Today marks the 75th anniversary of El Nacional, the country’s largest, most important remaining newspaper that is critical of the Maduro regime.
The newspaper’s editor, Miguel Otero, wrote a column featured in the newspaper today in which he describes the publication’s place in Venezuela history, and places it in the context of the dictatorship in which it exists.
Otero makes it clear in his column that like every other entity in the country, El Nacional has been “impacted” by the crisis, which he describes as “a catastrophe that defies all logic”.
Still, Otero remains optimistic that the newspaper will not only survive through the Maduro dictatorship, but that it will outlive it, He said:
El Nacional will not only be witness to the return of democracy, but it will will be upon it, as it has been over the last 75 years, to be a bulwark in the defense of the freedom of expression, a bulwark of good journalism, a bulwark in the conquest of a way to get along, [and it will help] guarantee all of the individual and political liberties that are promised by democracy.
El Nacional is the constant target of attacks due to its critical coverage of the Maduro regime. Otero lives in exile.
BCV Begins Dispensing New Bills
The Banco Central de Venezuela (BCV) has officially begun to dispense new bills and coins of the Bolivar Soberano (Bs. S.), a new currency that is set to begin circulating on August 20.
Originally slated to hit the streets on June 4 of this year, Maduro has twice had to postpone the launch of the new currency. While the Bs. S.’s launch was set to coincide with the removal of three zeroes from Venezuela’s currency, Maduro also made a change to that measure, expanding the removal to five zeroes.
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