#Simón Bolívar International Bridge

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 5.24

919 – The nobles of Franconia and Saxony elect Henry the Fowler at the Imperial Diet in Fritzlar as king of the East Frankish Kingdom. 1218 – The Fifth Crusade leaves Acre for Egypt. 1276 – Magnus Ladulås is crowned King of Sweden in Uppsala Cathedral. 1487 – The ten-year-old Lambert Simnel is crowned in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, Ireland, with the name of Edward VI in a bid to threaten King Henry VII's reign. 1567 – Erik XIV of Sweden and his guards murder five incarcerated Swedish nobles. 1595 – Nomenclator of Leiden University Library appears, the first printed catalog of an institutional library. 1607 – Jamestown, the first permanent English colony in North America, is founded. 1621 – The Protestant Union is formally dissolved. 1626 – Peter Minuit buys Manhattan. 1667 – The French Royal Army crosses the border into the Spanish Netherlands, starting the War of Devolution opposing France to the Spanish Empire and the Triple Alliance. 1683 – The Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, England, opens as the world's first university museum. 1689 – The English Parliament passes the Act of Toleration protecting dissenting Protestants but excluding Roman Catholics. 1738 – John Wesley is converted, essentially launching the Methodist movement; the day is celebrated annually by Methodists as Aldersgate Day and a church service is generally held on the preceding Sunday. 1798 – The Irish Rebellion of 1798 led by the United Irishmen against British rule begins. 1813 – South American independence leader Simón Bolívar enters Mérida, leading the invasion of Venezuela, and is proclaimed El Libertador ("The Liberator"). 1822 – Battle of Pichincha: Antonio José de Sucre secures the independence of the Presidency of Quito. 1832 – The First Kingdom of Greece is declared in the London Conference. 1844 – Samuel Morse sends the message "What hath God wrought" (a biblical quotation, Numbers 23:23) from a committee room in the United States Capitol to his assistant, Alfred Vail, in Baltimore, Maryland, to inaugurate a commercial telegraph line between Baltimore and Washington D.C. 1856 – John Brown and his men kill five slavery supporters at Pottawatomie Creek, Kansas. 1861 – American Civil War: Union troops occupy Alexandria, Virginia. 1873 – Patrick Francis Healy becomes the first black president of a predominantly white university in the United States. 1883 – The Brooklyn Bridge in New York City is opened to traffic after 14 years of construction. 1900 – Second Boer War: The United Kingdom annexes the Orange Free State. 1915 – World War I: Italy declares war on Austria-Hungary, joining the conflict on the side of the Allies. 1930 – Amy Johnson lands in Darwin, Northern Territory, becoming the first woman to fly solo from England to Australia (she left on May 5 for the 11,000 mile flight). 1935 – The first night game in Major League Baseball history is played in Cincinnati, Ohio, with the Cincinnati Reds beating the Philadelphia Phillies 2–1 at Crosley Field. 1940 – Igor Sikorsky performs the first successful single-rotor helicopter flight. 1940 – Acting on the orders of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, NKVD agent Iosif Grigulevich orchestrates an unsuccessful assassination attempt on exiled Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky in Coyoacán, Mexico. 1941 – World War II: In the Battle of the Atlantic, the German Battleship Bismarck sinks then-pride of the Royal Navy, HMS Hood, killing all but three crewmen. 1944 – Börse Berlin building burns down after being hit in an air raid during World War II. 1948 – Arab–Israeli War: Egypt captures the Israeli kibbutz of Yad Mordechai, but the five-day effort gives Israeli forces time to prepare enough to stop the Egyptian advance a week later. 1956 – The first Eurovision Song Contest is held in Lugano, Switzerland. 1958 – United Press International is formed through a merger of the United Press and the International News Service. 1960 – Following the 1960 Valdivia earthquake, the largest ever recorded earthquake, Cordón Caulle begins to erupt. 1961 – American civil rights movement: Freedom Riders are arrested in Jackson, Mississippi, for "disturbing the peace" after disembarking from their bus. 1962 – Project Mercury: American astronaut Scott Carpenter orbits the Earth three times in the Aurora 7 space capsule. 1967 – Egypt imposes a blockade and siege of the Red Sea coast of Israel. 1967 – Belle de Jour, directed by Luis Buñuel, is released. 1976 – The Judgment of Paris takes place in France, launching California as a worldwide force in the production of quality wine. 1981 – Ecuadorian president Jaime Roldós Aguilera, his wife, and his presidential committee die in an aircraft accident while travelling from Quito to Zapotillo minutes after the president gave a famous speech regarding the 24 de mayo anniversary of the Battle of Pichincha. 1982 – Liberation of Khorramshahr: Iranians recapture of the port city of Khorramshahr from the Iraqis during the Iran–Iraq War. 1988 – Section 28 of the United Kingdom's Local Government Act 1988, a controversial amendment stating that a local authority cannot intentionally promote homosexuality, is enacted. 1991 – Israel conducts Operation Solomon, evacuating Ethiopian Jews to Israel. 1992 – The last Thai dictator, General Suchinda Kraprayoon, resigns following pro-democracy protests. 1992 – The ethnic cleansing in Kozarac, Bosnia and Herzegovina begins when Serbian militia and police forces enter the town. 1993 – Eritrea gains its independence from Ethiopia. 1993 – Roman Catholic Cardinal Juan Jesús Posadas Ocampo and five other people are assassinated in a shootout at Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla Guadalajara International Airport in Mexico. 1994 – Four men are convicted of bombing the World Trade Center in New York in 1993; each one is sentenced to 240 years in prison. 1995 – While attempting to return to Leeds Bradford Airport in the United Kingdom, Knight Air Flight 816 crashes in Harewood, North Yorkshire, killing all 12 people on board. 1999 – The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague, Netherlands indicts Slobodan Milošević and four others for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Kosovo. 2000 – Israeli troops withdraw from southern Lebanon after 22 years of occupation. 2002 – Russia and the United States sign the Moscow Treaty. 2014 – A 6.4 magnitude earthquake occurs in the Aegean Sea between Greece and Turkey, injuring 324 people. 2014 – At least three people are killed in a shooting at Brussels' Jewish Museum of Belgium. 2019 – Twenty-two students die in a fire in Surat (India). 2019 – Under pressure over her handling of Brexit, British Prime Minister Theresa May announces her resignation as Leader of the Conservative Party, effective as of June 7. 2022 – A mass shooting occurs at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, United States, resulting in the deaths of 21 people, including 19 children.

[raynerpenar]

Militares colombianos patrullan los alrededores del Puente Internacional Simón Bolívar que une a La Parada (Colombia) y San Antonio del Táchira (Venezuela), hoy en La Parada, Norte de Santander (Colombia). EFE/ Rayner Peña R. - Colombian soldiers patrol the surroundings of the Simón Bolívar International Bridge that joins La Parada (Colombia) and San Antonio del Táchira (Venezuela), today in La Parada, Norte de Santander (Colombia). EFE / Rayner Peña R. #Venezuela #Colombia #frontera #tachira #ureña #sanantonio #photo #fotoperiodismo #photojournalism #VilladelRosario #EfeFotos #EfeSiempreEsta #military #Cucuta #ejercitocolombiano (en La Parada Villa Del Rosario) https://www.instagram.com/p/Ci91jk5gv0c/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[newstfionline]

The bridge of desperation

By Katy Watson, BBC, Aug. 23, 2018

The humanitarian crisis in Venezuela has led to one of the largest mass migrations in Latin America’s history.

