International

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 urges Putin to reach peace deal

On Monday, U.S. President Donald Trump reiterated his desire for Russian President Vladimir Putin to “reach a deal” to end the war in Ukraine, while also reaffirming his willingness to impose sanctions on Russia.

“I want to see him reach an agreement to prevent Russian, Ukrainian, and other people from dying,” Trump stated during a press conference in the Oval Office at the White House.

“I think he will. I don’t want to have to impose secondary tariffs on Russian oil,” the Republican leader added, recalling that he had already taken similar measures against Venezuela by sanctioning buyers of the South American country’s crude oil.

Trump also reiterated his frustration over Ukraine’s resistance to an agreement that would allow the United States to exploit natural resources in the country—a condition he set in negotiations to end the war.

International

Deportation flight lands in Venezuela; government denies criminal gang links

A flight carrying 175 Venezuelan migrants deported from the United States arrived in Caracas on Sunday. This marks the third group to return since repatriation flights resumed a week ago, and among them is an alleged member of a criminal organization, according to Venezuelan authorities.

Unlike previous flights operated by the Venezuelan state airline Conviasa, this time, an aircraft from the U.S. airline Eastern landed at Maiquetía Airport, on the outskirts of Caracas, shortly after 2:00 p.m. with the deportees.

Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello, who welcomed the returnees at the airport, stated that the 175 repatriated individuals were coming back “after being subjected, like all Venezuelans, to persecution” and dismissed claims that they belonged to the criminal organization El Tren de Aragua.

However, Cabello confirmed that “for the first time in these flights we have been carrying out, someone of significance wanted by Venezuelan justice has arrived, and he is not from El Tren de Aragua.” Instead, he belongs to a gang operating in the state of Trujillo. The minister did not disclose the individual’s identity or provide details on where he would be taken.

International

Son of journalist José Rubén Zamora condemns father’s return to prison as “illegal”

Guatemalan court decides Wednesday whether to convict journalist José Rubén Zamora

The son of renowned journalist José Rubén Zamora Marroquín, José Carlos Zamora, has denounced as “illegal” the court order that sent his father back to a Guatemalan prison on March 3, after already spending 819 days behind barsover a highly irregular money laundering case.

“My father’s return to prison was based on an arbitrary and illegal ruling. It is also alarming that the judge who had granted him house arrest received threats,” José Carlos Zamora told EFE in an interview on Saturday.

The 67-year-old journalist was sent back to prison inside the Mariscal Zavala military barracks on March 3, when Judge Erick García upheld a Court of Appeals ruling that overturned the house arrest granted to him in October. Zamora had already spent 819 days in prison over an alleged money laundering case.

His son condemned the situation as “unacceptable”, stating that the judge handling the case “cannot do his job in accordance with the law due to threats against his life.”