#Opinion | In my previous column, I expressed some serious concerns about the construction of a 70-million-dollar baseball stadium in Caracas. Was it the right thing to do amidst so many problems? Was it appropriate to prioritize sports over issues such as education or healthcare?

As it turned out, a mere couple of weeks later, government revelations dwarfed my dilemma: a mafia operating in the state oil company (PDVSA) and the Crypto Assets Superintendency (SUNACRIP) allegedly siphoned off some $3 billion from the oil industry. Around 40 stadiums, give or take…

Furthermore, a few media outlets ventured that the plundering of PDVSA can be even more serious after a series of intermediaries were simply allowed to take crude cargoes without paying. That’s why the new PDVSA president and oil minister, Pedro Tellechea, decided to suspend contracts and begin demanding payment upfront.

As a result of the ongoing anti-corruption probe, there are currently 10 public officials and 11 businessmen behind bars. But I think there are a lot of things to unpack. In my view, they show that in political terms, Venezuela is completely adrift.

Read the latest column by Jessica Dos Santos:

https://venezuelanalysis.com/tales-resistance/15737

#Opinion | On Sunday, opposition politician Juan Guaidó posted a video on social media claiming the Venezuelan government was moments away from issuing an arrest order against him, inadvertently expressing the hopes of the majority to see him behind bars once and for all.

Reactions to the video were of the hilarious variety, with one user saying he wouldn’t be able to sleep that night while another one wrote: “usurping [government] functions, allying with foreign powers and stealing the nation’s assets is a crime. I'm telling you in case your lawyers haven't.”

Comments came from both opposition and Chavista followers who coincide on one thing (and this does not happen often!): Guaidó and acolytes have been greatly responsible for the Venezuelan people’s suffering by endorsing Washington’s economic warfare, which has enabled the mass killing of the population.

But being supposedly unaware of one’s crimes while openly confessing to them, especially when you are a US puppet or warmongering imperialist, seems common these days. Just recently, US Senator Marco Rubio gave an interview with fake news propagandist Fox News. There he expressed concern about the US dollar losing its position as the world’s dominant currency after China and Brazil struck a deal to trade in their own currencies.

Rubio’s concerns were centered on one specific thing as he eloquently explained it: “We won’t have to talk about sanctions in five years, because there’ll be so many countries transacting in currencies other than the dollar that we won’t have the ability to sanction them.”

https://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/15738

#Interview | "At the end of the day, the mestizaje discourse is discriminatory, but it’s alive and well. Twenty-three years after the beginning of the Bolivarian Process, if you turn on Telesur or Venezolana de Televisión [state-run TV outlets], how many black anchors will you see? How many people are invited to talk about Afro culture on those platforms? How many ministers or deputies are Afro-descendants?

Unfortunately, racism hasn’t vanished, but it comes draped in the discourse of mestizaje. Many deny the racist character of our society: they say that we are all a bit indigenous, a bit Afro, a bit white; that we are not like South Africa or the United States. However, what we find in our society is far more than vestiges of racism. The struggle to overcome structural racism within the state is ongoing, and it is led by social movements and a network of Afro-Venezuelan organizations."

Jesús “Chucho” García is an intellectual and activist, founder of the Network of Afro-Venezuelan Organizations and a member of the National Decolonization Commission. In this interview, García talks about Afro-descendants’ history of struggle, the advances in the Bolivarian Process, and the pending task of building a truly inclusive society.

https://venezuelanalysis.com/interviews/15739

#News | The International Court of Justice (ICJ) dismissed Venezuela’s preliminary objections in a case brought forward by Guyana concerning the sovereignty over the Essequibo Strip.

The two-neighboring South American countries have an unresolved border dispute going back to colonial times. In 2018, Guyana asked the Hague-based court to confirm the validity of a border drawn by an 1899 Paris tribunal.

On Thursday, ICJ Chief Justice Joan Donoghue announced that, by a majority of 14 to 1, the court had decided to dismiss Venezuela’s objection that the United Kingdom, as ruler of what was British Guiana in 1899, should also take part in the case.

The court had previously ruled against Caracas in determining that it has jurisdiction to hear arguments on the dispute. Venezuela will now have to present its “Counter-Memorial” to back its position. A hearing schedule is not presently known.

https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/15740

🇻🇪🎙️ In this podcast episode, we discuss the recent corruption revelations, what they mean for the Bolivarian Process and whether the US-backed opposition will finally pay for its crimes.