President Nicolás Maduro blames “imperialists”--the likes of the US and Europe--for waging “economic war” against Venezuela and imposing sanctions on many members of his government.

But his critics say it is economic mismanagement--first by predecessor Hugo Chávez and now President Maduro himself--that has brought Venezuela to its knees.

The country has the largest proven oil reserves in the world. It was once so rich that Concorde used to fly from Caracas to Paris. Now, its economy is in tatters.

Four in five Venezuelans live in poverty. People queue for hours to buy food. Much of the time they go without. People are dying from a lack of medicines. Inflation is at 82,766% and there are warnings it could exceed one million per cent by the end of this year.

Venezuelans are trying to get out. The UN says 2.3 million people have fled the country--7% of the population. More than a million have arrived in Colombia in the past 18 months.

Many of those Venezuelans have come over the Simón Bolívar International Bridge.

The bridge is about 300m long and 7m wide. It straddles the Rio Táchira in the eastern Andes, a river that snakes along the border between Colombia and Venezuela. The river bed can sometimes dry up but heavy rains soon change that.

The two small towns the bridge connects--San Antonio del Táchira on the Venezuelan side and Villa del Rosario in Colombia--are in two very different worlds.

Colombians rarely pop over the border to do their shopping in Venezuela like they used to. It’s almost entirely one-way traffic nowadays.

Every day at 05:00 Colombian time, (06:00 in Venezuela), the sound of a fence being dragged across tarmac breaks the silence in the valley and marks the opening of the bridge to pedestrians.

The queue from Venezuela into Colombia usually builds steadily overnight. When the gates open, it’s like athletes out of the starting blocks. Venezuelans can’t get over quickly enough.

Some people are stopped by guards and told to open their bags. While most do so without drama, you can see panic in some faces when people realise they are about to be caught.

With Venezuela’s economy in crisis, there’s an incentive to smuggle staples like meat and cheese into Colombia so it can be sold for higher prices. The people doing it aren’t Mr Bigs--they’re mostly just Venezuelans desperate to raise money to buy other essentials.

One woman, whose meat is confiscated, wails: “What am I meant to do?” The guard replies gruffly: “This is a humanitarian corridor--you can take food into Venezuela but you can’t take it out.” And so it repeats throughout the day.

Those with nothing to declare--or perhaps just the lucky ones who aren’t stopped--walk on through. The trundle of suitcase wheels is the soundtrack of this bridge.

When you get to the end of the bridge, you reach what’s known as La Parada, or “the stop” in English. It’s a bustling community that makes its money from border trade. Market sellers, pharmacies, shops and bus companies all vying for sales from those crossing the bridge. Most of the street traders here used to be Colombians--this is after all Colombia.

But increasingly, Venezuelans have also started setting up shop here, trying to sell their wares in a country where the currency hasn’t been decimated.

Right at the end of the bridge, amid the chorus of street-sellers, one man shouts: “Who wants to sell their hair?”

In front of a metal barrier protecting the bridge, Laura Castellanos sits on a plastic stool. The 25-year-old has long wavy brown hair to the bottom of her back. She looks uneasy.

A woman is stood behind her, scissors in hand. Laura is about to lose most of her hair.

She’s nursing her two-month old daughter Paula who is wrapped up in a big fluffy blanket and wearing a stripy pink hat. She yawns as she lies patiently in her mother’s arms, unaware of the border chaos around her. Laura’s husband Jhon Acevedo is nearby looking after their two older daughters.

The hair-cutter is lifting up the top layer of Laura’s hair and cutting what’s underneath right back to the roots. She doesn’t want to talk much.

With every snip she hands a chunk of hair to another woman standing next to her. The hair buyer says nothing and looks away. It feels like a cold transaction, nothing more.

Laura is getting paid 30,000 pesos ($10) for her hair. It’ll be sold on to make extensions or wigs.

“It’s the first time I’ve done it,” she says with a mixture of nervousness and embarrassment. She’s come for the day from the town of Rubio, about an hour from the border.

Laura is selling her hair because her eldest daughter, eight-year-old Andrea, has diabetes and the family needs to raise money to pay for her insulin which she takes three times a day. The family has run out of supplies and it’s been three days since little Andrea last had her shots. Jhon’s salary as a saddler doesn’t always stretch to pay for his daughter’s drugs.

“There’s no medicine, it’s hard,” says Laura. “People are dying in Venezuela because they can’t get the medicines they need.”

After five minutes of cutting, the family heads off to find a pharmacy. At first glance you can’t tell Laura’s had most of her hair removed. The hair-cutter has left a thin layer of long hair on top to hide the truth. Laura admits she feels a bit sad.

“It will pay for something at least,” she says. Her husband Jhon says they’re looking for a “pirate” pharmacy--an informal stall that sells drugs in plastic cabinets on the street. Insulin pens will be cheaper there than in a walk-in drug store.

But on the streets around La Parada there’s no way of knowing that what they are buying is the real deal. Counterfeits abound but it’s a risk Laura and the family think is worth taking.

“There’s no insulin back home, you can’t get it anywhere,” Laura says as she eyes the best-before date on the side of the insulin pen. They pick up two dark blue pens for 8,000 pesos each ($2.65) and go on their way. That will last them nearly two months before they have to begin the search again. It’s not enough time for Laura’s hair to grow back.

“President Maduro is the worst thing Chávez left us.” That’s a feeling shared by many. When Hugo Chávez came to power in 1999, there was hope. He was a man who championed the poor in what has always been a deeply divided society. He was a vibrant and controversial figure who wanted to lead a socialist revolution in Venezuela.

But Chavez was helped by strong commodity prices that funded his ambitious social programmes. With a fall in oil prices, President Maduro has had no such luck--and little of the charisma his predecessor had. During his leadership, the country has fallen into economic decline.

“The government does whatever it wants, it has all the power,” says Celene. “Only God can help us--it’s the only thing left.”

But Celene has a lifeline. Her mother-in-law lives in the US and sends back $500 every couple of months. With her new baby, and two older children who are four and eight, Celene is unable to work. So she relies on that money to keep her afloat. It’s money that she also shares with her sister, her brother-in-law and their baby.

Ten minutes’ drive away into the centre of the nearest city Cúcuta, the Erasmo Meoz hospital is creaking under the pressure.

In the emergency ward, patients are lined up in hospital beds along the wall and in front of doors. Family members are gathered around the beds, comforting their relatives.

Those who are able to are sitting on a row of plastic chairs. Other patients are in wheelchairs, attached to drips. Outside the ward, in the hospital courtyard, more people are waiting. In among the mass of people, a group of prisoners, chained by the wrists, is guided to another part of hospital for treatment.

