Argus Media, an independent energy market assessment firm, has revealed that Venezuelan oil tankers are scheduled to deliver approximately three million barrels worth of oil to Cuba in defiance of U.S. sanctions. The sanctions are aimed both at preventing the Maduro regime from earning money from oil sales, and Cuba from receiving the commodity.
Citing “oil sector workers”, El Nacional reports that the shipment is partially being arranged to release some of the pressure at the storage facilities of PDVSA, the state-run oil company, as a result of decreasing oil exports.
The shipment is scheduled to take place aboard six ships operated by PDVSA.
According to Argus, the names of three of the ships heading to Cuba are Manuela Saenz, Terepaima, and Paramaconi.
Jesus Media, Detained Journalist, Sees Hearing Deferred Yet Again
Jesus Medina, a journalist arrested in August of 2018, has seen his preliminary hearing deferred yet again, this time to December 5th. Medina has been in prison now for over a year without seeing a judge.
Medina is being held at the Ramo Verde military prison, and is being accused of money laundering, conspiracy, hate speech and “lucro ilegal” (roughly, making money illegally).
Earlier this year, Human Rights Watch called for Medina’s immediate release, saying that he had been detained for being a journalist. Medina was arrested alongside a group of journalists with whom he had worked to produce a project highlighting the crisis affecting the country’s hospitals.
A Personal Note…
Over the past few weeks, I have been unable to dedicate as much time as I’d like to these daily updates. This mostly because I have been extremely busy with work. As some of this work involves traveling, I’m sometimes in places that have spotty internet service, so even if I do happen to have time writing the updates can be unwieldy.
I expect things to get less busy at the end of October, at which time I will be able to write the daily updates more reliably.
Questions/Comments? E-mail me: invenezuelablog@gmail.com
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