Cecilia Escobar

Artist, writer, and Mamá. Follow me IG @thedailybookshop

[Cecilia Escobar @msbeauvoir]

@juance Aquí, en los gloriosos EEUU, está de moda. Hay una cierta resurrección idílica, ignorante y very scary.

[Blanca Rosa Mármol @BMarmoldeLeon]

Diálogos : 18
Años de Dictadura : 27

[David Axelrod @davidaxelrod]

The DSA is dining on the moment to get themselves attention.
But the spotlight on some of their crazy-ass ideas is unhelpful--not just for Dems but for progressive goals.
You can be for honoring the humanity and value of immigrants, and for blowing up the gangster operation that ICE has become, and still recognize the importance of our borders and the need for appropriate immigration enforcement.
You can be for profound police reforms, alternative policing strategies and an end to mass incarceration, and still recognize that police and policing are necessary and important for the safety of our communities, and that some people commit crimes that warrant prison.
You can be for universal healthcare, climate action, fair wages, tougher regulations and anti-trust enforcement to rein in corporate abuse, and a host of other progressive goals and not be for the government seizing all or part of businesses--though on this, the DSA is making common cause with @realDonaldTrump, who thinks it's fine for the government to grab pieces of major corporations.
You can be opposed to senseless wars and bloated Pentagon budgets and still recognize the need for a well-trained military because there are real threats in the world against which we have to defend.
In their most extreme views, the DSA doesn't represent the majority of Democrats or the country.
But because candidates they've backed have won primaries in isolated places--often by not emphasizing some of their more extrene positions--they are having a moment.
And they have become the boogeymen and women an embattled Republican Party, saddled with an unpopular @POTUS, have seized on to try and deflect attention and hold the Congress.

[Walter Molina @WalterVMG]

Dear @EricCortellessa,

In your report, you offer superficial assessments and omit structural facts that are indispensable for understanding both Venezuela’s history and its current reality.

To begin with, you suggest there are signs of economic recovery, citing renewed construction activity, better-stocked shelves, and a recovering oil sector. None of this reflects the reality on the ground. Microeconomic and social indicators demonstrate that Venezuelans remain in a state of extreme vulnerability, which explains why forced migration continues to grow.

Regarding the oil industry, you fail to mention that production barely hovers around one million barrels per day—far below the three and a half million produced in 1998. You also omit that the destruction of PDVSA was carried out, to a large extent, under Delcy Rodríguez’s leadership during her years overseeing the sector. Likewise, you ignore what the *Wall Street Journal* recently reported: major U.S. energy companies remain unwilling to make large-scale investments because they understand that the Chavista tyranny offers neither legal certainty nor the confidence required for long-term investment.

Describing Delcy Rodríguez as a "technocrat" is a serious analytical mistake. She is, just like her brother, a radical operative of the regime. Her administrative incompetence was laid bare after the double earthquake, an event during which the Venezuelan state effectively collapsed. According to reports from organizations such as Transparencia Venezuela, during the first 24 hours following the catastrophe, the state apparatus deployed barely 12.6% of its maximum response capacity, reaching only 34.6% after 48 hours and not attaining full deployment until eighteen days later, long after the critical rescue window had closed.

Behind that façade of supposed moderation lies a strategy of tactical survival. By cultivating a more institutional image, she seeks to buy time and give the de facto regime political breathing room, despite the profound rejection of a population that longs for the end of this criminal, kleptocratic, and failed system. Delcy Rodríguez was a key figure in the repressive apparatus, which included overseeing torture centers such as El Helicoide. Hopefully, international journalism will not allow itself to be deceived by this carefully crafted image.

Regarding her family background, the report states that her father was killed by security forces in 1976—a condemnable fact—but omits the broader historical and political context: he was a guerrilla leader involved in the kidnapping of foreign citizens, including William Niehous. The article also glosses over the fact that his crimes were investigated and prosecuted under a democratic system, unlike the crimes against humanity committed by Chavism over the past 27 years, which continue to enjoy absolute impunity.

As for the so-called "amnesty law," the claim that "9,000 people were released" is misleading. These were releases under arbitrary judicial restrictions and the precarious regularization of individuals who remain under the regime’s judicial control. Today, Venezuela still holds nearly 500 political prisoners, many of whom have been subjected to systematic torture, while their families have now spent more than 200 consecutive nights holding vigil outside the prisons. This human and legal reality was largely ignored.