The emergency ward has capacity for 75 beds. But there are currently 100 patients in this room. There’s hardly any space to move.

In a room off the main ward, a dead body lies waiting. Covered in a white cotton sheet, and tied tight around the neck and feet, it’s there for all to see until a member of staff finally wheels it through the crowds of beds and on to the mortuary. There’s no space or time for a peaceful exit in this chaotic hospital.

Each bed is marked with the patient’s nationality.

Ángel Escobar, 28, is one of the Venezuelans. His mother is wrapping bandages around arms which are red-raw, blistered and weeping.

Ángel, his brother Teobaldo and their mother Cecilia recently made the journey from the city of Barinas, 350km from the border. They didn’t have the money for a bus ticket, so instead they hitched several rides, nursing Ángel and his wounds along the way.

Ángel used to be a motorcycle mechanic. Five years ago, he was fixing a bike in his workshop when a spark caused a petrol tank to explode.

“I got second and third degree burns,” he explains. “I waited in hospital in Venezuela for help--it never came.”

Instead his situation got worse. He contracted three infections in hospital and he went downhill rapidly.

The injuries he’s got look so red and recent but this has been five years of daily pain. The seeping raw skin is the aftermath of the infections, not the burns themselves.

“They didn’t treat him because they didn’t have supplies,” Cecilia explains.

Ángel has got large scaly scabs on top of his skin that are slowly coming off now he’s in hospital.

His arms are deformed because of an error made by the doctors in Venezuela. In Colombia he says he’s being looked after at last.

Dr Andrés Eloy Galvis Jaimes, who is in charge of the emergencies ward, says the situation is getting out of hand.

“Thirty per cent of our patients in emergencies are Venezuelans,” he says. “The national government isn’t giving us extra money. There’ll come a moment that we won’t have any more resources for anyone. That’s a real fear.”

Around the corner, a middle-aged man is lying on a bed in the corridor waiting for a gall-bladder operation. He came over from San Antonio, the town just across the bridge. He’s been lying here for four days.

“In Venezuela you can’t get anything, you just die,” he says. “There aren’t even sedatives,” he adds laughing. He used to work in a bag factory but it closed down.

Now, he earns his money smuggling petrol.

“There’s nothing else to do,” he says. Every night he works in “las trochas”--the word used for illegal trails that cross the border. It’s a journey of 20 minutes, there and back, he says. He does the trip two or three times a night.

“They give it away in Venezuela,” he says, of the heavily-subsidised fuel.

While hyperinflation has seen prices of most goods soar in Venezuela, petrol prices have remained low. A bottle of water can cost 30,000 times the price of filling up a tank in Venezuela.

To smuggle 250 litres, he says he pays off the soldiers with 15,000 Colombian pesos ($5) and gets 20,000 pesos himself.

Smugglers earn a tidy sum reselling fuel over the border. It’s one of the reasons President Maduro said earlier this month that he wanted to get rid of universal subsidies and allow prices to rise to international levels.

President Maduro and his administration often paint themselves as the innocent victims in this story of Venezuela’s decline. And they paint those who leave as deserters of the socialist cause.

As the day goes on, the queues carry on building on the border. Hundreds of people wait in line at immigration for a stamp in their passport to make their onward journey more straightforward.

There are queues at money transfer houses where Venezuelans wait patiently to pick up much-needed funds from relatives and friends who live abroad.

And there are queues for buses--people waiting with suitcases piled up high, their entire possessions carefully packed as they head to meet their friends and families across South America.

But for every Venezuelan lucky enough to be moving on, there remain dozens who don’t have the resources to go anywhere.

Johnny, Angel and Yember are hanging around the middle of the bridge, waiting for Venezuelans to come over. Dressed in T-shirts, ripped jeans and trainers, they’ve each got a luggage trolley in hand with rope wrapped around the handles--they’re ready to tie up the heavy bags of incoming Venezuelans and help them get to the nearest bus stop.

They’re all recent arrivals from the capital Caracas, Valencia and San Cristobal. They’ve stayed by the border to earn some money before moving on. But business as a “maletero” is slow.

��The people coming from Venezuela are immigrants with nothing,” they say. They’re coming in search of money and better lives so few nowadays have the spare change for a luggage-handler.

On a good day, they earn 15,000 pesos ($5) but on a bad one, not even a cent.

They’ve given up hope of change back home. With President Maduro winning the elections, he now has another six-year term they think he’ll complete.

“If things could end peacefully, then that would be the best thing,” says Johnny. He dismisses the idea of the military turning against the president. “A coup could mean lots of people, including children, would die. But if things could end, well...” he trails off, thinking of the options.

From the bridge where the maleteros are, you can see a blue-painted cage. Inside is a figure of the Our Lady of Mount Carmel (Virgen del Carmen). She’s the patron saint of drivers and of the Army in the Andes. In a part of the world where hope is fading, faith remains strong. Fitting too that her home is an insecure frontier town, an area where soldiers operate around the clock.

The virgin sits across a dirt road, in front of a metal yard where Pompilio Rincón is throwing slabs of aluminium on to a scrap heap.

He says there are lots of metal collectors that come over from Venezuela.

“Before, Venezuelans would come in their cars and trucks,” he says. Now, people are bringing metal on their backs--women and children too.”

As he chats, a young teenager in a smart checked short-sleeved t-shirt comes in with a big bag and dumps his treasure on to the massive set of scales on the floor of the warehouse. He hopes to get 1,500 pesos (50 cents) per kilo of his metal.

Breiner Hernández, 15, comes from San Cristóbal in Venezuela. He goes to school in the morning and when he’s not studying, he’s looking for metal. Every few days he jumps on the bus with his bag to sell on the other side of the border here in La Parada.

“With scrap metal, what I make in one month in Venezuela, I make in one day here,” he explains, adding that the money goes to help his family eat. He lives with his grandfather who looks after Breiner’s two younger siblings so his salary matters.

He’s been doing this since the start of the year.

“The situation is really difficult,” he says. He can’t vote but it doesn’t stop him having an opinion on his country’s politics.

“No one wants Maduro, he treats people really badly,” he says. “We need a change.”

As the sun starts to set, more and more Venezuelans head back over the bridge, their jobs done for the day. Food purchased, medical appointments met. One passer-by loaded with nappies shouts “what a humiliation”--people having to leave their country to buy basic goods so they can survive.

But even as the afternoon fades, there are still plenty of people still trying to enter Colombia. They’re queuing up along a bright yellow metal fence, like corralled cattle, waiting for their turn to show their documents and be allowed in.

The Bolivarian National Guard--Venezuela’s army--usher them through to the Colombian side. On one fence, there’s a billboard.

“Territory of peace” it reads. But one soldier mutters. He sounds fed up. He may work for the government but he suffers the same as his compatriots. His salary doesn’t stretch and he can’t eat a decent meal.

“I wonder how long I can last here,” he tells me as he too contemplates his escape.

[venezuelaflight]

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Moment in which National Guard troops surrender and surrender to support the interim president Juan Guaidó on the Simón Bolívar international bridge between Venezuela and Colombia.

