Venezuela yesterday accused Portugal of having helped Juan Guaidó transporting explosives into the country. The proclaimed interim president of the country (recognized as such by six dozen countries, including Portugal) returned to the country on Tuesday, after a trip abroad, aboard a TAP plane. He was traveling with an uncle, who was arrested on arrival, and who is now held responsible by the Venezuelan authorities for transporting “tactical pocket lanterns” that hid “explosive chemicals in the battery compartment”. The President of the Constituent Assembly, number two of Nicolás Maduro’s regime, did not delay point the finger to the Portuguese airline and the Portuguese ambassador in Caracas for breach of international safety standards. TAP did not comment on the accusations but, from New Delhi (where the President of the Republic is accompanying, on a State visit to India), the Minister of Foreign Affairs hurried to reject the theory of Diosdado Cabello. “It doesn’t make any sense”, said Augusto Santos Silva, not hesitating to classify as “intimidation attempt” the arrest of Guaidó’s uncle and adding: “The position of Portugal and the EU is simple: the very serious crisis in Venezuela, which affects almost one million Venezuelans, also with European nationality, cannot be resolved by intimidation and arbitrary arrests”. And not so many years have passed since the government of José Sócrates (of which Santos Silva was also a part) deified the Hugo Chavez regime (where Maduro already pontificated).
Today, in Caracas, Juan Guaidó gives a press conference to present the results of his trip to 23 countries in America (including the USA and Canada) and Europe (he did not come to Portugal but was in Spain, England and Switzerland). Political tension is back in Venezuela.
OTHER NEWS, HERE IN …
The Portuguese Blood Institute launched the alert yesterday and appealed to donors: at blood reserves are coming to an end, which can put surgery at risk.
Today, the Assembly of the Republic discusses the Former Combatant Status, claimed for decades by the (estimated) almost 200 thousand Portuguese who provided military services on behalf of the country both in the overseas war and in missions in conflict zones. The Government finally approved a proposed law in December in the Council of Ministers. This text, together with two others (from PSD and BE), this morning goes up to plenary.
It starts today and ends tomorrow CGTP Congress, which marks the end of the Armenian Carlos era (who, eight years after succeeding Carvalho da Silva, reaches the age limit defined in the Statutes and therefore cannot re-apply). The new secretary general of the union central will only be chosen during the night / dawn but if there are no surprises it will be Isabel Camarinha. Explains Rosa Pedroso Lima who “communist hegemony is more guaranteed than ever “. The other minorities (Catholics, Socialists and Blockists), this time, did not understand each other for a joint position.
The President of the Republic is in India, for a state trip that only ends on Sunday. Still in New Delhi, where landed yesterday in the late afternoon, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa meets today with Narendra Modi, the Indian Prime Minister, and also with his counterpart, Ram Nath Kovind. Tomorrow he will be in Bombay and on Sunday he will go to Goa.
At 2:30 pm there is a press conference on Rui Pinto, the FootballLeaks and LuandaLeaks whistleblower, in preventive detention for almost a year. Your lawyers will be present William Bourdon and Francisco Teixeira da Mota, but also Gerard Ryle, director of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, Edwy Plenel, representing the International Consortium of Journalists, Henri Thulliez, from the Whistleblower Protection Platform in Africa and Delphine Halgand-Mishra, from The Signals Network.
Continues the trial of 44 defendants in the attack on Sporting’s football academy, in Alcochete. Today, among other witnesses, former President Sousa Cintra will be heard.
THE I Football League resumes today with the match between Vitória de Setúbal and Gil Vicente. It is at 8:30 pm, at Bonfim Stadium.
… AND OUTSIDE
China decided to change the way it was counting the number of people infected with Coronavirus (aka Covid-19) and so it added from one moment to the next more than 15 thousand new cases to the almost 50 thousand already identified. Political territory is beginning to enter dangerous territory, with the US accusing Beijing in “lack of transparency” and to call into question the “honesty” Chinese authorities. Yesterday 116 more people died, bringing the total number of victims to 1383. In China, there are chaos news in the application of contagion measures and in addition to the number of infected people, anxiety in the population also grows. What we already know about the virus and how it spreads is what you can read and see on here and on here.
There is eight generals in the crosshairs of Angolan justice. All accumulated fortunes during the years of José Eduardo dos Santos, all acquired stakes in companies in sectors of state control (oil, diamonds, security, agriculture), some are partners in the same society. The Express profiled them (possible).
The US Senate has limited Donald Trump’s power to trigger a conflict with Iran by adopt a resolution yesterday which prevents the president from launching new military actions in the territory without authorization from Congress. The measure passed with the votes of eight Republican senators but it is certain to collide with Trump’s veto.
Still in the US, headlines are making statements by Attorney General William P. Barr, in an interview with ABC News, criticizing Trump’s constant attacks (usually via twitter) on his department. “Make it impossible for me to do my job”, Barr said, still ensuring that bullying, from anyone, will not deter him from doing his job.
