Venezuela Research Articles

Evaluation of Implementation of the HEARTS Initiative in a Rural Community in Venezuela, 2023Avaliação da implementação da iniciativa HEARTS em uma comunidade rural da Venezuela, 2023

To evaluate the implementation of HEARTS strategies in a community in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. Quasi-experimental study evaluating the cascade of care, driving factors, and maturity and performance indicators four months after implementation of the HEARTS initiative in 52 patients with high blood pressure (BP) in the community of La Marroquina. The data were processed using SPSS® Statistics, version 25.0. Student's t-distribution and chi-square tests were applied to determine statistical significance. Fifty patients, 63.5% of them with a low educational level and low or very low socioeconomic status, completed the four-month monitoring period. At baseline, 11.5% had controlled BP and 40.4% initiated monotherapy. By the fourth month, 100% of patients with high BP had been diagnosed, 92% had received treatment, and 52% had achieved control of their BP. Seventy-two percent were receiving combined therapy. Seventy percent of the hypertensive individuals maintained blood pressure levels <140/90 mmHg. The maturity index score was 4 of 5, and the performance index was classified as incipient. This work shows that, in a short time, a good maturity index was achieved through the implementation, by medical and supervised non-medical personnel, of a standardized protocol for diagnosis, treatment, and monitoring of high blood pressure in a rural population. Rates of diagnosis, treatment, and BP control improved, with incipient performance results. Sustaining this initiative will have a major impact on the health of this population. Its implementation as a national public health policy is recommended.

Syrian Hamsters Model Does Not Reflect Human-like Disease after Aerosol Exposure to Encephalitic Alphaviruses.

Venezuelan (VEE), eastern (EEE), and western (WEE) equine encephalitis viruses are encephalitic New World alphaviruses that cause periodic epizootic and epidemic outbreaks in horses and humans that may cause severe morbidity and mortality. Currently there are no FDA-licensed vaccines or effective antiviral therapies. Each year, there are a limited number of human cases of encephalitic alphaviruses; thus, licensure of a vaccine or therapeutic would require approval under the FDA animal rule. Approval under the FDA animal rule requires the disease observed in the animal model to recapitulate what is observed in humans. Currently, initial testing of vaccines and therapeutics is performed in the mouse model. Unfortunately, alphavirus disease manifestations in a mouse do not faithfully recapitulate human disease; the VEEV mouse model is lethal whereas in humans VEEV is rarely lethal. In an effort to identify a more appropriate small animal model, we evaluated hamsters in an aerosol exposure model of encephalitic alphavirus infection. The pathology, lethality, and viremia observed in the infected hamsters was inconsistent with what is observed in NHP models and humans. These data suggest that hamsters are not an appropriate model for encephalitic alphaviruses to test vaccines or potential antiviral therapies.

Arbitral Award of Oct. 3, 1899 (Guy. v. Venez.) (Preliminary Objections) (I.C.J.)

On March 29, 2018, the Government of the Co-operative Republic of Guyana (hereinafter Guyana) filed in the Registry of the Court an application instituting proceedings against the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela (hereinafter Venezuela) with respect to a dispute concerning “the legal validity and binding effect of the Award regarding the Boundary between the Colony of British Guiana and the United States of Venezuela, of 3 October 1899” (hereinafter the 1899 Award or the Award).

The Waiting Game: Who Benefits from Recovered Assets Associated with Venezuelan State Corruption? Remission as a Solution

The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela (“Venezuela”) has, and continues to undergo, significant political and economic challenges stemming from government corruption. In response, the United States government has seized assets of current or former Venezuelan state officials associated with criminal wrongdoing, imposed sanctions on Nicolas Maduro’s government, and proposed legislation to combat corruption. The Department of Justice (“DOJ”) has led dozens of prosecutions against those responsible for these crimes through its use of asset forfeiture, a critical tool in the recovery of illicit proceeds. An estimated $300 billion of these assets are held in South Florida alone, with $1.5 billion identified in U.S. court filings. The U.S. government has freed up assets on a very limited basis for emergency use by the U.S.-recognized opposition government. This begs a few questions: will these assets be returned to victims of corruption, and, if so, when, to whom, and how? To remedy this dilemma, the U.S. government should open the door to reviewing petitions for remission: a DOJ-led mechanism used to compensate victims that experienced a pecuniary loss as a result of a crime underlying forfeiture. This process, which is authorized under the forfeiture statutes and other regulations, has proven to be successful when compensating victims in large, multi-victim, white-collar crime cases. However, the review and approval of remission applications lies solely in the hands of the DOJ, with no possibility for judicial review. Still, victims that can meet the intricate requirements of remission have a chance at compensation for their financial losses. Through this process, the DOJ’s Asset Forfeiture Program can accomplish one of its primary goals in support of those affected by Venezuelan-state corruption: recover and return forfeited assets to victims.

