Nurse Chávez was sentenced to 15 years in prison

Claudia Patricia Diaz Guillen, who was a nurse for the late former Venezuelan president, and her husband, Adrian Jose Velazquez Figueroa, Chavez’s former bodyguard, were sentenced yesterday by a Florida court to 15 years in prison and three years’ probation. In addition, the court ruled that he must pay back $136 million in assets and cash, equal to the profit made from participating in a corrupt money laundering scheme that drained Venezuelan state coffers. It was the Panama Papers that brought this corruption to light, revealing that the former nurse had an offshore company in the Seychelles.

Biden asks the US Congress for half a billion dollars for the Brazilian Amazonia Fund

The US President will ask the US Congress to approve the disbursement of 500 million dollars (455.7 million euros) for the Amazon Fund. In addition, the state will donate $1 billion to the association Green Climate Fund, an instrument of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) that aims to mobilize climate finance for developing countries. Both announcements will be part of today’s meeting of the Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate, an initiative of the former president Barack Obama which Biden relaunched. Biden will also encourage countries to take steps to reduce polluting emissions from transportation and energy production to zero, as well as reduce the amount of environmentally harmful compounds, such as methane or hydrofluorocarbons. Finally, Biden will advocate for investments in carbon capture technologies and require states to make commitments ahead of COP28.

Brazil submits its candidacy to chair the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

Lula presented Thelma Krug as a candidate to chair the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC, for its English abbreviation) for the period between 2023 and 2027. During the panel’s 59 plenary session, which will be held from July 24 to 28 in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi. With this nomination, the Brazilian government seeks to show the “priority” it gives to “global efforts to combat climate change”; A position that is also reflected in the candidacy of the city of Belém to host COP30, the UN climate summit, in 2025.

Krug was Secretary of the Ministry of the Environment with Lula from 2007 to 2008, where Lola remove more than Bolsonaro Amazon. At the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Krug co-chaired the Working Group on National Greenhouse Gas Inventories with Dilma in 2015, and is also Vice-Chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, established by the United Nations Environment Program in 1988, and the World Organization Meteorologist since 2015. , which is the United Nations body charged with assessing the science related to climate change.

Biden authorizes transactions with Venezuela’s state oil company, PDVSA

Yesterday, the US authorities authorized some transactions related to the bonds of the Venezuelan state oil company Petróleos de Venezuela, PDVSA Maduro. The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the US Treasury, led by Yellen, indicated in a statement that the transaction related to “8.5 percent of the bonds” of the aforementioned government company will be allowed as of next July 20.

Borrell and the Biden administration will participate in the summit on Venezuela organized by Petro in Colombia

The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, who succeeded Mogherini, wants to re-launch the dialogue between the Maduro dictatorship and the opposition with the Petro. Representatives of the Biden administration will also attend the summit. The initiative was praised by Maduro, who saw the summit as a “good opportunity” to “turn the page in this difficult time of sanctions” and, like Petro, called for “zero sanctions” against Caracas.

Paolo Manzo, April 20, 2023

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