In the 91st minute, and with a penalty kick, Cristiano Ronaldo avoided the defeat of Juventus against AC Milan in the first leg of the Italian Cup semi-finals.
Yesterday the images collected by NASA’s New Horizons probe were made public at the ends of the solar system where, over a year ago, it flew over Arrokoth, a 36 km side celestial body that is the oldest and most distant from Earth ever seen: it is more than 6 million kilometers from Earth. According to the BBC, what New Horizons saw changes the prevailing theory that the formation of planets was produced in a violent way … the “gentle” contact of matter is now the strongest possibility.
It may not be necessary to go to Arrokoth (or is it?) But to continue like this the Earth seems to be wanting to push humans into another world (s). January was the hottest month since there are temperature records air (141 years ago): 1.14ºC above the average temperature of the 20th century. Day 9, Antarctica reached, for the first time in history, 20ºC.
PHRASES
“Don’t kill”
Jerónimo de Sousa, secretary general of the PCP, on the possibility for Parliament to approve the decriminalization of euthanasia
“What is at stake is that, winning the yes, they want a referendum. So let there see who wins and if [o referendo] is placed on the table “
Rui Rio, president of PSD, refusing to comment at this point on the possibility of euthanizing popular consultation
“If it is a matter of conscience, there is no other way than the referendum”
Francisco Rodrigues dos Santos, president of CDS, still on the same subject
“The Portuguese think we are idiots”
Diosdado Cabello, president of the Constituent Assembly of Venezuela, accusing Portugal of having helped Juan Guaidó to bring explosives to Caracas on board a TAP plane
“The extremely serious crisis in Venezuela that affects almost a million Venezuelans (…) cannot be solved by arbitrary intimidation and detention”
Augusto Santos Silva, Minister of Foreign Affairs, in response to the accusations of the regime led by Nicolás Maduro
“Whether it is Congress, newspaper editorials or the President, I will do what I think is right”
William P. Barr, US Attorney General, about pressures on his work, including from Trump
“Who is this crap called Greenpeace? This is rubbish”
Jair Bolsonaro, President of Brazil, shooting at the environmental organization that has most criticized its policy for the Amazon
“We are on another level, our titles are different. With trips and I don’t know what, we were much better, that of tiredness is all bullshit “
Jorge Jesus, Flamengo coach, the phrase that made him accused of arrogance
WHAT I’M READ AND SEE
The chance of national politics was that between the Congress of the CDS, which elected a new leader, and that of the PSD, which reelected the same, would take just two weeks. In the meantime, I had to write Short twice. This is to justify myself: I have not yet managed to throw myself into new readings. One of the next “Right Lines, Culture and Politics on the Right”, a volume of texts by around 80 authors – coordinated by Miguel Morgado and Rui Ramos – which aims precisely to help understand something that the magnificent meetings of those two parties (in not too distant times the only representatives of the parliamentary right) did not help at all to clarify: After all, what is the right today? What unites those who say they are on the right? And what separates them? For those interested in the topic, the suggestion remains.
Another, quite different: the multimedia reporting which has been available on the Expresso website since yesterday. “They give their lives for others. But what do we do for informal caregivers?”, ask Tiago Soares, Ruben Tiago Pereira and Nuno Botelho, in a touching work of text, video and photography that testifies to this “invisible class of society”, parents, children, grandchildren, siblings, friends who do without their lives so that others can live. Without State recognition (the Statute finally exists, but its regulation is delayed).
It has reached my hands, although it will only be distributed tomorrow with the weekly edition of Expresso, the special magazine edited by the Tribuna Expresso team, a kind of best of from the heading Casa à Costas that for three years has made known the lives of several characters from the world of national football. Are “stories of saltimbancos and generous men”, says Alexandra Simões de Abreu, author of the 130 interviews that have appeared on the site since the rubric was born. In this paper number there are only 11 (Futre, Abel Xavier, Cândido Costa, Carlos Martins, Dani, Inácio, Manuel José, Nani, Petit, Oceano and Silas), chosen on the basis of different criteria (“the most read online, the most surprising, the most resonant names, the most controversial or the most emotional”). The idea is precisely that the reader “feel free to check the remaining 119 online”.
It opened on January 30 but is still available in many cinemas “J’accuse – The officer and the spy”, the last film by Roman Polansky. Says who knows (Jorge Leitão Ramos or Francisco Ferreira) that resulted “bright” the way found by the Franco-Polish filmmaker to tell the famous case Dreyfus, which stirred French politics in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
I haven’t been to the theater in a while. I will resume the habit with a classic: “Romeo and Juliet”. The premiere is today (is there a more appropriate way to mark a Valentine’s Day?), In the Sala Garrett of the Teatro Nacional D. Maria II, at 9:00 pm, but the play will be on stage until March 1. The director is John Romão and has Mariana Monteiro and João Cachola in the main roles.
And here I stay. Tomorrow is Express Day (weekly). Until then there is the website of Expresso, Tribuna, Blitz and SIC Notícias to know the latest. Good weekend.
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