International
Nobel Prize winner Óscar Arias: Maduro leads a “narco-state” and it is difficult for him to surrender power
The former president of Costa Rica and Nobel Peace Prize winner, Óscar Arias, said in an interview with EFE that the Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro, leads a “dictatorship” and a “narco-state,” so he considers it difficult for him to hand over power.
“I feel very sad but it hasn’t been something I wouldn’t have imagined. It’s not a surprise. I anticipated it because the dictators do not know how to move away from the presidential chair and, in addition, there is something very peculiar about the Government of Venezuela, and that is that it is a narco-state,” Arias said.
The 1987 Nobel Peace Prize assured that the elections of last July 28 in Venezuela were “a farce” in which Maduro “stole” the triumph and the Venezuelan people do not “deserve” that.
“The Venezuelan people deserve the government to be handed over to the winner but, unfortunately, I am very skeptical. It is not easy for a narco-state, knowing that they are going to rot in a dungeon, to hand over power,” Arias said.
The president of Costa Rica, who ruled between 1986 and 1990 and between 2006 and 2010, considered that it is “difficult” for Maduro to leave power, but that he still hopes that the situation may change because “putting Venezuela to produce is impossible with a dictatorship like the one that Maduro has.”
“Unfortunately what is going to happen with six more years of Maduro is that that people, already miserable, suffering from hunger, are going to become more and more impoverished. It is impossible, with that ideology that the Chavistas have, to be able to take out (before) that country, think about foreign investment, domestic investment, that they can diversify the economy, end inflation,” he said.
Arias, 83 years old, regretted that Mexico, Colombia and Brazil have not been so blunt when referring to the Venezuelan elections, although he clarified that it may be understandable if their intention is to be mediators.
“I thought that Mexico, Colombia and Brazil were going to tell Maduro: ‘your choice was a robbery, you stole the election of the Venezuelan people disrespecting the will of that people expressed at the polls, you committed a fraud that cannot be hidden’, but I was wrong, they didn’t do that. I understand that if the role is to mediate, they don’t have to be so blunt,” he said.
Arias assured that in advance all the polls gave as the winner the opponent Edmundo González, supported by the leader María Corina Machado, in a context in which there is “a very great discontent” with the Maduro Government and Chavismo, in general.
“The rulers of Venezuela, (Hugo) Chávez (already deceased) and Maduro have done a lot of damage. In Venezuela, killing a person is called homicide, but starving an entire people is called Chavismo and that’s what has happened. The best example is that more than 7 million Venezuelans have left (emigrated),” he said.
The Government of Venezuela denounced on Thursday to ambassadors that the electoral records released by anti-chavism are false and intend to “ignore the results” of the presidential elections, in which the electoral body ratified Nicolás Maduro as the winner, a victory questioned inside and outside the country.
For its part, the largest opposition coalition, the Democratic Unitary Platform (PUD), disclosed on a website “83.5%” of the electoral acts that, they insist, demonstrate the triumph of its candidate, Edmundo González Urrutia, something that the Government of Venezuela rejects when considering that they are “forged documents.”
The Venezuelan Prosecutor’s Office announced last Wednesday an investigation for “conspiracy” and other crimes on the website where the majority opposition disclosed the minutes of the presidential elections.
The National Electoral Council (CNE) has not published the minutes that certify Maduro’s victory, as indicated by the legal regulations, and left in the hands of the Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ) the process of “certification” of the official result, at the request of the president.
Former President Arias said that “for a long time” there are no independent institutions in Venezuela, since they all respond to Maduro’s orders.
International
Trump criticizes Panama Canal fees and demands U.S. control over strategic waterway
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump criticized what he described as unfair fees imposed on American ships passing through the Panama Canal and threatened to demand that Washington take back control of the strategic waterway.
“Our Navy and commerce have been threatened in a very unjust and reckless way. The rates that Panama charges are ridiculous,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
The president-elect also denounced the growing influence of China in the canal, a situation he called concerning as U.S. businesses depend on the waterway to transport goods between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
“This complete scam against our country will end immediately,” he stated.
The Panama Canal, completed by the United States in 1914, was handed over to Panama under the 1977 treaty signed by Democratic President Jimmy Carter. Panama took full control of the commercial passage in 1999.
“It was exclusively for Panama to manage, not China or anyone else,” Trump said. “We would never allow it to fall into the wrong hands!”
“If Panama cannot guarantee a ‘safe, efficient, and reliable’ operation of the canal, we will demand that the Panama Canal be returned to us in its entirety, without a doubt,” the Republican added.
Panamanian authorities did not immediately respond to Trump’s statements. While he will assume office on January 20, Trump has been exerting his political influence in the final days of President Joe Biden’s administration.
Five percent of global maritime trade passes through the Panama Canal, which allows vessels traveling from Asia to the U.S. East Coast to avoid the long and dangerous route around the southern tip of South America.
The countries that use the Panama Canal the most are the United States, China, Japan, and South Korea.
In October, the Panama Canal Authority reported earnings of nearly $5 billion in the last fiscal year.
International
Putin vows retaliation following drone attack on luxury building in Kazan
Russian President Vladimir Putin promised more “destruction” in Ukraine on Sunday, in response to a drone strike that hit a residential building in the city of Kazan, located in central Russia, on Saturday.
Russia accused Ukraine of launching a “massive” drone attack, which struck a luxury apartment block in Kazan, about 1,000 kilometers from the border.
Videos shared on Russian social media show drones hitting a high-rise glass building. No casualties have been reported as a result of the attack.
In his statements, Putin addressed the local leader of Tatarstan, the region where Kazan is located, during a virtual ceremony marking the opening of a road.
The attack in Kazan is the latest in a series of increasingly frequent bombings in this nearly three-year-old conflict. Ukraine has not commented on the attack.
Putin had previously threatened to strike the center of Kyiv with a hypersonic ballistic missile in response to Ukrainian attacks on Russian territory.
The Russian Ministry of Defense stated that the recent Russian strikes on Ukrainian energy facilities were retaliation for Ukraine’s use of Western-supplied missiles to target Russian territory.
International
Small plane crashes in Gramado, Brazil, killing nine people
At least nine people were killed on Sunday after a small aircraft crashed in a commercial area of the tourist city of Gramado, in the southern Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul, authorities confirmed.
“There are nine confirmed deaths according to Civil Defense services, and there are no survivors from the plane,” said Cléber dos Santos Lima, director of the Interior Police Department of the Civil Police of the state, in a statement to AFP.
Authorities have not yet confirmed the exact number of passengers and crew aboard the aircraft, a turbo-prop Piper Cheyenne 400. However, Civil Defense had previously stated that “preliminarily, the plane was carrying ten people.”
The plane crashed on Sunday morning “into the chimney of a building, then onto the second floor of a house, and finally fell onto a furniture store,” according to a statement from the Rio Grande do Sul Public Security Secretariat.
Trump criticizes Panama Canal fees and demands U.S. control over strategic waterway
Putin vows retaliation following drone attack on luxury building in Kazan
Small plane crashes in Gramado, Brazil, killing nine people
Tec de Monterrey honors one of its students for his contribution to nanotechnology in medicine
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