The President of Paraguay, Santiago Peña, met this Sunday in Washington with opposition leader Edmundo González Urrutia, to whom he reiterated his “support for the transition process in Venezuela,” following Nicolás Maduro’s inauguration as president of the Caribbean country amid questioning of his victory by the opposition and the international community.

This was reported by the Paraguayan presidency in a press release, which highlighted that Peña “had a meeting with the elected president of Venezuela, Edmundo González Urrutia,” one day before both leaders were to attend the inauguration of the next U.S. president, Donald Trump.

“Peña reaffirmed his commitment to democracy and expressed his support for the transition process in Venezuela,” and also “highlighted the importance of working with the international community to contribute to the restoration of democracy,” the statement added.

González Urrutia, whom the majority of Venezuela’s opposition, grouped in the Democratic Unitary Platform (PUD), recognizes as the winner of the July 28 presidential election, expressed feeling the support of Paraguay and regional countries.

Businessman Elon Musk described Justin Trudeau as “stupid unbearable” on Wednesday after the Canadian prime minister delivered a speech in which he linked Donald Trump to the decline in women’s rights.

In the same message on his social network X, Musk also anticipated that Trudeau “will not be in power for a long time.”

Musk posted his message in response to another publication by a Canadian conservative academic who described Trudeau as “grotesque” as a comment on a video of the speech delivered this Wednesday by the Canadian leader.

The fight between Trudeau and Trump

On Wednesday, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau linked Donald Trump’s electoral victory to the decline of women’s rights, after the Republican mocked the Canadian leader by calling him “governor” of a state of the United States.

It all started when Trudeau traveled to Florida at the end of October to meet with the president-elect where he tried to convince him not to punish Canada with tariffs of 25%, he said today at an event in Ottawa that there are politicians and “reactionary forces” who want to reverse women’s rights.

“We were supposed to be in a constant, albeit difficult, march towards progress. And even so, a few weeks ago, the United States voted for the second time not to elect its first female president,” the prime minister continued.

“In all ways, women’s rights and women’s progress are under attack, openly or subtly. I want you to know that I am and will always be a proud feminist. They will always have an ally in me and in my Government,” he added before a mostly feminist audience.

Plans on Trudeau’s agenda: border security and tariffs

In addition, Trudeau plans to meet this Wednesday with the heads of government of the country’s 11 provinces to inform them of the plan to invest 1 billion Canadian dollars (710 million US dollars or 670 million euros) to strengthen border security.

Trump has stated that he will apply tariffs of 25% to Canada and Mexico until the flow of drugs and undocumented immigrants from those two countries stops.

After the threat, Trudeau had dinner with the president-elect at his residence in Mar-a-Lago. During that dinner, Trump joked that the solution to the large tariffs he wants to impose is for Canada to integrate into the United States as one more state.

This week, in a continuation of his joke, Trump called Trudeau the “governor” of the “great state of Canada.”

The Canadian prime minister also faces negative opinion polls in Canada that place the opposition Conservative Party (PC) 20 points ahead in voting intention.

The conservatives have tabled three motions of censure in recent weeks to try to bring forward the general elections scheduled for October 20, 2025, but they have not managed to overthrow the Liberal Party government.

Trudeau’s confrontation with Trump and the possibility of Canadian conservatives winning the elections with a political agenda similar to that of the Republican on issues of women’s rights and other minorities could improve the prime minister’s political prospects.

The suspended vice president of Ecuador and ambassador to Israel, Verónica Abad, asked the Justice to annul the sanction imposed by the Government that prevents her from exercising office for five months and, therefore, assuming presidential functions when President Daniel Noboa must request leave for the electoral campaign of the 2025 elections, where he seeks his re-election.

The suspension was issued by the Ministry of Labor for not having traveled from Tel Aviv to Ankara within the deadline set by the Government, which considered it as a temporary abandonment of her position as vice president, within the heated confrontation between Noboa and Abad, who has denounced the president for alleged political gender violence and has accused him of leading harassment with the intention of forcing his resignation.

Distancing between the president and the vice president of Ecuador

The distance between Noboa and Abad began in the electoral campaign of the 2023 elections and was reflected when he assumed their positions, when the ruler sent her to Israel as ambassador for the country, with the aim of mediating the conflict between Palestinians and Israelis.

Abad, who returned to Quito a few days ago, personally appeared at the hearing on the protection action against his suspension, where Judge Nubia Vera heard the parties and several lawyers, women’s movements and academics, who gave their views on the relevance and constitutionality of the sanction.

The vice president had already filed an appeal for amparo when the Ministry opened the administrative summary, but another judge denied the protection.

“A historic cause for the country”

“This is a historic cause for the country, over 194 years of constitutionalism in Ecuador it is the first time that an administrative authority imposes itself before an authority of popular choice, so it is necessary to establish in this case if this administrative act is above the Constitution and prevails over rights,” said Damián Armijos, from the Abad’s legal team, at the beginning of the hearing.

The lawyer asked the judge to declare that the administrative summary violated the political rights, legal certainty, due process and the presumption of innocence of the vice president, among others, and to order that the decision be reversed.

In addition, he demanded that the Minister of Labor, Ivonne Núñez, issue a public apology through a message to the nation, among other sanctions, as part of the comprehensive reparation.

However, the Ministry’s defense insisted that Abad is a public official, so that portfolio did have the power to open an administrative summary and sanction her, and emphasized that her political rights were not violated because she is not prevented from holding public office.

No legal basis for the sanction

One of the key moments of the hearing occurred when Judge Vera asked the Ministry’s lawyer to specify in which part of the Ecuadorian legislation it is determined that the sanction that the vice president received should be 150 days.

The defense took several minutes to look for normative support and in the end admitted that, in the face of a serious offense, the Public Service Law (Losep) does not determine a limit of days of temporary suspension, so the decision was made “based on the rules of sound criticism.”

“Considering the impossibility of dismissing the vice president, the least burdensome decision has been made,” the lawyer added.

At another time, the judge asked the lawyer if the Foreign Service Law had been taken into account, which states that ambassadors have 30 days to move to their new headquarters. The lawyer answered no, because they were only competent to know summaries based on the Losep.

To replace Abad, Noboa appointed the national secretary of Planning Sariha Moya as “vice president in charge”, in an unprecedented event in the country.