The United Nations Human Rights Council adopted a resolution on the Venezuelan crisis today, a document that Human Rights Watch has qualified as a “landmark”, given its “strong margin of support”.
According to Human Rights Watch:
The resolution expresses deep concern about human rights violations in Venezuela. It says that the Venezuelan government should open its doors to humanitarian assistance to address “scarcity of food and medicine, the rise of malnutrition” and “the outbreak of diseases that had been previously eradicated or kept under control in South America.” It also asks the UN high commissioner for human rights to present a comprehensive report on the situation in Venezuela during the June 2019 council session, and oral updates during the March and September sessions.
The resolution was approved by a vote of 23 to 7, with 17 abstentions.
The countries that voted against the measure were Burundi, China, Cuba, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Pakistan, and Venezuela.
Cabello Wins Lawsuit Against La Patilla
The vice president of the ruling PSUV party, Diosdado Cabello, announced on his weekly television show last night that he had won a lawsuit against La Patilla, the largest news aggregation in Venezuela and an important source of information for the residents of the country.
According to Cabello, a court ruled in his favour this week when it found that he had suffered “moral damages” after the website linked to a story by Spain’s ABC alleging that he was a drug trafficker back in 2015.
Cabello lost a similar defamation lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal over the same story in a U.S. court earlier this year.
During his television show, Cabello gleefully announced that La Patilla is being ordered to pay a fine as punishment for losing the lawsuit. However, when Cabello announced the sum that the website must pay, he misspoke and gave two figures: $300, and then over $30 million.
The confusion came from the fact that Cabello cited the sum in two different denominations. First, Cabello said that La Patilla’s penalty amounts to 200 million Bolivares Fuertes, Venezuela’s old currency. Later, he referred to the the 200 million sum in Bolivares Soberanos, which is the country’s new and current currency.
Given the fact that the Bolivar Fuerte is no longer legal tender, it is likely that La Patilla has been ordered to pay the $30 million penalty.
Cabello also explained what would happen if the website could not come up with the money:
If you pay, then that money will go to schools and hospitals. If you don’t pay–I don’t want La Patilla, but I’ll have to give it a go…
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