Finally, regarding Venezuela’s democratic prospects, it is evident that neither Delcy nor Jorge Rodríguez intend to allow a genuine democratic transition. Their tactical objective is to weather the current political cycle and eventually restore the patterns of domination they have maintained for nearly three decades. They share the same ideological foundation and govern through the same model of power established by Hugo Chávez and Nicolás Maduro; only their corporate manners have changed. I hope that @marcorubio and the broader international leadership remain fully aware that the only viable path to regional stability is a genuine democratic transition, without concessions to authoritarianism.

I hope these critical elements will be incorporated and addressed with greater rigor in future coverage by this prestigious magazine and, perhaps, examined directly by you, @EricCortellessa.

[Elizabeth Sanchez Vegas @elhabito]

🇨🇴🇻🇪 Murió Plinio Apuleyo Mendoza, una de las grandes conciencias liberales de nuestra América. Venezuela nunca fue para él una causa distante: fue el país que acogió a su familia en el exilio, donde comenzó a ejercer el periodismo y cuya tragedia denunció durante años, sin cálculos ni ambigüedades. Respaldó a nuestra oposición democrática, defendió a quienes eran perseguidos y expresó una profunda admiración por @MariaCorinaYA. En julio de 2014, en su columna “Sorpresas de un encuentro”, la llamó “la mujer que más admiro en nuestro continente”. No fue una cortesía circunstancial, sino el reconocimiento a su coraje y a su lucha por la libertad de Venezuela.

Plinio tuvo, además, una virtud cada vez más escasa: la honestidad intelectual de revisar sus propias convicciones. Conoció desde dentro la seducción revolucionaria, pero cuando comprendió el rostro autoritario del castrismo eligió la libertad, incluso al precio de disentir de grandes amigos y enfrentar amenazas. Combatió con la palabra, que en los hombres nobles nunca es adorno, sino conciencia.

Hoy despido a un colombiano que supo defender a Venezuela como si también fuera su patria. Falleció el 28 de julio de 2026, a los 94 años, después de más de siete décadas dedicadas al periodismo, la literatura, el ensayo y la diplomacia. #PlinioApuleyoMendoza

[Corina Yoris @yorisvillasana]

¡El 28 de julio de 2024 el pueblo venezolano dictó una sentencia contundente que nadie puede borrar! Fue un triunfo aplastante 🇻🇪 @Dinorahfiguera, esa mesa de negocios debe exigir con fuerza las verdaderas prioridades: libertad de los presos políticos, un TSJ y CNE independientes, y elecciones presidenciales ya.

[Cecilia Escobar @msbeauvoir]

@porlagoma Mari, ¿dónde está la reflexión? No consigo el siguiente tweet.

[María Corina Machado @MariaCorinaYA]

Mensaje de María Corina Machado y Edmundo González a los venezolanos y la comunidad internacional

[Rayma @raymacaricatura]

Asi va el reporte del BIEN contra el MAL 💛💙❤️#raymatoday

[Mari Montes 🇻🇪🫓🥭✏️🐾 ⚾️🏳️‍🌈 @porlagoma]

Comparto esta reflexión a propósito de un intercambio de ideas que tuve recientemente.

La dignidad humana es el valor que tiene cada persona por el simple hecho de existir. No depende del color de piel, del lugar donde nació, de su origen, de sus capacidades, de sus circunstancias ni de sus errores.

Estoy convencida de que antes que cualquier etiqueta está la persona. Por eso no puedo aceptar que alguien sea considerado inferior por pertenecer a un pueblo, una raza o una cultura determinada.

Defender la dignidad no significa negar nuestras diferencias; significa entender que ninguna diferencia nos hace más o menos humanos.

Me siento orgullosa de mis raíces, de mi mezcla, de la historia de quienes me precedieron. No porque una herencia sea superior a otra, sino porque cada historia humana merece respeto.

Como me dijo mi amigo sacerdote, Mikel de Viana (QEPD): “la dignidad implica reconocer la autonomía, los derechos y la integridad de cada ser humano, y tratarlo con respeto por el solo hecho de serlo.”

Esa debe ser siempre nuestra brújula: mirar primero a la persona.

[Cecilia Escobar @msbeauvoir]

@LuisCarlos Puedes nombrar NGO's fundadas por ex funcionarios? Cuáles?