[nbcnews]

Hungry Venezuelans seek food at Colombian border, as Maduro blocks entry of supplies

Over 50,000 Venezuelans cross the Simón Bolívar Bridge into Colombia on a daily basis to pick up much needed supplies including diapers, medicine and toilet paper. The families are hungry and desperate to feed their children. 

On Thursday, much-needed aid arrived at the Colombian-Venezuelan border, provided and facilitated by the United States Agency for International Development. 

Several truckloads of humanitarian aid, including food, medical supplies and hygiene kits, were shuttled into Cúcuta. Colombian police were on hand to help store the supplies in a warehouse, just across a bridge from Venezuela. 

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has refused to receive the aid. Earlier this week, Maduro said, “We are not a country of beggars.”

Read more.

[architectnews]

The Rady Shell at Jacobs Park, San Diego

The Rady Shell at Jacobs Park, San Diego Waterfront Building, South Embarcadero Park Architecture

The Rady Shell at Jacobs Park

August 1, 2021

Design: Tucker Sadler Architects ; performance shell design: Soundforms

Location: Jacobs Park, 222 Marina Park Way, Embarcadero, San Diego waterfront, California, USA

The Rady Shell at Jacobs Park, the new permanent outdoor home of the San Diego Symphony, to open August 6, 2021

Scenic Waterfront Venue Seating Up to 10,000 Premieres with a Weekend Celebration Featuring Stars of Classical Music, Broadway, Soul, Pop, and More

More images online soon

The Rady Shell at Jacobs Park, San Diego Embarcadero

WHAT

The Rady Shell at Jacobs Park—a spectacular new year-round venue with 360-degree views of San Diego’s downtown, marina, and bay—will open with a weekend celebration as the first permanent outdoor home of the San Diego Symphony. Designed to host more than 100 concerts and events year-round, The Rady Shell is the centerpiece of the 3.7-acre public Jacobs Park on the city’s scenic Embarcadero. The venue is an unprecedented resource for the Symphony’s diverse schedule of outdoor classical concerts programmed by Music Director Rafael Payare, and a variety of other musical and cultural programs.

WHEN

Opening August 6-8, 2021

OPENING WEEKEND CELEBRATION

The Rady Shell will officially open on August 6 with Rafael Payare conducting the San Diego Symphony in the world premiere of a new work for orchestra and turntable by Mason Bates and performances featuring cellist Alisa Weilerstein, bass-baritone Ryan Speedo Green, and pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet. Opening weekend continues with “The Best of Broadway” on August 7, featuring the Symphony conducted by renowned musical theatre director Rob Fisher, showcasing Broadway luminaries Megan Hilty, Norm Lewis, Kelli O’Hara, and Adrienne Warren. The opening celebration concludes on August 8 with seven-time GRAMMY-winner Gladys Knight and special guest Naturally 7.

DESIGN

The Rady Shell at Jacobs Park is designed by San Diego firm Tucker Sadler Architects, led by CEO and Design Principal Greg Mueller, with performance shell design by London-based Soundforms. Soundforms’ award-winning 2012 mobile acoustic performance shell (MAPS) was expanded by Tucker Sadler Architects to accommodate a large orchestra with chorus and soloists and to be a permanent structure on the Embarcadero Marina Park South site.

The performance shell features concentric, widening, oval rings as its canopy, a structure that reaches a height of 57 feet and a width of 92 feet at the front of the stage. The gentle slopes and terraced, flexible seating of the 55,000- square-foot audience area are defined around their edges by a low-lying fence, buffered by plantings and a perimeter walkway, on the coast of San Diego Bay within the 3.7-acre Jacobs Park.

TICKETS

Tickets for the opening weekend are available at theshell.org.

Located in South Embarcadero Park, San Diego, California, USA

About Rafael Payare, Music Director One of today’s most sought-after conductors, renowned for his profound musicianship, technical brilliance, and charismatic presence, Rafael Payare assumed the leadership of the San Diego Symphony Orchestra as its Music Director on July 1, 2019.

Mr. Payare served as Principal Conductor and Music Director of the Ulster Orchestra from 2014 through 2019 and was named Conductor Laureate in recognition of his artistic contributions. He also has served as Principal Conductor of the Castleton Festival and Honorary Conductor of the Sinfonietta Cracovia.

In 2022, Mr. Payare will assume the role of Music Director of the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal. As a guest conductor, he has led many of the world’s great orchestras, including the Vienna Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Munich Philharmonic, and Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks. As an opera conductor, Mr. Payare made his acclaimed debut at the Glyndebourne Festival in 2019 and has conducted at the Royal Swedish Opera and Malmo Opera.

Born in Venezuela in 1980 and a graduate of El Sistema, Mr. Payare began his formal conducting studies in 2004 with José Antonio Abreu. He has conducted all the major orchestras in Venezuela, including the Simón Bolívar Orchestra, in which he served as Principal Horn and took part in many tours and recordings with conductors including Giuseppe Sinopoli, Claudio Abbado, Sir Simon Rattle, and Lorin Maazel. In May 2012, Rafael Payare was awarded first prize at the Malko International Conducting Competition.

About San Diego Symphony

Founded in 1910, the San Diego Symphony is the oldest orchestra in California and one of the largest and most significant cultural organizations in San Diego. The Orchestra performs for more than 250,000 people each season, offering a wide variety of programming at its two much-loved venues, Copley Symphony Hall in downtown San Diego and The Rady Shell at Jacobs Park on San Diego Bay.

In early 2018, the San Diego Symphony announced the appointment of Rafael Payare as music director. Payare leads the orchestra’s 82 full-time musicians, graduates of the finest and most celebrated music schools in the United States and abroad. The San Diego Symphony also serves as the orchestra for the San Diego Opera each season, as well as performing at several regional performing arts and community centers.

For more than 30 years, the San Diego Symphony has provided comprehensive learning and community engagement programs reaching more than 65,000 students annually and bringing innovative programming to San Diego’s diverse neighborhoods and schools. For more information, visit www.sandiegosymphony.org.

Address: 222 Marina Park Way, San Diego, CA 92101, United States Phone: +1 619-235-0804

San Diego Buildings

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Formation Installations, San Diego, CA, USA Artist Mark Reigelman photography : Pablo Mason / Mark Reigelman II Formation Installations at San Diego International Airport

Del Mar Civic Center, Del Mar, California, USA Architects: Miller Hull Partnership photography © Chipper Hatter Del Mar Civic Center in San Diego County, California

ADU – Garage Conversion Architects: Losada Garcia Architects picture courtesy of architects office San Diego Garage Remodel

Amenities Building at the Pacific Center Campus Development Design: BNIM architects photography : Nick Merrick, Hedrich Blessing Pacific Center Campus Amenities Building

US Fish and Wildlife Service Administrative Headquarters Design: Line and Space photo : Mike Torrey San Diego National Wildlife Refuge Building

PETCO Park Ballpark, Park Boulevard, East Village, San Diego, California, USA Design: Populous architects picture courtesy of architects office PETCO Park Ballpark in San Diego

BRIC IHG Hotel San Diego Bay Design: John Portman & Associates, Architects picture courtesy of architects office BRIC IHG Hotel San Diego Bay

San Diego Coronado Bridge Lighting Competition San Diego Coronado Bridge Lighting

University of California Housing Design: Carrier Johnson + CULTURE University of California San Diego Housing

BRIC Marriott Hotel San Diego Bay Building Design: John Portman & Associates, Architects BRIC Marriott Hotel San Diego Bay

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Orum Residence, Bel-Air, Los Angeles, California, USA Design: SPF:architects photo © Matthew Momberger New Residence in Bel-Air

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Comments / photos for the The Rady Shell at Jacobs Park, San Diego, California design by Tucker Sadler Architects page welcome

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[automaticvr]

Walking for Freedom: A Venezuelan Story is an immersive 360° documentary short created with the idea that some journeys need to be experienced to be understood. The Virtual Reality format puts you in the shoes of the Venezuelan refugees forced to flee their country on foot, where you can follow their journey across the Simón Bolívar International Bridge that links Venezuela and Colombia, past the illegal passing known as "la trocha," and through to their final destinations, wherever they may be. Walk with them and hear their stories.

[en24news]

Hundreds of migrants return to Venezuela from Colombia due to pandemic

[ad_1]

Hundreds of Venezuelans who migrated to Colombia due to the economic collapse are returning, this time pushed by the health and economic emergency that sparked the new coronavirus pandemic.

On Saturday, 600 people left the Simón Bolívar international bridge, in Cúcuta (northeast), and another 160 started the return journey from Bogotá this Sunday, according to…

[joshuajacksonlyblog]

Crypto Point-of-Sale Service Provides Relief to Venezuelan Refugees

Refugees migrating from Venezuela to Colombia can now use cryptocurrencies to make purchases across the border.

Panda Group, the operators of Colombian platform Panda Exchange, has created a new service that aims to alleviate some of the issues that Venezuelan refugees deal with as they pass through the border to their neighboring country.

The crypto service is a point-of-sale (POS) shop on the border where visitors can purchase various goods using cryptocurrencies. Typson Sanchez, co-founder and CTO of Panda Exchange, shared a tweet revealing that the new service has been launched in Santander, Colombia, serving refugees crossing the Simón Bolívar International Bridge.

As it stands, users can walk up to the shop and purchase goods in the physical store using bitcoin (BTC), bitcoin cash (BCH) and DAI. The service makes the appropriate currency conversions, and the shop is paid in Colombian pesos.  

Customers can also purchase bitcoin at the store. The store uses the prevailing peso-to-bitcoin conversion rate on LocalBitcoins. Exchanging bitcoin through the service incurs 10 percent fees for buyers and 5 percent fees for sellers.

Bitcoin in Venezuela

While cryptocurrencies are mainly seen as stores of value in developed countries, in Venezuela, where its national currency, the bolivar, is experiencing dramatic inflation, bitcoin in particular has come to function as a practical means of payment.

Demonstrating the crisis back in February, popular artist cryptograffiti teamed up with the #AirdropVenezuela campaign. He auctioned off a portrait of Nicolas Maduro, the autocratic leader of Venezuela, constructed with 1,000 bolivars. For each crypto donated to the cause, a bolivar from the portrait was torn off.“The piece-by-piece dismantling of the bolivars by those choosing to donate crypto is meant to represent a new beginning made possible by a new form of money not controlled by any one authority,” cryptograffiti told Bitcoin Magazine. “There is also symbolism in how these donations have the ability to come from outside of a region known for heavily regulated currency controls.”

The post Crypto Point-of-Sale Service Provides Relief to Venezuelan Refugees appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

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[brookstonalmanac]

Events 5.24

919 – The nobles of Franconia and Saxony elect Henry the Fowler at the Imperial Diet in Fritzlar as king of the East Frankish Kingdom. 1218 – The Fifth Crusade leaves Acre for Egypt. 1276 – Magnus Ladulås is crowned King of Sweden in Uppsala Cathedral. 1487 – The ten-year-old Lambert Simnel is crowned in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, Ireland, with the name of Edward VI in a bid to threaten King Henry VII's reign. 1567 – Erik XIV of Sweden and his guards murder five incarcerated Swedish nobles. 1595 – Nomenclator of Leiden University Library appears, the first printed catalog of an institutional library. 1607 – One hundred-five English settlers under the leadership of Captain Christopher Newport established the colony called Jamestown at the mouth of the James River on the Virginia coast, the first permanent English colony in America. 1621 – The Protestant Union is formally dissolved. 1626 – Peter Minuit buys Manhattan. 1667 – The French Royal Army crosses the border into the Spanish Netherlands, starting the War of Devolution opposing France to the Spanish Empire and the Triple Alliance. 1683 – The Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, England, opens as the world's first university museum. 1689 – The English Parliament passes the Act of Toleration protecting dissenting Protestants but excluding Roman Catholics. 1738 – John Wesley is converted, essentially launching the Methodist movement; the day is celebrated annually by Methodists as Aldersgate Day and a church service is generally held on the preceding Sunday. 1798 – The Irish Rebellion of 1798 led by the United Irishmen against British rule begins. 1813 – South American independence leader Simón Bolívar enters Mérida, leading the invasion of Venezuela, and is proclaimed El Libertador ("The Liberator"). 1822 – Battle of Pichincha: Antonio José de Sucre secures the independence of the Presidency of Quito. 1832 – The First Kingdom of Greece is declared in the London Conference. 1844 – Samuel Morse sends the message "What hath God wrought" (a biblical quotation, Numbers 23:23) from a committee room in the United States Capitol to his assistant, Alfred Vail, in Baltimore, Maryland, to inaugurate a commercial telegraph line between Baltimore and Washington D.C. 1856 – John Brown and his men kill five slavery supporters at Pottawatomie Creek, Kansas. 1861 – American Civil War: Union troops occupy Alexandria, Virginia. 1873 – Patrick Francis Healy becomes the first black president of a predominantly white university in the United States. 1883 – The Brooklyn Bridge in New York City is opened to traffic after 14 years of construction. 1900 – Second Boer War: The United Kingdom annexes the Orange Free State. 1915 – World War I: Italy declares war on Austria-Hungary, joining the conflict on the side of the Allies. 1930 – Amy Johnson lands in Darwin, Northern Territory, becoming the first woman to fly solo from England to Australia (she left on May 5 for the 11,000 mile flight). 1935 – The first night game in Major League Baseball history is played in Cincinnati, Ohio, with the Cincinnati Reds beating the Philadelphia Phillies 2–1 at Crosley Field. 1940 – Igor Sikorsky performs the first successful single-rotor helicopter flight. 1940 – Acting on the orders of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, NKVD agent Iosif Grigulevich orchestrates an unsuccessful assassination attempt on exiled Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky in Coyoacán, Mexico. 1941 – World War II: In the Battle of the Atlantic, the German Battleship Bismarck sinks then-pride of the Royal Navy, HMS Hood, killing all but three crewmen. 1944 – Börse Berlin building burns down after being hit in an air raid during World War II. 1948 – Arab–Israeli War: Egypt captures the Israeli kibbutz of Yad Mordechai, but the five-day effort gives Israeli forces time to prepare enough to stop the Egyptian advance a week later. 1956 – The first Eurovision Song Contest is held in Lugano, Switzerland. 1958 – United Press International is formed through a merger of the United Press and the International News Service. 1960 – Following the 1960 Valdivia earthquake, the largest ever recorded earthquake, Cordón Caulle begins to erupt. 1961 – American civil rights movement: Freedom Riders are arrested in Jackson, Mississippi, for "disturbing the peace" after disembarking from their bus. 1962 – Project Mercury: American astronaut Scott Carpenter orbits the Earth three times in the Aurora 7 space capsule. 1967 – Egypt imposes a blockade and siege of the Red Sea coast of Israel. 1967 – Belle de Jour, directed by Luis Buñuel, is released. 1976 – The Judgment of Paris takes place in France, launching California as a worldwide force in the production of quality wine. 1981 – Ecuadorian president Jaime Roldós Aguilera, his wife, and his presidential committee die in an aircraft accident while travelling from Quito to Zapotillo minutes after the president gave a famous speech regarding the 24 de mayo anniversary of the Battle of Pichincha. 1982 – Liberation of Khorramshahr: Iranians recapture of the port city of Khorramshahr from the Iraqis during the Iran–Iraq War. 1988 – Section 28 of the United Kingdom's Local Government Act 1988, a controversial amendment stating that a local authority cannot intentionally promote homosexuality, is enacted. 1991 – Israel conducts Operation Solomon, evacuating Ethiopian Jews to Israel. 1992 – The last Thai dictator, General Suchinda Kraprayoon, resigns following pro-democracy protests. 1992 – The ethnic cleansing in Kozarac, Bosnia and Herzegovina begins when Serbian militia and police forces enter the town. 1993 – Eritrea gains its independence from Ethiopia. 1993 – Roman Catholic Cardinal Juan Jesús Posadas Ocampo and five other people are assassinated in a shootout at Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla Guadalajara International Airport in Mexico. 1994 – Four men are convicted of bombing the World Trade Center in New York in 1993; each one is sentenced to 240 years in prison. 1995 – While attempting to return to Leeds Bradford Airport in the United Kingdom, Knight Air Flight 816 crashes in Harewood, North Yorkshire, killing all 12 people on board. 1999 – The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague, Netherlands indicts Slobodan Milošević and four others for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Kosovo. 2000 – Israeli troops withdraw from southern Lebanon after 22 years of occupation. 2002 – Russia and the United States sign the Moscow Treaty. 2014 – A 6.4 magnitude earthquake occurs in the Aegean Sea between Greece and Turkey, injuring 324 people. 2014 – At least three people are killed in a shooting at Brussels' Jewish Museum of Belgium. 2019 – Twenty-two students die in a fire in Surat (India). 2019 – Under pressure over her handling of Brexit, British Prime Minister Theresa May announces her resignation as Leader of the Conservative Party, effective as of June 7.

[instapicsil3]

Hours after Venezuelan forces clashed with rock-wielding demonstrators aiming to help deliver humanitarian aid over the Colombian border into #Venezuela on Feb. 23, and after at least two people were killed in similar clashes near the border with #Brazil, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called on those blocking the stockpiled aid to "do the right thing.” Opposition leader @jguaido’s hope was that the security forces guarding the checkpoints would defect en made once the aid trucks arrived, but while some military figures did so, it was not widespread. In these #photographs: volunteers prepare for the arrival of aid by forming a chain and discussing strategy at the Simón Bolívar International Bridge, one of several that connect #Colombia and Venezuela, near Cúcuta; Colombian mounted police officers stationed by the side of the bridge; and opposition demonstrators on a border bridge near the Venezuelan town of Ureña, which also saw unrest. Read more, and see more pictures, at the link in bio. Photographs by TIME https://ift.tt/2Et0lXj

[what-is-sibling-test]

Hungry Venezuelans seek food at Colombian border, as Maduro...

Hungry Venezuelans seek food at Colombian border, as Maduro blocks entry of supplies

Over 50,000 Venezuelans cross the Simón Bolívar Bridge into Colombia on a daily basis to pick up much needed supplies including diapers, medicine and toilet paper. The families are hungry and desperate to feed their children. 

On Thursday, much-needed aid arrived at the Colombian-Venezuelan border, provided and facilitated by the United States Agency for International Development. 

Several truckloads of humanitarian aid, including food, medical supplies and hygiene kits, were shuttled into Cúcuta. Colombian police were on hand to help store the supplies in a warehouse, just across a bridge from Venezuela. 

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has refused to receive the aid. Earlier this week, Maduro said, “We are not a country of beggars.”

Read more.

from NBC News on Tumblr http://bit.ly/2td50GL via Istudy world

[ericfruits]

Fending off the flood from Venezuela

EVERY morning crowds gather on the Venezuelan side of the Simón Bolívar bridge to cross over into Colombia. Many just want to shop for basic goods, which are scarce at home. But growing numbers are staying, at least until the political and economic crisis in their country passes. Colombian immigration officials counted 550,000 Venezuelans in the country at the end of last year. That is an increase of 210,000 from the middle of the year.

On February 8th Colombia’s president, Juan Manuel Santos, on a visit to the border town of Cúcuta, tried to stanch the flow. In a warehouse used by the disaster-relief arm of the government of Norte de Santander, Cúcuta’s province, he announced that Colombia would stop issuing one-day entry cards for Venezuelans and deploy 3,000 more guards along the countries’ 2,200km (1,400-mile) border. “Colombia has never before experienced a situation like this,” he said. On February 14th he said the country needs international help to cope with it.

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Mr Santos is not the only Latin American leader to be unnerved by the influx of Venezuelans. Brazil’s president, Michel Temer, went on February 12th to Boa Vista, an Amazonian town of 330,000 people that is hosting 40,000 Venezuelans. Fewer have entered Brazil than Colombia in part because the border region is a jungle. Brazil plans to double the number of border guards and help Venezuelans resettle to other cities in the country’s interior. The point is not to stop migrants from coming but to “discipline and co-ordinate” their arrival, Mr Temer said.

More than 200,000 Venezuelans entered Ecuador from January 2016 to September 2017, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. Three-quarters of them went on to Peru and to Chile, where requests for residency permits from Venezuelans last year were on track to double those in 2016. Some 27,000 pitched up in Argentina in 2017 and perhaps 40,000 are in Trinidad and Tobago. Some 2.7m of Venezuela’s 34m people are abroad.

Colombia, the most accessible neighbour, has borne the brunt. As the numbers have risen, its easy-going attitude has toughened. Unemployment and crime are rising in Cúcuta and other border towns, say local officials. People who had good jobs in Venezuela now beg and sleep on Cúcuta’s streets with their families.

Colombia is trying to balance border control with compassion for people fleeing a country where inflation is expected to reach 13,000% this year and the economy will shrink by 15%. Mr Santos reminded Colombians that Venezuela received 1m of their countrymen during Colombia’s decades of armed conflict, which subsided in the early 2000s. Colombia’s foreign minister, María Ángela Holguín, says her government has been learning tips from Turkey, a destination for Syrians fleeing war, on how to deal with migrants from Venezuela. It has been working with the UN to set up reception centres for them.

To Venezuelans in Cúcuta, the new policy feels more like a crackdown. Those in the country are being required to register with immigration offices. They will be able to work, but only if they have stamped passports. A shortage of paper for passports is one of many that are causing Venezuelans to flee.

A new task force will keep Cúcuta’s growing homeless population out of squares and parks. Last month, immigration officials raided a basketball court that 900 migrants had turned into a shelter. Hundreds were deported.

But such measures will not stop the flow of Venezuelans and may not slow it much. The long border is easily crossed. Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro, has called a presidential election for April 22nd. He is unlikely to face an effective rival. As long as he is in charge, the Venezuelans will keep coming.

This article appeared in the The Americas section of the print edition under the headline "Fending off a flood"

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[mastcomm]

Gustavo Dudamel Extends Contract With Los Angeles Philharmonic

The star conductor Gustavo Dudamel has extended his contract as music and artistic director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, cementing his commitment to the acclaimed orchestra after a period of administrative upheaval.

Announced on Wednesday, the four-year extension will keep Mr. Dudamel, 38, in Los Angeles at least through the 2025-26 season, his 17th with the Philharmonic. It maintains what has proved a winning formula: the pairing of a conductor whose fame extends beyond the classical music world and is a powerful audience draw with an orchestra that has developed perhaps the strongest reputation in the country for innovative programming and community outreach.

“We have a unique opportunity and responsibility in Los Angeles to unite the soul of the Americas, to build and to strengthen musical and educational bridges with our brothers and sisters here in L.A. and beyond,” Mr. Dudamel said in a statement.

The extension comes after a rocky fall at the Philharmonic. The orchestra announced in September that its chief executive officer, Simon Woods, was stepping down, effective immediately. He had been in the position for less than two years after succeeding Deborah Borda, whose leadership since the turn of the century had helped make the orchestra into a powerhouse, with a budget — $125 million a year — that dwarfs other ensembles and an endowment that has quintupled over the past two decades.

In October, the Philharmonic named Chad Smith, its widely respected chief operating officer, as its new chief executive. Mr. Smith has a long association with Mr. Dudamel: In a statement, Mr. Smith noted that the two men had planned Mr. Dudamel’s American debut at the Hollywood Bowl together, 15 years ago.

Mr. Dudamel — who was born in Venezuela and trained there by El Sistema, the free music program that teaches music to children, including in some of its poorest areas — occupies a unique position in music. He is sought by leading orchestras, including the Berlin Philharmonic and the New York Philharmonic, which he will conduct for two weeks beginning Wednesday evening. But he also appeared in a Super Bowl halftime show; is billed as Trollzart in the upcoming animated film “Trolls World Tour”; is conducting the music for Steven Spielberg’s film version of “West Side Story”; and inspired a messy-haired main character in the Amazon series “Mozart in the Jungle.”

He was just 28 in 2009, when he led his first performance as music director in Los Angeles. He continues to also hold the post of music director of the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela, but after he criticized the Venezuelan government in 2017, the country canceled his planned international tour with that ensemble. While he has not been able to perform with the Simón Bolívar since then, he still works with the ensemble remotely and sometimes meets outside Venezuela with groups of its players.

In Mr. Smith’s statement, he praised Mr. Dudamel’s “expansive vision of what an orchestra can be and what it can mean to its community.” Mr. Dudamel said that he was particularly proud of the Philharmonic’s educational outreach, especially the Youth Orchestra Los Angeles, a program inspired by El Sistema that was founded in 2007. The Philharmonic is currently building a new center and concert hall for the youth orchestra designed by Frank Gehry, the architect of the Philharmonic’s acclaimed Walt Disney Concert Hall; it is expected to open in the fall and cost $23.5 million.

By the end of his contract, Mr. Dudamel will have been at the Philharmonic’s podium for 17 seasons, the same as his predecessor, Esa-Pekka Salonen. Before that, the conductor with the longest tenure at the orchestra had been Zubin Mehta, who held the post for 16 years.

from WordPress https://mastcomm.com/entertainment/gustavo-dudamel-extends-contract-with-los-angeles-philharmonic/

[thewebofslime]

Written by Venezuela Investigative Unit - MARCH 1, 2019 SHARE Reports from Venezuela are shocking the world with images of “colectivos,” police and military using excessive force — even opening fire — on unarmed civilians attempting to bring humanitarian aid into the country through its borders with Colombia and Brazil. The latest incidents occurred on February 23 and left at least four dead and more than 285 injured. The alleged perpetrators belong to three main government-backed groups: – the Bolivarian National Guard (Guardia Nacional Bolivariana – GNB); – the Special Action Forces (Fuerzas de Acciones Especiales – FAES) of the national police (Policía Nacional Bolivariana – PNB); – and what are known as “colectivos,” groups that supported former President Hugo Chávez that over the years have grown increasingly armed and prone to engage in criminal activities. The victims of the events on February 23 include several dozen people from the indigenous Pemón community who had to seek refuge in Brazil as well as journalists who were pursued, robbed and threatened by the armed groups. Mass media and civilian witnesses alike released video footage of men on motorcycles dressed in black and armed with long guns and 9mm pistols. They gathered in packs and clashed with demonstrators who rejected the government of Nicolás Maduro. The border cities of Ureña in the state of Táchira and Santa Elena de Uairén in Bolívar have also reported uniformed GNB soldiers driving tanks and military vehicles through town and shooting up homes and businesses in an effort to force suspected members of the anti-Maduro resistance out into the open to better confront them. Who are these groups? Why do they continue to so vehemently defend Maduro’s now rapidly failing regime? How strong is their loyalty to a government that has been rejected by over 50 nations and is reported to have links to organized crime? Are Maduro’s “armies” prepared to face a potential armed intervention in Venezuela? The following InSight Crime analysis will attempt to answer these questions. Corrupt Military Leadership in the FANB It is no secret that the Venezuelan National Armed Forces (Fuerza Armada Nacional Bolivariana – FANB) are the Maduro government’s main prop, but just how strong is their support? And what is the basis for their loyalty? Militarism has characterized the past 20 years of Chavista rule in Venezuela. Both Chávez and Maduro have fanned the flames of the FANB’s loyalty by placing military officials in virtually all government institutions and militarizing public security forces. But they even went beyond those measures by granting the military new functions and — perhaps most importantly — new sources of income in their creation of financial institutions, mining companies and other structures for them to run. SEE ALSO: Drug Trafficking Within the Venezuelan Regime: The ‘Cartel of the Suns’ But despite what the government’s creation of so many state-owned companies may imply, the Venezuelan military’s desire to maintain the status quo has more to do with lucrative businesses linked to organized crime, whose profits come from drug trafficking, illegal mining, smuggling, extortion and other illegal activities. The fact that military officials — many of whom hold leadership positions and simultaneously belong to the Cartel of the Suns criminal structure — have illegally amassed this kind of economic power is likely why they continue to support Maduro. The problem is that it is a major obstacle for a peaceful transition of power in the country. It is a different story for those lower in the hierarchy. While mid- to low-ranking officials and troops may participate in criminal activities and human rights violations, they do not have the power nor the income of their superiors and are often exposed to the country’s widespread lack of food and medicine. Amid the most recent wave of unrest, discontent within the military has come to the fore with a mutiny at a military base on January 21. Meanwhile, 411 members of the military have now deserted, seeking the amnesty self-declared interim President Juan Guaidó has offered them. It has been said that many of those who fled their military positions did so because they were forced to work with the colectivos. Venezuelan NGO Control Ciudadano estimates that the four arms of the FANB (army, national guard, air force and navy) currently number between 136,000 and 140,000 troops. The FAES and the SEBIN: Police and Torturers The FAES is an elite unit that Maduro created during the 2017 protests specifically to defend the Chavista revolution. Since then, it has morphed into little more than an extermination group, according to Venezuelan and international human rights organizations like PROVEA. The police unit has been involved in the alleged extrajudicial executions of more than 675 people from working-class neighborhoods, sometimes under accusations that they were criminals. The FAES now stands at approximately 1,600 strong, an Interior Ministry official told InSight Crime, and has worked to brutally oppress the newest wave of Venezuela’s anti-government protests since January. “This is one of the few police groups that could remain loyal to Maduro because they have been indoctrinated and have received special training to act according to political objectives. They were created to handle political situations like the one going on right now in Venezuela. They’re prepared to kill,” the official told InSight Crime from Caracas. He added that another reason why some of the FAES could remain loyal to Maduro is that many of them started out in the colectivos, groups that have always been sympathetic to the Chavez and Maduro governments and have become increasingly armed and violent. Maduro likely recruited so many FAES members from the colectivos for their callousness and bloodthirstiness, which has been confirmed by PNB and FAES officials who recently abandoned the police force as well as by colectivo leaders, all of whom spoke to InSight Crime from Venezuela. But the FAES’s ferocity may belie a general hum of discontent within many other branches of the PNB, including the national intelligence service (Servicio Bolivariano de Inteligencia Nacional – SEBIN) and the criminal investigation unit (Cuerpo de Investigaciones Científicas, Penales y Criminalísticas – CICPC). Officers are becoming increasingly dissatisfied due to the worsening humanitarian crisis but are not speaking up for fear of being labeled traitors and consequently persecuted, according to police officials who spoke to InSight Crime. Discontent in the SEBIN, however, became more apparent amid the contradicting orders regarding the January 13 arrest of Guaidó and the subsequent imprisonment of the 12 officers who carried it out. Unlike with the military, the current number of security forces in Venezuela is unknown. Colectivos Terrorizing the Border Colectivos have played a major role in this year’s newest bout of political tension. The groups rallied around Maduro as soon as he took office for his disputed second term. Now, they have begun to expand their presence to the country’s borders and give even stronger demonstrations of their support than before. As InSight Crime reported, government officials in Táchira state on the border with Colombia created a “border security colectivo” in 2018. And this one includes members of the ELN and the FARC dissidence. The group put on a show of force on January 23, when it opened fire to prevent humanitarian aid from being brought into Venezuela. They shot at journalists, volunteers and civilian members of the opposition in San Antonio del Táchira, on the Simón Bolívar International Bridge and in Santa Elena de Uairén. SEE ALSO: The Devolution of State Power: The ‘Colectivos’ Moreover, Humberto Prado, director of the Venezuelan Prison Observatory (Observatorio Venezolano de Prisiones – OVP), accused the Maduro government of releasing prison inmates to fill the colectivos’ ranks in their repression efforts. Not only have the colectivos been expanding their reach in Venezuela — they now have presence in 16 states — but they have also become almost unrecognizable from the groups that Chávez originally created. To stymie anti-Maduro sentiment, they now operate more like paramilitary shock troops of armed civilians and receive support from security forces. They participated in the government’s repression of the protests in 2014 and 2017 as well as in a government initiative called “Operation Liberation and Protection of the People” (Operación de Liberación y Protección del Pueblo – OLP), which has been tied to human rights abuses and criminal acts. Beyond their political oppression activities, the colectivos have gotten a foothold in Venezuela’s underworld, engaging in such criminal activities as extortion, kidnapping, drug trafficking and murder for hire. In general, the colectivos have supported Maduro as they did Chávez. In an effort to advocate for their survival, one member of a sort of colectivo federation called the Revolutionary Secretariat of Venezuela (Secretariado Revolucionario de Venezuela) told InSight Crime that “if something happens, we’ll have to go out and defend the government, because those who come will be coming for us.” But some are beginning to waver in their allegiance to the government because they have not been receiving the economic benefits they once did, and the country’s crisis has been affecting them. At the same time, they fear persecution should they abandon the government’s revolution. As a colectivo leader in the 23 de Enero neighborhood of Caracas put it, “everyone is afraid here, but the people have shown that they want change, and the same thing is happening with the social organizations … If something happens, most will run away. If something happens, only those willing to die will stay here.” The FARC Dissidence and the ELN: Trained and Armed With the National Liberation Army (Ejército de Liberación Nacional – ELN) in the middle of Venezuelan territory and dissident factions of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia – FARC) regrouping at the border, Colombian guerrilla groups are contributing their fair share to the country’s organized crime activity and driving instability levels up. They now operate in 13 of Venezuela’s 24 states, according to the International Crisis Group (ICG). During and after the peace process between Colombia and the FARC, several groups of guerrillas dissented and chose to continue trafficking drugs. Meanwhile, the ELN has continued to operate and is now Colombia’s number one enemy with the FARC demobilized. Both groups have been eying Venezuela as a means to shield themselves from the Colombian authorities in a country that has been generally tolerant and accommodating towards them for the past 20 years. Colombian guerrilla groups have even gone so far as to assume various state functions. The ELN now runs the country’s mining region. And while both they and area FARC dissidents had already established themselves along the border to control the drug trafficking routes between Colombia and Venezuela, this year’s unrest has seen them take their support of the current administration to another level. Case in point, ELN Central Command leader Israel Ramírez Pineda, alias “Pablo Beltrán,” told British newspaper The Telegraph that, in the event of military intervention in Venezuela, they “would be on the front lines and would not hesitate” to defend the Maduro government. It is unknown precisely how many people belong to the Colombian guerrilla groups operating in Venezuela and at the border, but ICG estimates an army of roughly 2,000 in the ELN alone. This makes the group’s formidable criminal allies of the Maduro regime should an armed confrontation occur.

[jamariyanews]

Venezuela Denounces False Positives Orchestrated by the Right

Simón Bolívar Bridge at the Colombian Border On Saturday morning, February 23, a false positive was reported on the Colombian-Venezuelan border orchestrated by the Colombian government and Venezuelan opposition leaders, when two tanks of the Bolivarian National Guard (GNB) rammed the Venezuelan security barricade installed on the Simón Bolívar international bridge. Following this act, three...

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