Comparison of social gradient in cardiometabolic health in Czechia and Venezuela: a cross-sectional study

ObjectivesThis study compared the relationships of social determinants with cardiometabolic risk in different socioeconomic contexts: sociopolitically unstable Venezuela (VE) and stable Czechia (CZ).Design: cross-sectional analysis involving two population-based studies.SettingBrno, Czechia...

Features of bilateral relations between Turkey and the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela in the context of role theory

As a result of the transformation of the international system in the 21st century, the role of Latin America is becoming increasingly important and interest in it is growing. Before the beginning of the 21st century relations of Turkey with the states of Latin America and the Caribbean were limited, but in the last two decades they have gained strategic importance. Venezuela is one of the countries that Turkey identifies as strategically important from the economical and political points of view. In this article, bilateral contacts between the two states have been examined through the lens of the &amp;quot;role theory&amp;quot;, taking into account the overall role played by Turkey in Latin America and, in part, the role of Venezuela in the Middle East.

Venezuelan Colectivos: A Symbol of the Authoritarian Rule of Hugo Chávez and Nicolás Maduro

The article aims to present the role played in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela by colectivos – criminal groups adhering to extreme leftist ideology. The text characterises the essence of these groups, while highlighting that they are an important factor petrifying the resistance of the Chavist ruling camp. The work also contains an analysis of the impact of colectivos on the electoral process. It was emphasized that the procedure of intimidation of the opposition by members of the discussed groups is only one of the elements that are part of the broadly defined actions carried out by the ruling camp to maintain power, and resulting not only in the deterioration of internal security, but also in violation of the principles of a democratic state governed by the rule of law. The research results indicate that these groups constitute a noticeable and important, although only secondary, means of influencing the opposition.

Social Disparities in Cardiometabolic Health in Czechia and Venezuela Using the Allostatic Load Model

Abstract Background Subjects with lower socioeconomic status (SES) are exposed to higher levels of environmental stressors. The cumulative effects of chronic stressors on cardiometabolic health can be evaluated using the allostatic load (AL) score. Despite the accepted social gradient, clear relationships between social determinants and cardiometabolic health in populations with different socio-cultural contexts have been rarely explored. This study aimed to compare the relationships of social determinants with AL in different socioeconomic contexts: unstable Venezuela (VE) and stable Czechia (CZ). Methods 25-64 years old subjects from two cross-sectional population-based samples from CZ (2013-2014, n = 1579, 56% females) and VE (2014-2017, n = 1652, 70% females). The AL score (scaled 0-8) was calculated using 8 cardiometabolic biomarkers (BMI, waist circumference, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, total and HDL-cholesterol, triglycerides). Social characteristics included education in both countries, household income in CZ, and composite measure of SES based on source of income, household head's profession, motheŕs education, and housing conditions in VE. Ordinal regression was performed separately in men and women. Results In CZ, men and women with low education and women with low income were more likely to have higher score of AL compared to those with high education and income (OR 1.45, 2.29 and 1.69). In VE, women with low education and low SES were more likely to have higher AL (OR 1.47 and 1.51), while men with low education and low SES were less likely to have higher AL (OR 0.64 and 0.61), compared to those with high education and high SES. Independently of age, sex, and socioeconomic characteristics, Venezuelans were more likely to have higher AL than Czechs. Conclusions Associations of social position indices and cardiometabolic health (proxied by AL) differed between CZ and VE, most likely reflecting differences in social environment between the countries. Key messages

Strategic Approaches to Sustainable Development Economies under Multiple Sanctions

Various kinds of punishments and coercion, currently commonly referred to as sanctions, have a long history. After the Second World War, in addition to the UN, a number individual states and groups of states use them not only in order to force others to comply with international law, but also to achieve the goals pursued by sanctions. These goals have included also the elimination of the leadership of the leadership of countries, the change of the political system, the destruction of the economy. The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (since 1950), the Republic of Cuba (since 1960), the Islamic Republic of Iran (since 1977), the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela (since 2017) have been living under such sanctions for many years. The USSR was under sanctions pressure, and now is the Russian Federation. The purpose of this work was a political-economic study of the nature of possible strategies for the progressive development of the country’s economy in the conditions of economic, scientific, technological, informational, cultural and educational isolation from a number of states of the world community. The completed research led the author to the conclusion that under unprecedented scale and enormous force of anti-Russian sanctions is advisable for the Russian Federation to focus on reviving its own economy, on solving internal issues and to respond to sanctions with counter-sanctions only to the extent that the latter restrain the progressive development of Russia. In order to do this they should strive to do the following: to increase the population, to raise the standard of living and education, to achieve import and export independence, find new friends and partners, to get away from the American dollar, to create a legislative, business, scientific, educational and information environment favorable for development, to have a developed infrastructure.

Уго Чавес ‒ деятель планетарного масштаба

The article analyzes the international course of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela in the first decade of the 2000s. The author believes that considering this particular period of the recent history of Venezuela as an integral part of the world historical process, is particularly important since the formation of the Hugo Chavez regime with its peculiar foreign policy and foreign economic steps took place precisely in the first half of the first decade of the 21st century. With the constitutional rise to power of the charismatic leader Hugo Chavez, the country's foreign pol-icy acquired a multi-vector character embracing all regions of Earth. Hugo Chavez strengthened the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, in collaboration with Fidel Castro founded the "Bolivarian Alternative for America" (ALBA), which united the left-wing radical regimes of the continent; he established contacts with many leaders of the Third World, has confronted the United States, established friendly relations with China and a strategic partnership with Russia. This arti-cle is devoted to some, albeit very significant, aspects of Chavez’s for-eign policy.

Vestey Group Ltd v. Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Case No. ARB/ 06/4, Decision on Annulment 26 April 2019

Vestey Group Ltd v. Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Case No. ARB/ 06/4, Decision on Annulment 26 April 2019

Tenaris S.A. and Talta - Trading e Marketing Sociedade Unipessoal Lda. v. Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Case No. ARB/11/26, Decision on the Application for Annulment Of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela 8 August 2018

Tenaris S.A. and Talta - Trading e Marketing Sociedade Unipessoal Lda. v. Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Case No. ARB/11/26, Decision on the Application for Annulment Of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela 8 August 2018

IR, imperialism, and the Global South: From Libya to Venezuela

This article brings together two cases to contribute to the growing body of literature rethinking the study of international relations (IR) and the Global South: The Libyan Arab al-Jamāhīrīyah and the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. Drawing on media representations and secondary literature from IR and international political economy (IPE), it critically examines three main conceptual theses (authoritarian, rentier, and rogue) used to describe the historical socio-political formations of these states up to this date. Mixing oil abundance with authoritarian revolutionary fervour and foreign policy adventurism, Libya and Venezuela have been progressively reduced to the figure of one man, while presenting their current crises as localized processes delinked from the imperialist inter-state system. The article argues that these analyses, if left unquestioned, perpetuate a US-led imperial ordering of the world, while foreclosing and discrediting alternatives to capitalist development emerging from and grounded in a Global South context. In doing so, the article contributes to the growing and controversial debate on the meanings and needs for decolonizing the study of IR.

A brief note on the finding of specimens of crabhole mosquitoes (Deinocerites magnus Theobald, 1901) (Diptera: Culicidae) in Chuao community, in the coast of Aragua state (Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela)

A brief note on the finding of specimens of crabhole mosquitoes (Deinocerites magnus Theobald, 1901) (Diptera: Culicidae) in Chuao community, in the coast of Aragua state (Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela)

Sam Dubberley, Alexa Koenig and Daragh Murray (editors), Digital Witness: Using Open Source Information for Human Rights Investigation, Documentation and Accountability

The effectiveness of fact-finding methods has proved to be a crucial component in reporting, documenting, and pursuing justice and accountability for the most serious international crimes and atrocities. Traditionally, United Nations Fact-Finding Missions (UN FFM) have been the primary initiators of in-depth investigations aimed at gathering evidence of alleged violations and identifying alleged perpetrators.1 1 T. Piccone, UN Commissions of Inquiry: The Quest for Accountability, Brookings Foreign Policy Report, December 2017, available online at https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/fp_20171208_un_human_rights_commisions_inquiry.pdf (visited 24 April 2021), at 1 and 2. For instance, in 2018 the UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission (IIFFM) on Myanmar’s report cited Facebook posts and videos as evidence proving Myanmar military leaders’ perpetration of crimes against humanity.2 2 Report of the independent international fact-finding mission on Myanmar, UN Doc. A/HRC/39/64, 12 September 2018, available online at https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/HRBodies/HRCouncil/FFM-Myanmar/A_HRC_39_64.pdf (visited 24 April 2021). 3 Detailed findings of the independent international fact-finding mission on the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, UN Doc. A/HRC/45/CRP.11, 15 September 2020, available online at https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/HRBodies/HRCouncil/FFMV/A_HRC_45_CRP.11.pdf (visited 24 April 2021).

Urban Management as a Pedagogical Tool. San José De Cúcuta: Causes, Phenomena and Impacts on Urban Growth

In this article the transformation of the territory of San José de Cúcuta, Norte de Santander- Colombia, borderarea with the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela during the last twenty years was studied, from a territorialand pedagogical approach based on the analysis of the physical dimensions -environmental, social-culturaland economic-normative, and phenomena such as: scarcity of developable land, limited urban planning andcontrol strategies, migration, informality of the land and risks due to socio-natural phenomena as input in orderto propose aspects and significant strategies for solving problems present in the territory. A mixed inductiveanalyticalmethod was used, by source of documentary data collection. It was found that the city shouldprioritize interventions focused on property sanitation and land formalization. In addition, that with respect tothe physical- environmental and social-cultural dimensions, it is necessary to establish mechanisms for urbanplanning and management in response to the Sustainable Development Goals proposed for Latin Americancities by the United Nations and contemplated in the agenda. 2030 for sustainable development.

Crystallex Int'l Corp. v. Bolivarian Rep. Venez. (3D Cir.)

On May 18, 2020, the United States Supreme Court denied a request by the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and its state-owned oil company, Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. (PDVSA), to review the merits of Crystallex Int'l Corp. v. Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, a decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. In Crystallex, the Third Circuit affirmed a trial court's determination that PDVSA is the “alter ego” of Venezuela itself, thus permitting Crystallex to enforce a $1.4 billion judgment against Venezuela by attaching property held in PDVSA's name. Given the Supreme Court's decision to leave the Third Circuit's opinion undisturbed, Crystallex is a significant decision that may affect parties involved in transnational litigation for years to come—especially those pursuing or defending against U.S. enforcement proceedings involving the property of foreign states.

Preparation of a Manual for the Organization of the Work of the Nucleus of Socialist Agroecological Training ¨Indio Rangel¨ (NUFASIR) Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela

Within the framework of the collaboration carried out between the Republic of Cuba and the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, there are close working ties between the University Center of Trinidad, Cuba and the Indio Rangel Socialist Agroecological Training Center of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, within the framework of this professional collaboration, the aforementioned entity, requested the Cuban side, the support in the elaboration of a methodological document, which would allow the organization and better planning of the human resources in the aforementioned institution. This is why Cuban and Venezuelan specialists participate in the preparation of this manual, which constitutes a tool for the orientation and facilitation in the action of labor resources, becoming a document of consultation and mandatory analysis of the managers and workers of this entity, is structured in Eight Chapters, which are adjusted to the international standards in this matter, in addition to strict adherence to compliance with what is established in terms of labor organization at the international level and at the level of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, in these chapters you can find from the characterization of the main work areas, to the functions that each worker must perform, in each job that the entity needs, a methodology devised to carry out a methodology also appears as a novelty within the document. evaluation of labor performance, in a more accurate way and adjusted to the conditions of this institution, and at the end a chapter has been dedicated to everything related to material responsibility, levels of access to the areas and the way of preservation of the themselves, as any document of this type is subject to change and adaptation of the law.

The Environmental Management Tools and Instruments of Aplication

Environmental Management has made considerable progress in Latin America and the Caribbean in the last two decades, particularly after the Rio de Janeiro Summit on Environment and Development. There is greater public awareness of the various environmental problems and there is greater understanding of the complex relationships existing between environment and development, which is reflected in expanding environmental agenda has gradually permeating towards different sectors of the s activity is economic s, social is political and sof the different countries of the region. Almost all countries have extensive Environmental Legislation and have established citizen rights and obligations, and in turn have defined the functions of the state and public bodies responsible for Environmental Matters, and Venezuela is no exception. With the creation of the Ministry of the Environment in 1976, they complement and comply with everything related to Environmental Legislation, which in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela is very broad and of great importance for the conservation of natural resources. For the development of this article, it was first developed what is related to the conception of the environment and then with the development of the theme of Environmental management, its scope of application, environmental policy and a brief description of the tools and instruments of Environmental Management.

El menoscabo sobre los derechos fundamentales de la etnia Warao en Venezuela como consecuencia del VIH/SIDA y sus implicaciones en tiempos de pandemia

En este artículo, se analizó el menoscabo de los derechos humanos del pueblo Warao en la República Bolivariana de Venezuela, a raíz de la epidemia de VIH/Sida que durante 2019 y 2020 ha sido confirmada entre ellos, también en el contexto de la pandemia por COVID-19. El trabajo se realizó bajo investigación documental cualitativa dentro de la cual se revisaron doctrina, normas jurídicas y jurisprudencia para recabar la información necesaria. Se determinó que la etnia Warao ha sido desatendida en la proliferación del VIH, comprometiendo así sus derechos a la vida, salud, entre otros. También se observó que una causa para el abandono de estas personas, se debe actualmente a la reasignación de recursos para abordar el combate al coronavirus, así que el Estado venezolano como garante de los derechos fundamentales, está en el deber de corregir esta situación, pues es directamente responsable de lo ocurrido hasta ahora a estos indígenas.