A hot microphone caught part of a candid conversation last night between Portuguesa state governor Rafael Calles and Diosdado Cabello during the latter’s weekly television show, Con el Mazo Dando.
During a musical segment, Calles and Cabello were both on stage and having a conversation. When the musical segment ended, a microphone near the two men was turned on, and Calles continued the conversation that he was having with Cabello.
While it is not clear exactly what the two men were talking about, Calles referred to something being “very low” because “they” had not received all of the seeds they were expecting, suggesting that the conversation had to do with some kind of agricultural plan.
Below, the clip along with my translation of Calles’ words:
Calles: Well, look, we’re very low. 100, 130 thousand, because what happened was that the supplies didn’t arrive. Things are really hard, eh? Not all of the seeds arrived.
Lima Group Speaks Out Against Threat of Early Parliamentary Elections
The Lima Group issued a statement today denouncing Maduro’s threats to hold early parliamentary elections, and stressed the importance of encouraging and strengthening the participation of Maduro’s allies–namely Russia, Cuba, China and Turkey–in a solution to the Venezuelan crisis.
The comments came as the Lima Group met today in Guatemala to discuss the ongoing situation in Venezuela.
Below, a tweet from Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs Chrystia Freeland showing images of the meeting:
Lavrov Confirms Russian Meetings with Venezuelan Opposition
Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov confirmed today that Moscow has engaged in talks with Venezuelan opposition representatives.
Speaking to the a Russian media outlet, Lavrov said:
During these talks we’ve reaffirmed our position in favour of a national dialogue.
Lavrov also said that he expressed his disappointment to the opposition over their refusal to engage with talks with Maduro earlier this year.
Vargas States Changes Name to La Guaira
The Vargas State Legislative Council approved a motion today to change the state’s name to La Guaira, which is also the name of the state capital. The name change should become official within the next ten days, which is the time frame given for the state governor to sign the motion.
For official purposes, both names will be in use until December 31 of this year, after which point only La Guaira will be used.
Olga Figueroa, the vice president of the state legislative council, suggested in an interview today that the name change was for the sake of clarity, since as the largest city in the state La Guaira is featured heavily in the Venezuelan lexicon whereas Vargas is not. She said:
The baseball team is the La Guaira Sharks. The basketball team is the La Guaira Buccaneers.
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