What Happened Last Week in Venezuela? 🇨🇱 Ronald Ojeda Is Dead
An agreement that says nothing, the kidnapped former Army member is dead and a failed delivery regulation.
An agreement that says nothing
Jorge Rodríguez presented an "agreement" signed with the loyal “oppositions” outside the Unitary Platform in which they proposed 27 possible dates for the presidential elections ranging from March to December: “From my point of view, this agreement is the development of the agreement of Barbados and replaces it. Because who can do the most, can do the least. In other words, the Barbados agreement is a sub-set of this set that is much broader,” he said. The document was later submitted to the National Electoral Council.
Subsequently, Nicolás Maduro promised Lula da Silva to call elections in Venezuela in the second half of the year. Maduro assured this in a bilateral meeting in Jamaica, reported the Brazilian Presidency.
Ronald Ojeda is dead
Chilean authorities found the body of former Venezuelan lieutenant Ronald Ojeda during a raid in a poor neighborhood in the commune of Maipú, in Santiago de Chile. According to the authorities, the body was found under a cement block, about 1.4 meters deep. Authorities continue to investigate the murder and arrested a 17-year-old Venezuelan man allegedly linked to the kidnapping.
Ojeda, 32, was “demoted and expelled” from the Bolivarian National Armed Forces in January after being accused of being part of an alleged plan to assassinate Nicolás Maduro. He was recently kidnapped in his home in Chile, where he was exiled. It's still unclear if the Venezuelan state had any role in the murder of Ojeda.
The predatory state
The government announced a regulation of delivery services and companies that use it, including Ipostel permits and a 1% tax. “This measure could cause a sector that had been experiencing significant growth in recent years to probably slow down,” said economist Asdrúbal Oliveros, director of the firm Ecoanalítica.
In fact, after criticism from users and various sectors, the government backed down on the measure. "The Venezuelan public sector today is an archipelago of semi-autonomous islands dedicated to using its little or lot of power to economically blackmail the rest of society," said economist Omar Zambrano.
Subsequently, fueling discontent, the government closed the main highways of Caracas to organize a march commemorating the 20th anniversary of a speech by Hugo Chávez. The city recorded very high levels of traffic throughout the day.
No country for human rights
Authorities arrested motorcycle drivers who mobilized people during María Corina Machado's visit to Cumaná and CONATEL closed community radio station Ecos del Páramo 100.3 FM for not broadcasting a speech by the Chavista governor of Trujillo. It is the eighth station closed by the State in just two months of 2024. According to the National Union of Press Workers, 130 Venezuelan stations have been closed between 2022 and 2023. Also, commentator Indira Urbaneja threatened to take legal action against journalist Victor Amaya , director of the fact-checking site EsPaja , for publishing an article about political consultants.
However, the International Criminal Court rejected the Venezuelan government's appeal against the investigation for crimes against humanity in Venezuela and "unanimously" confirmed that it will continue. The appeal was the last resource that the Venezuelan state had to stop the investigation. Now, the Court may even proceed to issue arrest warrants against Venezuelan officials.
Dismemberments
Three men were arrested for transporting 26 dismembered sharks –including several hammerheads– off the coast of El Morro in Sucre. Venezuelan law prohibits having on board or transporting "sharks without fins, heads or jaws."
Further north, the United States "dismembered" an Emtrasur plane seized in Argentina for alleged ties to Iran. "They took the color away from the flag, they disappeared the name, they erased the name of Emtrasur”, Nicolás Maduro said.
And the oil recovery?
A bottleneck of tankers waiting to load oil and fuel in Venezuela has grown in recent weeks as PDVSA struggles to deliver cargoes on time following a series of blackouts, Reuters reported. By Monday, at least 19 supertankers and 10 other vessels were waiting to be loaded for export.
Recommendations
“In fact, the sculpturemania seems to be a sort of image-washing strategy from these controversial mayors to attain a sort of legitimacy in the eyes of an oppositional middle class constituency that is critical of its shady ties with emerging economic elites –giant stores, paddle tennis courts, expensive waste recollection systems and new shiny towers– and its widespread felling of urban trees”, writes Juan Bonadies in his article for Caracas Chronicles about the new cartoon sculptures in Caracas.
“Some politicians are finally realizing that organizing people is kinda their job description. The comanditos –the opposition’s current strategy of promoting small self-organized electoral groups in communities to mobilize and energize voters– look promising, as grassroots politics is the essential infrastructure of any democratic struggle in any juncture. Such a decentralized structure can work for an electoral campaign, organize protest and provide mutual aid, information or solidarity (sorely needed in times of state abductions) while also combining themselves in bigger blocks”, writes Jeudiel Martinez.