Subscribe now for early access to the episode!

→ https://www.patreon.com/posts/81267670

21 years ago, the US-backed Venezuelan elites launched a coup and temporarily ousted President Hugo Chávez. Sadly for them, the Venezuelan people had other plans. This infographic recaps the key moments

https://venezuelanalysis.com/images/15500

"On April 10, a day before the coup, U.S. Ambassador Charles Shapiro spoke to the press after meeting the Mayor of Caracas and when asked if the U.S. supported President Chavez, his reply was: “We support democracy and the constitutional framework” and he advised U.S. citizens in Venezuela to “be careful”. The Caracas Mayor, by his side, said: “If he doesn’t rule like a democrat, Chavez will leave office sooner than later.”

What came after was a wave of violence and repression that led to the arrest of Chavez, the killing of 19 people and injuring of over hundred, and a business leader swearing himself in as President, followed by a visit from Ambassador Shapiro. All according to regular Monroe Doctrine protocol, thus far.

Yet the one factor not taken into consideration: the will of the Venezuelan people."

In this article, CODEPINK's Michelle Ellner looks back at the 2002 coup and the need to bury the Monroe Doctrine in Latin America.

https://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/15741

#News | Venezuela and Russia are set to launch a new shipping route, deepening trade ties between the two countries, the head of the Russian-Venezuelan Chamber of Commerce told Sputnik.

Russian-Venezuelan Chamber of Commerce President Roman Frolenko added that trade between Russia and Venezuela was projected to rise to US$300 million a month.

"We calculated that trade could be somewhere in the range of $300 million per month, this is without oil," Frolenko told Sputnik.

As part of its efforts to diversify its economy, Venezuela is expected to increase its export of goods not related to the hydrocarbon industry, traditionally the most important source of foreign currency. Coffee, fruit and meats are some of the industries that Caracas has looked to boost in international markets.

Venezuela is also seeking to expand its technological ties with Russia and China after being invited to take part in their joint International Lunar Research Station project. Marglad Bencomo, executive director of the Bolivarian Agency for Space Activities (ABAE), recently visited China’s Deep Space Exploration Laboratory at Nanjing University. Venezuela is expected to soon sign a memorandum of understanding with the China National Space Administration (CNSA) in order to formalize the partnership.

https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/15742

🇻🇪🎙️ Venezuelanalysis members and economist Tony Boza discuss the latest corruption revelations and a proposal to tackle inflation.

Our latest podcast episode is available now!

Listen here: http://venezuelanalysis.com/audio/15743

🥁🥁🥁 We're extremely pleased to announce that Clodovaldo Hernández (@clodoher) will be joining us as a columnist. A sharp political commentator, Hernández will help us navigate the always complex Venezuelan reality.

Stay tuned for his first delivery this Friday!

#News | Despite oil production struggles, the country’s crude exports have rebounded following a four-month low, shipping a total of 774,420 bpd of crude and fuel in March, surpassing the previous month’s 555,000 bpd. The figure is also the highest average registered since August 2022, according to Reuters.

The recovery reflects the partial resumption of loadings with eight crude carriers setting sail from Venezuelan ports. Shippers had been waiting for authorization since early January when PDVSA president and recently appointed Oil Minister Pedro Rafael Tellechea ordered an exports freeze to review contracts following allegations of missed payments from intermediaries. With US sanctions driving away established trade partners, Caracas turned to dozens of unreliable little-known companies to allocate its crude.

Last month, Venezuelan authorities launched an operation against a corruption plot that reportedly saw US $3 billion in crude sales diverted via cryptocurrency schemes since 2020. More than 30 people have been arrested so far.

PDVSA has now implemented a new system of fewer contracts and upfront payments while the cryptocurrency mechanisms to collect crude sales seem to be on hold.

https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/15744

#Opinion | If we follow along with most interpretations of the anti-corruption campaign undertaken by the Venezuelan government over the last few weeks, we would have to conclude that within Chavismo, the political conglomerate that sustains the Venezuelan revolution, there is a war of extermination between factions going on.

This perception has solid foundations, since the officials prosecuted and imprisoned early on belong to what can be identified as an internal current, the one led by the now-former Oil Minister of Petroleum.

