International
Mujica says that in Venezuela “it seems that they play democracy but they don’t play”

The leftist and former Uruguayan president José ‘Pepe’ Mujica said that the situation in Venezuela is “unfortunate” because in the Caribbean country “it seems that they play democracy but they do not play democracy.”
Within the framework of an act of its political force, the left-wing coalition Frente Amplio (FA), and consulted about the concern expressed by governments of various Latin American countries after the disqualification of the opposition candidate Corina Yoris, Mujica declared to the press that “Venezuela is regrettable.”
“It seems that they play democracy but they do not play democracy,” he said, who in turn warned that it is “mistaken” to use the term dictatorship to refer to the government of Nicolás Maduro with a comparison with countries in the Middle East.
“The term dictatorship is ambiguous, what’s in Afghanistan? What do the Taliban have? Are they dictatorships or are they theocracies? And what is there in Saudi Arabia? That is, we use the terms without specifying,” said the former guerrilla who ruled Uruguay between 2010 and 2015.
To this he added that “what is clear is that in Venezuela there is no elementary respect for the opposition and that disturbs and creates a situation that cannot be called democracy.”
Mujica’s statements come after the pre-candidate for the FA he supports for the internal elections in June was criticized by official pre-candidates for saying that the disqualification of candidates in Venezuela is like “cheating” in a horse race for not letting everyone run.
The Uruguayan vice president, Beatriz Argimón, said last Thursday that in Venezuela there was “a process of recrudescence in what is the dictatorship” to which she defended the decision of the president, Luis Lacalle Pou, to maintain an ambassador in the Caribbean country.
Earlier, the Foreign Minister, Omar Paganini, assured that Venezuela is consolidating itself as “a dictatorship” and that its electoral process “has been completely distorted.”
Paganini thus stressed the importance of the statement in which Uruguay expressed, together with Argentina, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Paraguay and Peru, its “serious concern” in the face of the “persistent impediments” in the registration of presidential elections before the National Electoral Council.
The presidents of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, and France, Emmanuel Macron, also sent a strong message on Thursday to Maduro, whom they urged to hold democratic elections “with the participation of all” after describing as “serious” the disqualification of Yoris, chosen to replace the already banned María Corina Machado.
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”

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.”
International
Miyazaki’s style goes viral with AI but at what cost?

This week, you may have noticed that everything—from historical photos and classic movie scenes to internet memes and recent political moments—has been reimagined on social media as Studio Ghibli-style portraits. The trend quickly went viral thanks to ChatGPT and the latest update of OpenAI’s chatbot, released on Tuesday, March 25.
The newest addition to GPT-4o has allowed users to replicate the distinctive artistic style of the legendary Japanese filmmaker and Studio Ghibli co-founder Hayao Miyazaki (My Neighbor Totoro, Spirited Away). “Today is a great day on the internet,” one user declared while sharing popular memes in Ghibli format.
While the trend has captivated users worldwide, it has also highlighted ethical concerns about AI tools trained on copyrighted creative works—and what this means for the livelihoods of human artists.
Not that this concerns OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, which has actively encouraged the “Ghiblification”experiments. Its CEO, Sam Altman, even changed his profile picture on the social media platform X to a Ghibli-style portrait.
Miyazaki, now 84 years old, is known for his hand-drawn animation approach and whimsical storytelling. He has long expressed skepticism about AI’s role in animation. His past remarks on AI-generated animation have resurfaced and gone viral again, particularly when he once said he was “utterly disgusted” by an AI demonstration.
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