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Skeptical opposition participating in Venezuela regional elections

AFP

Venezuela’s opposition will contest regional elections Sunday for the first time in three years but it will do so disunited and unconvinced President Nicolas Maduro will allow the vote to be free.

The main opposition boycotted the last legislative and presidential elections over a lack of free, fair and transparent polls but agreed to take part in Sunday’s mayoral and gubernatorial vote after receiving certain assurances from the government.

For Maduro, those concessions were aimed at securing a measure of relief from the punishing US sanctions against his government, notably the state PDVSA oil company.

Maduro wants to be able to sell Venezuelan oil on the international market, especially in the United States, which used to be the country’s biggest customer.

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These elections, while relatively minor, will therefore be a test to see if Venezuela is prepared to take significant steps towards democracy following opposition cries of fraud in 2018 presidential and 2020 legislative votes.

Chief amongst the government’s concessions is the return of European Union observers for the first time in 15 years.

Maduro also agreed to end the controversial protectorate system the government used to strip power from opposition governors — essentially meaning the ruling party was in control of all states.

And while he resumed Norwegian-mediated talks with the opposition in Mexico, they were suspended following the extradition of alleged money launderer and Maduro ally Alex Saab from Cape Verde to the United States.

Maduro also railed against the US State Department earlier this week accusing it of trying to “interfere in Venezuela’s internal affairs” over a press report that the White House had said the elections would be “manipulated.”

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– ‘Serious obstacles’ –

These elections are seen as a trial for future election integrity and to see whether the Maduro regime is prepared to allow democracy to run its course, something the opposition says he has not done since the bruising defeat his United Socialist party suffered in the 2015 parliamentary poll.

Yet even if Sunday turns out to be free and fair, and despite the main opposition Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD) coalition being cleared to participate following a three-year ban by the National Electoral Council (CNE,) problems remain for the opposition.

Although the MUD has agreed to run, it still insisted the elections “won’t be fair or conventional” due to “serious obstacles” placed by the government.

There is also a lack of unity amongst opposition ranks.

Opposition leader Juan Guaido has not spoken openly in support or against participation.

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Last month a former presidential candidate, Henrique Capriles, blasted the “deadly” divisions in the opposition and urged the various factions to settle their differences and support the best-placed candidates.

A united opposition had defeated the government in 2015, he pointed out.

But that call has fallen mostly on deaf ears.

One exception is in Miranda state where last week Carlos Ocariz pulled out of the governor’s race and left David Uzcategui — with whom he has had a long-running feud — as the only opposition candidate.

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International

Trump to sign over 200 executive orders, declaring National Emergency at U.S.-Mexico Border

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A senior administration official familiar with the executive actions Trump will sign, and who was authorized to inform the media according to Fox News, said that the president will sign multiple “omnibus” executive orders, each containing dozens of significant actions.

The source indicated that Trump will declare a national border emergency, order the U.S. military to work with the Department of Homeland Security to fully secure the southern border, and make it a national priority to eliminate all criminal cartels operating on U.S. soil. This version of the emergency declaration had previously been reported by CNN News and was also confirmed to The Wall Street Journal on Sunday.

According to Fox News, Trump will close the border to all undocumented foreign nationals through a proclamation. He will also create task forces for national security protection, working with officials from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and other agencies to “completely eradicate the presence of criminal cartels.”

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International

Trump appoints Stallone, Voight, and Gibson as special ambassadors to Hollywood

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“They will help me as special envoys to make Hollywood, which has lost many overseas businesses in the last four years, COME BACK BIGGER, BETTER, AND STRONGER THAN EVER,” he posted on his social media platform, Truth Social.

The Republican lamented all the “problems” he claims Hollywood faces and created this role with the aim of improving the situation from a business perspective.

“These three talented men will be my eyes and ears. I will do whatever they suggest,” he said.

Stallone had previously described Trump as the second George Washington, the first U.S. president (1789–1797) and one of the nation’s founding fathers, during a dinner after his victory in the November presidential elections, where he served as the master of ceremonies.

Meanwhile, Gibson attacked Trump’s rival, Vice President Kamala Harris, accusing her of having “the IQ of a fence.”

The Republican leader will be sworn in as president on January 20 on the steps of the U.S. Capitol, succeeding Democrat Joe Biden.

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International

Latin American and Caribbean diplomats voice concern over U.S. mass deportation plan

Diplomatic chiefs from ten Latin American and Caribbean countries expressed their “serious concern” over the announcement of a mass deportation of migrants, a measure they consider incompatible with human rights, according to a joint statement released this Friday.

The statement, which does not attribute the measure to any specific country, refers to the announcement made by U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, who has promised to carry out the largest foreign deportation operation in the history of the nation once he takes office next Monday. “The announcements of mass deportations are a serious cause for concern, especially due to their incompatibility with the fundamental principles of human rights and their failure to effectively address the structural causes of migration,” the statement said, released by Mexico’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (SRE).

The signing countries—Brazil, Belize, Colombia, Cuba, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, and Venezuela (almost all migrant-sending nations)—also committed to “defend the human rights of all migrants.”

This includes “rejecting the criminalization of migrants at all stages of the migration cycle” and “protecting them as a priority from transnational organized crime that profits from migration,” the document adds.

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