What Happened Last Week in Venezuela? ⚖️ María Corina Appealed Her Ban
María Corina Machado appealed her ban, a national budget increase in 2024 and a concert organized by an imprisoned narco.
María Corina appealed her ban
After a surprise announcement by the United States Embassy for Venezuela (based in Colombia), María Corina Machado attended the Supreme Tribunal of Justice and appealed her ban from running for office. “The regime is terrified of weighting itself up. They are looking for excuses to not face me,” she said, “That is why we are here today, they are not going to take us off the electoral route. I'm going to do whatever needs to be done and we're going to go all the way. The ball is in the regime's court. Now it is their turn to comply." The candidate clarified that she would have preferred to make the announcement and not the United States.
Saudi Chavismo
The economic slowdown took its toll: according to data from Ecoanalítica, commercial sales of restaurants and hotels in Greater Caracas fell 37% in the January-November period compared to the same period of the previous year.
However, the Venezuelan government expects its oil revenue to rise 27% in 2024 according to an unpublished annual budget proposal reviewed by Reuters. Spending is expected to be $20.5 billion: a 39% increase compared to 2023.
Revenue from oil exports and taxes paid by PDVSA would cover 58% of total government spending, equivalent to about $11.9 billion, according to the document. PDVSA's contributions this year were $9,340 million.
The budget does not include an estimate of the price of crude oil or production estimates for next year. Tax revenues will be the equivalent of $5,540 million and will finance 27% of the expenditure. The rest of the budget will be financed with domestic debt and loans.
According to Oscar Ronderos, a lawmaker of the branch of Acción Democrática coopted by the Supreme Tribunal of Justice, the preliminary budget for 2024 proposes a salary increase that does not exceed 10% but could exceed a 70% increase in bonuses.
According to a scoop from Tal Cual, the Red de Abastos Bicentenario – state supermarkets founded in 2010, which Maduro said were “rotten” in 2016 and which were later transferred to crony Alex Saab – reappeared in the 2024 national budget. An electoral need?
Trampling civil society
Authoritarian judicial activism: in 2023, the Supreme Court of Justice dismissed and imposed new authorities on the Carabobo Bar Association, Fedecámaras Bolívar, Fedenaga (National Federation of Livestock Farmers of Venezuela), the Venezuelan Surf Federation, the Venezuelan Motorcycle Federation, the Puerto Encantado Civil Association, the Communist Party of Venezuela and the Venezuelan Red Cross. Also, the NGO Venezuela Sin Filtro documented 80 website blocks in Venezuela during 2023, while 77 were recorded in 2022: an increase in digital censorship.
A luxury island in the east of Caracas
The list “Most expensive neighborhoods in Latin America” – ompiled jointly by the regional real estate agencies Properati, Lamudi and Trovit– included Las Mercedes, in the east of Caracas, in 13th place in the 2023 ranking: with an average value of $2,311 per square meter, more expensive than any of the Colombian areas included. Meanwhile, Venezuelans make up 6% of foreign real estate buyers in South Florida in 2023, according to the Miami Association of Realtors. Venezuela is the fourth largest country of origin of these investors.
Alleviating the gasoline shortage
According to Reuters, energy trading companies are supplying PDVSA with motor fuel and diluent for its heavy oil production to mitigate gasoline shortages in Venezuela. Some of these multinationals, such as Trafigura (based in Singapore) or the Swiss Gunvor, were among the first companies to buy crude oil from PDVSA intermediaries after the relaxation of sanctions.
Nationalist theater
Following the meeting in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Guyana and Venezuela issued a joint statement stating that any dispute between the two states will be resolved in accordance with international law, including the Geneva Agreement, and that they will not threaten or use force. mutually under any circumstances.
Meanwhile, according to Bellingcat’s geolocation research, the site in Esequibo where Guyana raised a flag to mark territory and the site where indigenous Venezuelans raised Venezuela's flag and lowered the one Guyana had supposedly put up first are two distinct sites separated by 185 kilometers away: on different sides of the border.
The rebirth of Venezuelan rice
Rice production in Venezuela increased from 425,000 tons in 2022 to 458,000 tons in 2023, according to the president of the Venezuelan Rice Federation (Fevearroz) José Luis Pérez. However, Pérez said there was a slight decrease of 3.7% in the average annual yield due to unfavorable weather conditions. According to Pérez, the rice sector currently supplies 53 % of national consumption.
The two oppositions
María Corina Machado met with the National Political Committee of Primero Justicia, including Juan Pablo Guanipa: former opposition candidate elected for the governorship of Zulia in 2017 who was not allowed to assume the governorship for not recognizing the legitimacy of the National Constituent Assembly. In recent days, Guanipa gave an interview where he accused Carlos Prosperi of being co-opted by the regime, an accusation previously made by actors close to Acción Democráitica, and Manuel Rosales of working with Chavismo and of censoring political criticism of the Maduro government in the Council. Zulia Legislature. Rosales and Prosperi both responded, accusing Guanipa of being a “traitor.” Primero Justicia supported Guanipa while Un Nuevo Tiempo supported Rosales, showing a fracture in two previously close parties.
Country of pranes
Romeo Santos, the Dominican-American bachata singer, took hours to start his concert in Caracas: starting almost at dawn and openly blaming the production company, Panteras Entertainment. The next day, Attorney General Tarek W. Saab initiated legal proceedings against the production company – allegedly directed from prison by Juan Carlos Araujo, a businessman imprisoned for drug trafficking, in complicity with Argenis Guerra, director of the El Rodeo prison.