However, there are other ways of interpreting what is happening. And it could be said that one of them is exactly the opposite of the statement above. "Operation Whoever May Fall" seeks to find -as quickly as possible because time is running out- a new common enemy that will reunite Chavismo.

And the fact is that the US decision to remove self-proclaimed "interim president" Juan Guaidó from the playing field has deprived the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) and its allied forces of an easily identifiable adversary, one that would have allowed them to organize a strategy to remain in power with the 2024 presidential elections around the corner.

https://venezuelanalysis.com/unusual-and-extraordinary/15745

#News | Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yván Gil welcomed his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov in Caracas on Tuesday where the pair announced efforts to work on joint projects in oil production, agriculture, medicine, and space exploration.

“We are going to continue working to strengthen relations between the Russian Federation and Venezuela, two strategic partners," said Gil during a press conference. He added that the pair reviewed and renewed bilateral and cooperation agreements between the two countries, stating that to date over 300 such agreements had been signed.

Lavrov, for his part, said that Venezuela was among Russia’s “most reliable partners.”

"Our relations have been put to the test by different types of crises, pressure attempts from abroad and, despite everything, they are developing successfully and will continue to develop regardless of the political situation," said Lavrov.

https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/15746

"Few women – if any – in Venezuela’s “Fifth Republic” (as the Chávez and post-Chávez era is known) left as significant a mark on the country’s history as Tibisay Lucena, who died of cancer on April 12, 2023, at the age of 63. Her main accomplishment was that during the 14 years as president of Venezuela’s National Electoral Council (CNE), she fundamentally reformed the country’s electoral system to make it one of the most fraud-proof systems in the world.

I first met Tibisay in 1997, well before Chávez became president of Venezuela, while she was studying for an M.A. and Ph.D. in sociology at the New School for Social Research in New York City. I didn’t get to know her that well at the time, but she was a friend of my Venezuelan girlfriend (who later became my wife). At the New School, she headed up the Latino Student Association and was studying electoral systems. Despite (or because of?) her relatively small stature, she always comported herself with friendliness, dignity, and authority. I stayed in touch with her throughout my time in Venezuela and even while living in Ecuador, mainly as a journalist for Venezuelanalysis."

Read VA founder Greg Wilpert's article honoring one of Venezuela's most important political figures during the Chavismo years.

https://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/15747

#Interview | "We are anti-capitalists and for good reason. Capitalism is an exploitative political and economic system that has created the widest inequities in human history, and has brought our planet to the brink of destruction. It’s led to previously unimaginable weapons and wars, which have brought about countless amounts of human suffering. Like everything, however, capitalism does have varied traits. There are some progressive aspects to capitalism. It’s proved to be a more humane production method than African slavery in the Americas. Or to the conquest, which was a product of the feudal logic of economic and political expansion, dominant in Iberia at the time. Some revolutionary governments in the Global South have been able to utilize the capitalist mode of production as a tool in the struggle against US imperialism (a.k.a. unilateralism).

Capitalism, once the strength of European empires, has become its weakness. The tendency for rate of profit to fall has forced industry abroad, creating new poles of power and reducing the strength of U.S. imperialism – the chief opponent of global liberation movements. Utilizing capitalism as a tool to overthrow capitalism has been a promising development over the past fifty years. It’s often overlooked that this was also what Marx envisioned nearly two centuries ago."

Enrique S. Rivera is a historian, journalist, and documentary film producer. Read our interview with him:

https://venezuelanalysis.com/interviews/15748

#News | Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his Bolivian counterpart Luis Arce reaffirmed their strategic alliance and signed 13 agreements covering oil, gas, mining, education, healthcare, and culture.

In a televised joint press conference, Arce said the agreements “marked the relaunching” of the countries’ bilateral relations and pledged to continue working with Caracas to achieve regional integration. “We want Venezuela to know that it has a great ally and partner in Bolivia, not just commercially but for strategical and long-term issues.”

The Bolivian leader said that his country was "very pleased to establish very important cooperation agreements,” mainly in the areas of energy as well as culture and healthcare. Arce added that the Bolivian people would begin training in Venezuela to specialize in different medical fields while knowledge exchange would be ingrained in every other cooperation accord.

