro, Luis Eduardo MartĂnez, Antonio Ecarri, Juan Carlos Alvarado, Daniel Ceballos, BenjamĂn Rausseo, Javier Bertucci, JosĂ© Brito, Claudio FermĂn and Luis Ratti.
Things are getting nasty
On Thursday, two members of Machado's team âHenry Alviarez and Dignora HernĂĄndezâ were arrested. A video of HernĂĄndez's arrest, in broad daylight in Caracas, went viral due to her cries for help. The Public Ministry accused them of a âconspiracyâ to overthrow the government and issued arrest warrants against seven other members of MarĂa Corina Machado's team: including crucial figures such as Magalli Meda, Pedro Urruchurtu and Claudia Macero. The Vente headquarters in Chacao were  âsurroundedâ by SEBIN agents, according to party sources, and at least one militant also reported the presence of agents outside her home.
"Today will go down in history as the day of infamy, the day in which the regime deploys all its evil, all the fear, the lies, the violence, to sow terror. But they are wrong, because what they have found is the strength of the united people," Machado said after the arrests, âThe regime by force, by hard means, can try to delay the transition [to democracy], but it cannot prevent it. This is already in process."
In previous days, the coordinator of Vente âMachado's partyâ in the Girardor municipality, in Aragua, was also detained as well as the electoral secretary of that state of the La Causa R party. However, the secretary was later released. âNothing justified the procedures carried out against him,â his party said. In addition, the headquarters of Un Nuevo Tiempo in BolĂvar were vandalized by unidentified groups. Also, a lawyer from Provea, the human rights organization, suffered an âirregular situationâ in the Palace of Justice in Caracas due to the strong militarization of the site.
Meanwhile, Jorge RodrĂguez proposed "a severe, draconian law" to punish traitors to the country and "slaves of the gringos" for "asking for invasions" and "interventions." Subsequently, Delcy RodrĂguez reported that Maduro will present a bill against âfascism and all neo-fascist expressionâ due to protests in 2014 and 2017, âconsequencesâ caused by the opposition parliament elected in 2015 and âthreatsâ of âneo-fascismâ in the Global North. The proposed laws have been described by critics as a new tool for political persecution in Venezuela.
Crisis in the Amazon
Horonami, an organization that brings together the Yanomami communities of Alto Orinoco, reported that more than 260 people from their communities have died between January 2023 and the present from malaria, tuberculosis, malnutrition and other diseases. Meanwhile, satellite images from the NGO SOS Orinoco showed an expansion of 53 hectares of mine north of Cerro Yapacana, within the national park of the same name, between March 2023 and January 2024, while an operation to evict informal miners was carried out.
Dollarization falls again... and coffee production... and car production...
The February dollarization study by the firm EcoanalĂtica found that the dollarization rate fell again to 45.1% from 52.7% in May 2023, with a deepening in the gap between regions: in Caracas, transactions In foreign currency are only 34% but in San CristĂłbal they are 79.8%. Cash circulation in foreign currency was estimated at $6,290 million, the highest figure on record, while liquidity in bolivars is equivalent to $1,946 million, which implies a 3.2:1 relationship between dollars and bolivars. The firm also estimates that, although the numbers of domestic travelers have increased, barely 10% of Venezuelans today have the capacity to travel during Easter.
Meanwhile, according to the agriculturalists guild Fedeagro, Venezuela today is producing the same amount of coffee as in the 1960s, below the historical peak of 1,800,000 quintals. Consumption per Venezuelan went from 3 kilos to 2.5 kilos. Other indicators of the collapse: Venezuela produced 4 cars in February of this year, 2 more than in February 2023. Last year, it produced 61 vehicles: a drop of 19.7% compared to 2022, when it produced 76 units. Between 1992 and 2002, it exported 118,794 vehicles to Colombia and Ecuador.
Venezuelan oil in India and China
The president of Colombian oil company Ecopetrol said that they will buy gas from PDVSA starting in 2025 to mitigate a 17% deficit in Colombia's current demand. They hope to import it by binational gas pipeline or floating unit in Cartagena. Also, GoldPillar International Fund â aVirgin Islands-based investment fund whose shares New Stratus bought in the Vencupet joint ventureâ recently announced that they hope to reach 1,000 bpd in the next two months through seven wells and activate another 36 this year.
The share of South American countries in India's oil imports in February increased due to greater consumption of Venezuelan oil by Indian refineries. In February, Venezuela was India's fourth largest oil supplier. In addition, PetroChina received a shipment of Venezuelan oil this weekend, which will be taken to its new mega refinery in Guangdong. It is the first shipment of Venezuelan crude oil that the company has received since sanctions were relaxed.
National parks on fire
Unofficially, says an article in El EstĂmulo, the number of forest firefighters deployed in the fire zone in Auyantepuy âan estimated area of 11 km2â does not exceed 12 officials. This group suffers from scarce and inadequate equipment to fight large fires. Meanwhile, Henri Pittier âVenezuela's oldest national parkâ is also facing a series of fires.
A law for the Esequibo
The 2020 National Assembly approved  the Law for the Defense of Guayana Esequiba. This law rejects the Arbitration Award of 1899 and proclaims the Esequibo as a Venezuelan state (and its representation in the National Assembly), which will have its own ZODI. It also alludes to ignoring the jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice.