Latin America | Venezuela | Economy

In Venezuela, women sell hair as another way to get by

Valery Díaz covered her eyes and held her breath before looking in a hair salon mirror to see herself without much of the long dark hair that used to frame her face. The 16-year-old student was paid $100 for the shorn hair, money she'll use to help her family and buy a cellphone at a time when Venezuela's sharp economic decline has led to shortages of food and medicine, and hyperinflation has made salaries nearly worthless. Increasing numbers of women in poor neighborhoods are selling their hair for use in wigs and extensions as the demands of daily survival force them t

Latin America | Venezuela | Politics

Opposition leader favored to win elections barred from office

Source: Pangea Today

Just as she was announced as the favorite to win the upcoming parliamentary elections, the Comptroller General of Venezuela barred opposition leader and former deputy, Maria Corina Machado, from assuming any public office position for a year. “[The government is] acting like the dictators that they are, but [should] get ready, because we will act like the majority that we are,” Machado wrote on her Twitter account. She also published her sanction letter that read that the decision was made based on the anti-corruption law but included no other details.

Latin America | Venezuela | Politics

Parliamentary elections with gender parity in Venezuela

Source: Curacao-Chronicle

More women could be elected to the Venezuelan legislature, but the new rule on gender parity for the upcoming parliamentary elections has been caught up in the political polarisation that has had this country in its grip for years. “This rule was long in coming, and is the product of decades of struggle and sacrifice by hundreds of women,” Tibisay Lucena, the president of the National Electoral Council (CNE), said at the presentation of the new regulation on gender parity. “We are moving towards the construction of a better democracy,” she added. The new gender parity regulation

Latin America | Venezuela | Politics

Carmen Rivas: Venezula’s first female admiral rose through high-ranking political arena

Source: The Times Herald

Born in Barinas, Venezuela on Nov. 3, 1961, Carmen Teresa Melendez Rivas rose through native Venezuela’s high-ranking political arena through hard work and perseverance. Carmen began her naval training in 1984 at the age of 23 at the Naval School of Venezuela and continued with a course in logistics in the Graduate School of the Navy a year later. In 1999 she completed a basic course in Naval Warfare. In 2013 President Nicolas Maduro appointed Carmen as Admiral- in-Chief resulting in her becoming Venezula’s first female admiral. From July 5, 2013 to Oct. 25, 2014 Carmen held the pr