The beach in the municipality of Puerto López is probably, at this moment, the coastal enclave most battered by the unstoppable wave of violence that has swept through Ecuador in recent years. On December 28 of last year, for example, an armed attack there resulted in six fatalities, including a two-year-old girl. This Sunday, in another incident denoting a macabre practice, five human heads corresponding to young males were found hanging from ropes tied to sugarcane stakes, with a sign above them apparently warning extortionists and thieves who operate against the fishing community. Puerto López is a canton in the province of Manabí, where just last Saturday, twelve murders were reported as a result of several armed attacks in Manta and other localities.
The drama of the trickle release of Venezuelan political prisoners continued this Sunday, with the added, very dangerous event of the death of one of the prisoners—a former police officer—under the custody of the authorities, who had been detained exactly one month ago. The government claimed that he suffered a "cerebrovascular event followed by cardiac arrest" while being treated at the Dr. Domingo Luciani Hospital in Caracas, where he arrived after a "sudden health decompensation." Despite the announcement last Thursday of the immediate release of a significant number of prisoners, by Sunday noon no more than 20 political prisoners had been released under different precautionary measures, with over 800 still detained according to the methodology and count of the NGO Foro Penal.
A report by El Nuevo Herald last Saturday confirmed the hypothesis I considered in my last report, which pointed to a clash between Diosdado Cabello, the Interior Minister and historic heavyweight of Chavismo, and the leadership of Delcy Rodríguez. Thus, relatives remain expectant and increasingly restless outside the various prisons housing those alleged political prisoners. "We have no more information about them, we have no proof of life. Where are the human rights of Venezuelans?," one of them told EFE, amid fears that there may be more dead besides the unfortunate police officer.
Meanwhile, this Sunday, in a new truth, Trump suggested that Cuba would no longer receive oil nor money from Venezuela. Although at levels far from the bilateral trade boom during the Chávez era, Caracas had remained until December a key partner for maintaining at least a thread of supply of the precious commodity to the Island. But Washington now appears to be in full control of the destiny of Venezuelan crude, so it will be necessary to see how the current leadership react, in practice, from the Miraflores Palace.
For example, the Secretary of Energy said this Sunday that the American oil companies Chevron—which has not left Venezuela even in the most complicated times—and Shell, and the European companies Repsol and Eni, would scale up their presence in the Venezuelan oil market, while the White House chief attacked ExxonMobil for the position adopted by its CEO Darren Woods.
Trump also said this Sunday that Venezuela no longer needed Cuba's security services—some 32 Cubans died defending Maduro in the early hours of January 3—and that authorities here should urgently think about reaching an "agreement" with his administration before it was too late. What kind of agreement? What is the benchmark for Havana? Only Trump and Rubio know.
This is all for today’s report.