The signed agreements were headlined by expanded cooperation in the hydrocarbons and petrochemicals sectors in order to develop exploration, exploitation and refining projects as well as to strengthen the partnership between state oil companies Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) and Yacimientos Petrolíferos Fiscales Bolivianos (YPFB).

https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/15749

It’s amazing how Reuters can just cram industrial amounts of dishonesty into articles with just a handful of paragraphs. Venezuela is like a performance-enhancing drug for corporate journalists, and not in a good way (thread)

https://twitter.com/venanalysis/status/1649661268574232577

#News | The Venezuelan Attorney General’s Office has opened an investigation into the death of Leoner Jesús Azuaje Urrea while in the custody of the country’s intelligence agency SEBIN.


Azuaje was reportedly found dead in his cell at SEBIN’s Helicoide facility in Caracas on Thursday afternoon. Attorney General Tarek William Saab broke the news and the working theory that the death had been a suicide. He appointed two prosecutors to investigate.

On Friday, Saab presented preliminary investigation findings via his Twitter account. He stated that an autopsy found the cause of death to be mechanical asphyxiation as a result of Azuaje having hung himself with his bedsheets in his cell.

The country’s top prosecutor added that the detainee reportedly left a suicide note and that prior psychological evaluations had found “mental disorders” and “signs of anxiety attacks.”

The 38-year-old Azuaje had been charged with corruption in the early hours of Wednesday.

https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/15750

#News | Venezuelan opposition figure Juan Guaidó fled to the United States after “illegally” entering Colombia.

On Monday evening, Guaidó posted a video aboard an airplane claiming he had been “expelled.” However, Colombian officials denied his claim, asserting that he had not been forcibly removed, that he was accompanied by US agents and that he already had a plane ticket bound for Miami.

“Mr. Guaidó was not expelled, Mr. Guaidó had an agreement to travel to the US. We allowed it for humanitarian reasons despite his illegal entry into the country,” Colombian President Gustavo Petro posted on his Twitter account.

Guaidó’s surprise arrival to Colombia threatened to derail Petro’s international conference on Venezuela, set to take place Tuesday, with the aim of restarting stalled talks between the Venezuelan government and opposition.

Upon his arrival in Miami, the US-backed politician stated that he and his family had been "threatened" but did not offer more details. He had recently warned that a warrant for his arrest was imminent.

The Venezuelan opposition figure has increasingly resorted to publicity stunts amidst his political downfall.

https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/15751

#News | The International Conference on the Political Process in Venezuela was held Tuesday in Bogotá, Colombia, with representatives from 19 countries and the European Union (UE) and concluded without concrete developments.

The summit began with a televised speech by Colombian President Gustavo Petro before closed-door discussions took place. Afterward, Colombian Foreign Minister Alvaro Leyva read a communique to the press outlining “common ground” positions reached by the attendees to help jumpstart the paralyzed dialogue process between the Venezuelan government and US-backed opposition.

The first point in the agenda was “establishing an electoral timetable that allows free and transparent elections with full guarantees for all Venezuelan actors.” Leyva added that the attendees considered “the importance of taking into account the recommendations of the European Union Electoral Observation Mission made in 2021,” in reference to the regional vote that saw the return of most opposition parties to the electoral arena and yielded a significant victory for Chavismo.

Following the summit’s conclusions, the Venezuelan government issued a communique “acknowledging the deliberations.” Caracas reiterated the “imperative need” to lift the wide-reaching sanctions “which constitute an aggression against the entire Venezuelan population.”

https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/15752

#Opinion | "I recently read that some twenty years ago President Hugo Chávez launched the National System of Missions, a series of social programs in several areas including food, education, housing and healthcare. It was a multi-pronged offensive to pay back the “social debt.”

This got me recalling how many years ago, when I was 23 years old and fresh out of university, I taught in Mission Robinson II. This was a program meant to give people a sixth-grade education. I had students both from Robinson I (literacy and early primary school) as well as those over 15 who, for one reason or another, did not get the chance to finish their primary schooling.

Those evening classes, held in a giant Caracas school called “Gran Colombia” to make it even more romantic (1), shook all my social sensibility fibers. I, and all the other instructors, were dead set on ensuring that everyone had the necessary tools to not get screwed over by those from above, and I was sure that together we could do it.

In truth, the consequences of a lack of education were not foreign to me. My parents, both Portuguese immigrants, barely finished third grade, and in my childhood I witnessed time and again how challenging it was for them to communicate. Even more so in a different language."

https://venezuelanalysis.com/tales-resistance/15753