[Perkins Rocha @PerkinsRocha]

Any negotiation or agreement with evil, no matter how minor, invariably ends in ruin; evil remains absolute, regardless of its scale…

[Pedro Mario Burelli @pburelli]

Delcy Rodríguez: Fake From Day One

By Pedro Mario Burelli

Washington screwed this up. Recognizing Delcy Rodríguez gives her zero legitimacy in Venezuela. None. Ever.

Here’s the contradiction the White House won’t touch: they say January 3rd wasn’t a “kidnapping” of Venezuela’s president because Maduro stopped being recognized back in 2019. Fine. Then Delcy’s appointment as VP is just as void. Every serious investor, bank, and law firm that’s done its homework already knows this.

You don’t get to call Maduro illegitimate when it’s convenient and then protect his VP by ignoring the Constitution when it’s not. That’s not policy. That’s a scam.

And here’s the part that matters most: Venezuelans hate Delcy, hate her brother Jorge, and hate the whole criminal operation Trump keeps propping up and praising in order to call his Venezuela policy a win. It’s not a win. It will never happen because the majority of Venezuelans won’t accept an arrangement that could have been justified for 30 days but has become grotesque 180 days after it started.

Right after the Mar-a-Lago press briefing on January 3rd, I said the military operation that took down Maduro-Flores was brilliant. But the political fix that followed? Bizarre. The Rodríguez siblings folded because Rubio threatened them: comply, or we go to phase two. That’s not a political solution. That’s a forced surrender with no legal basis at all.

The Iran adventure, possibly fueled by Maduro-capture hubris, backfired on President Trump, leaving the White House’s political and messaging machine reeling. That might explain why despite the devastation brought by double earthquakes, they persist in portraying Venezuelans as dancing in the streets and Delcy and her thugs as wonderful people to deal with. With hundreds of U.S. troops on the ground watching this unfold in real time, that line is palpably false and offensive. This stubborn, blind cohabitation with hardened criminals could cost them the midterms. Nobody, not even the most powerful country or leader on earth, gets to override gravity or nature.

2020 wasn’t lost to Biden. Trump lost it to himself, fighting the coronavirus and Fauci instead of his actual opponent. That handed the win to a mediocre candidate who became a mediocre president.

Now some, but not all, of Trump’s own advisors are trashing María Corina Machado, blaming her for the growing, and probably terminal, backlash against their failed “Delcy strategy.” They say she’s stoking division, as if hard facts and the earthquakes didn’t already expose decades of Chavista corruption and incompetence on their own. Blaming the country’s most respected leader for a mess Washington created though inflexibility, and crass profiteering, is unfair, stupid, and it’ll backfire.

There’s still time to fix this. Mistakes force a recalculation. So do earthquakes. Stubbornness isn’t a strategy. It’s denial.

A war foretold only kills the arrogant and the clueless. 250 years of standing for freedom and democracy, and the U.S. still can’t stop taking shortcuts that end in ruin, regrets and promises never to do it again.

[TalCual @DiarioTalCual]

#Ahora | La magistrada emérita Blanca Rosa Mármol afirma que “el interinato se terminó y la ciudadanía su soberanía que la tenía conculcada (…) Estamos aquí pidiendo junta de Gobierno”.

[Cecilia Escobar @msbeauvoir]

@LuisCarlos Narcisista. Gaslighting, como siempre. Esta gente no tiene valores morales, ni éticos. Se rigen por un padrón deshumanizado.

[Juan Carlos Chirinos @juance]

Tribunal de La Haya para estos tres criminales, ¡ya!

[Corina Yoris @yorisvillasana]

¿Y los presos políticos para cuándo? #LibertadParaTodosLosPresosPoliticos

[Cayetana Álvarez de Toledo @cayetanaAT]

Corrupta.
Criminal.
E hipócrita.

[Rick Scott @SenRickScott]

I just received a briefing from U.S. Southern Command on the ongoing efforts in Venezuela.

Thank you to our brave servicemen and women and other rescue crews supporting relief and recovery efforts on the ground.

It is critical that all humanitarian aid and resources remain under U.S. oversight. NOT ONE DIME should go to Delcy Rodríguez, Diosdado Cabello, or any part of their brutal and corrupt regime.

The Maduro regime, now led by Delcy, cannot be trusted with a single dollar intended for the Venezuelan people.

[Rick Scott @SenRickScott]

U.S. and international rescue workers, including our military, need to be able to do their jobs in Venezuela without interference. They’re there to save lives.

Anyone who gets in the way of that, including Diosdado Cabello, will be held accountable and face consequences. This is the LAST person who needs to be calling the shots. Let rescue workers do what they’re there to do.