Courtesy of: La Prensa
This Week: The Venezuelan constitutional court is expected to rule on Henrique Capriles’ lawsuits challenging the April 14 elections; in an attempt to improve his international image, President Maduro tours Europe, meeting with Pope Francis to discuss poverty, the fight against organized crime and regional disputes; ahead of his meeting with the Maduro, Capriles warns the Pope of basic democratic and human rights violations in Venezuela; in a survey of presidents, Venezuela’s Maduro receives worst ratings of all national leaders; and attackers torch buses and damage the rectory building at a leading Venezuelan university. Venezuela experiences soaring inflation, reporting a 6.1 percent spike last month alone; S&P expects “next to no growth” in the Venezuelan economy this year and downgrades its sovereign debt rating from “B+” to “B”; amid severe food shortages, the United Nations ironically congratulates Venezuela for reducing hunger; and Capriles maintains that Venezuela has not beaten hunger or poverty, questioning the FAO award. In an attempt to alleviate goods shortages, Venezuela will supply more U.S. dollars to importers; in response to rationing rumors, Venezuela will allegedly import 760.000 tons of food; Venezuela’s non-oil exports hit the lowest level since 2009; and Venezuela’s Congress will discuss legislation that would prohibit baby bottles.
Top Constitutional Court to take up actions contesting April 14 election, El Universal
The Constitutional Court of the Supreme Tribunal of Justice (TSJ) is to hear and rule on all the seven laswsuits filed by former opposition presidential candidate Henrique Capriles and the opposition alliance Unified Democratic Panel (MUD) challenging the April 14 presidential vote.
Pope Francis meets Venezuelan President Maduro, Reuters
Maduro meets Pope Francis in the Vatican City and discussed poverty, the fight against organized crime and drug trafficking, and regional issues including a dispute between Venezuela and Colombia.
Capriles warns pope of rights violations in Venezuela, Global Post
Venezuela’s opposition leader told Pope Francis on Saturday that the government was violating basic democratic and human rights, just two days before President Nicolas Maduro visits the Vatican.
Venezuelan president pulls off the lowest score in Spanish survey, El Universal
Polls conducted by Spanish firm Real Instituto Elcano, after the controversial results of the presidential election held on April 14 in Venezuela, show Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s ratings are the lowest, scoring 2.5 out of 10 points, behind his Argentinean counterpart rated with 2.7 points.
Attackers torch buses at Venezuela university, Miami Herald
A group of masked assailants has attacked a leading university in the Venezuelan capital, torching two buses and seriously damaging its rectory building.
Soaring inflation adds even more stress to the Venezuelan economic model, El Universal
Venezuelan economy reported a 6.1% spike in May which led to an accumulated inflation of 19.4%, thus crushing any possibility of meeting the 14% to 16% target set by the government for 2012.
Citing Governability, S&P Cuts Venezuela’s Debt. Bondholders, Look Out Below, Wall Street Journal
Standard & Poor’s cut its sovereign rating on Venezuela from “B+” to “B” another step deeper into junk territory, reflecting the government’s diminishing ability to implement measures to reverse declining GDP growth, rising inflation, and weakening external liquidity in the context of growing political disagreements within the administration.
UN Congratulates Venezuela for Reducing Hunger, ABC News
The FAO, the UN organization that specializes in nutrition, included Venezuela in a group of 18 nations that that have cut their number of hungry people by half over the past 20 years.
Capriles: hunger is addressed with investment and production, El Universal
Following the recent award given to the Venezuelan Government by the FAO, Capriles claimed on Tuesday that the country has not overcome hunger and poverty and stressed that the award was not in line with both the true food shortage Venezuela was going through and the more than 3,000 households living under severe poverty.
Venezuela Plans Expanded Dollar Auctions to Fight Shortages, Bloomberg Businessweek
Venezuela will boost supplies of dollars, through auctions that will begin early in the second half of the year, to importers as it seeks to alleviate a shortage of goods that is fueling the fastest inflation in the region.
To silence rationing rumours, Venezuela announces 760.000 tons of imported food is on the way, MercoPress
A 760.000 tons of different food items were imported into several cities in Venezuela that were suffering serious shortages, including staples and other items such as coffee, sugar, cooking oil, butter, milk, flour and most recently toilet paper, but the situation instead of improving has worsened.
Venezuela’s non-oil exports hit lowest level since 2009, Reuters
Venezuela’s non-oil exports fell in March to their lowest level since early 2009 in another sign of the economic problems accruing for President Nicolas Maduro’s fledgling government.
Venezuela considers taking bottles from babies’ mouths, Reuters
Venezuela’s Congress will discuss legislation next week that would prohibit bottle feeding of infants to try to encourage breast feeding and reduce the use of baby formula, said a lawmaker of the ruling Socialist Party.
