permanent communication
The most outstanding thing that the weekend left us were the comments made by President Nicolás Maduro about the relationship between Venezuela and the United States. He reported that the government maintains “permanent communication” with the commission sent by Joe Biden who visited the country on March 5. He explained that things go “sometimes slow, very slow, sometimes less slow.”
“We have very clear demands, that all cruel, criminal measures of sanctions against the Venezuelan economy and society be lifted.”
He said he doesn’t expect this to happen “overnight,” but “steps are being taken.”
These steps to which Maduro refers, at least the most concrete and public so far, are the licenses that the gringo government granted to the companies Chevron (USA), Repsol (Spain) and Eni (Italy) so that they resume the processes that allow them to produce oil in Venezuela to export to their respective markets.
Our voice at the top
The President also referred, during an interview on Saturday with Argentine intellectuals, to the Summit of the Americas that starts today in Los Angeles. He said that the United States took care to erase any possibility of success of that meeting with its policy of exclusions. He also said that Venezuela will feel represented in the voice of the Argentine president, Alberto Fernández, who will attend the event as president pro tempore of CELAC. He revealed that she recently spoke with Fernández in “a friendly conversation, I could say full of good energy” and that this is “a colleague who wants to help Venezuela and the region.”
“I think it’s very good that he brings the voice of Latin America and the Caribbean to the meeting of the Americas.”
Incidentally, the Argentine government has made it clear that it is taking this participation in the Los Angeles meeting very seriously.
The Argentine foreign minister, Santiago Cafiero, has made clear the critical position of his government against the current gringo administration, which was supposed to differentiate itself more from the Trump government, which had a very aggressive agenda with the region.
“With the arrival of Biden to the White House, it was believed that things were going to change drastically, however, this has not been the case.”
Well, the day has come. Let’s see how the famous event goes.
fly with the rain
Yesterday a tremendous raindrop fell in Caracas, or rather several, because it had been raining since dawn. The result was that several trees fell and there was an emergency situation in Cotiza, where the Caraballo stream overflowed again, leaving several families affected. The National Institute of Meteorology and Hydrology (Inameh) warned that “moderate to heavy rains” are also expected today in various parts of the country.
environmental crimes
The image of a people who began to make mud pits in the middle of Pico El Águila of the Merida moor was a trend over the weekend. There was outrage on social networks because it was considered that these activities cause significant damage to the fragile ecosystem of this area. The same Saturday it was announced that they had arrested one person and were looking for the rest of those who participated in that activity.
They sabotaged El Palito
Oil Minister Tareck El Aissami reported that the El Palito Refinery suffered an attack on its electrical system. He explained that they manipulated the protection systems so that they would fail in any contingency and an explosion would occur.
“It was like a kind of plan that was going to be activated with a programmed failure and, after that failure was perpetrated, the protection systems, which were already disabled, did not act and the consequence was the total explosion of the refinery.”
El Aissami pointed out that this action was planned by the government of Iván Duque.
Contagious
Yesterday, 68 new cases of covid-19 were reported in Venezuela, all community-based, and no deaths.
- Total infections: 523,901
- Recovered patients: 517,148 (99%)
- Active cases: 1,031
- Total deaths: 5,722
Exchange rate
The Central Bank of Venezuela reported that the exchange tables on Friday showed an average of 5.15 bolivars per dollar. Remember that this is the only valid rate for any transaction today. For its part, the parallels averaged 5.40 that day.
Bloody end in the US
In the international field, the situation of violence experienced by the population of the United States stands out. only the weekend Five shootings were recorded in different cities that left 11 dead.
duke behind bars
Before you leave, do not miss the news that the president of Colombia, Iván Duque, who is about to leave office, was sentenced by a court to comply five days house arrest and pay a fine of around 4,000 dollars for disobeying a sentence of the Supreme Court of his country that ordered him to create a special vigilance body for the protection of the Los Nevados National Natural Park. He did nothing and the thing had consequences. As my mother used to say, this man is “closing with a flourish” his management at the head of the Colombian government.
That’s all for today. Have an excellent week. We’ll read each other again tomorrow morning.
