Opposition leader María Corina Machado called on “everyone” on Sunday to take to the streets of Venezuela and the world on January 9, one day before the presidential investiture, which both President Nicolás Maduro and anti-Chavista leader Edmundo González Urrutia promise to assume.

“This day will be recorded in history as the day when Venezuela said enough. Stop holding on, stop shutting up. It’s our land, our flag. Freedom is not begged, it is fought and conquered,” Machado said in an audio published in X.

He asked to leave “full of confidence” because -he stressed- “Maduro is not going to go alone, you have to make him leave with the strength of a people who never give up.”

“Get out, shout, fight, it’s time to stand firm, to make them understand that they have come this far, that this is over. There are no excuses, there is no tomorrow if we don’t fight today. Freedom is achieved when we overcome fear. I’m going with you,” said the former deputy, who claims to be in hiding for fear for her safety.

Machado and the largest opposition coalition in front of the presidential investiture

Machado and the largest opposition coalition maintain that González Urrutia is the winner of the presidential elections of July 28, so they demand that this triumph be recognized, despite the fact that the National Electoral Council proclaimed Maduro’s re-election.

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Meanwhile, the opposition leader – exiled since September in Spain – reiterates that he will travel to Venezuela to assume the Presidency and, as a preliminary step, he is on an international tour, which has already taken him to Argentina and Uruguay, in search of support.

Tomorrow, Monday, he will be received in the United States, where he hopes to meet with President Joe Biden.

Meanwhile, the Prosecutor’s Office maintains an arrest warrant against González Urrutia and the Police recently offered a reward of 100,000 dollars to anyone who provides information about the opponent’s whereabouts or provides some information that facilitates his arrest.

The Government of Venezuela deployed 1,200 troops throughout the country with the aim of “guaranteeing peace” in view of the inauguration of the Presidency.

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The bathing with elephants offered by some centers is a controversial activity to attract tourists in Thailand, which some organizations denounce that it involves risks by stressing animals that weigh more than a ton and have a very high sensitivity.

After the Spanish Blanca Ojanguren, 22 years old, was fatally attacked last Friday by an elephant in a tourist center on the island of Yao Yai (southwest of the country), where she took a bath with her boyfriend, the warnings made by some organizations about the implications of this practice resonate.

The police are still investigating the event

The Yao Yai Police confirmed to EFE on Monday that it is still investigating what happened to the Spanish woman and “gathers evidence” to determine the precise cause of her death.

Following the event, the Spanish Cristina Palacio, co-director of the Kindred Spirit sanctuary, located in the Thai town of Chiang Mai – where bathing with pachyderms is not allowed – emphasizes that “the main problem is the captivity of wild animals.”

Palacio told EFE that tourists must be provided with “correct information” about the nature of elephants so that they can demand “different and respectful experiences.”

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Maternal separation

For its part, World Animal Protection warns that the first step to getting an elephant to be bathed by strangers is to “separate the offspring from their mothers, keep them isolated, deprive them of food and water and, in many cases, beat them repeatedly until they can be controlled with fear.”

There is no evidence that this method, which the NGO says it knows through sources that it does not identify, is complied with in all tourist centers that have these animals, while about 2,800 are exhibited in centers for various activities in Thailand, according to data from the organization.

These practices, they insist, have been spreading in Asian countries to attract foreign visitors, as it is seen as a less aggressive spectacle, leaving behind elephant rides, whose attractiveness has decreased in recent years, when – the NGO believes – awareness against animal abuse has grown.

Bathing elephants: health risk for animals and humans

The nature reserve of the tourist island of Phuket prohibits visitors from having direct contact with animals, except to observe them from a prudent distance, and on its website clarifies: “Elelphants do not want to be bathed by humans and humans should not bathe elephants.”

This center warns about the health risks that these baths contain for the animal and for humans, because – among other factors – the elephant can urinate or defecate, increasing the chances of infection for himself and for tourists who stay close, thanks to these offers that allow up to two hours of contact for a price close to one hundred euros.

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“In wet and slippery conditions you can fall. With a three-ton elephant nearby, potentially stressed, this is something you really want to avoid,” warns the reserve, which does not deny that pachyderms enjoy bathing or covering themselves with mud, but only when they want it.

The activity generates disparity of opinions and other centers, including a very popular one 155 kilometers from Bangkok that was open on its website this Monday, offer bathing with elephants as one of their activities, defending the protection of the animal and denying possible abuses.

Thailand, the country of elephants

Thailand, which leads the number of elephants in Southeast Asia, tries to control the growth of this population with contraceptive programs to mainly prevent the rapid reproduction of pachyderms in wildlife.

According to government records, there are currently between 4,013 and 4,222 wild elephants (living in freedom), which have caused the death of 240 people since 2012 and that sometimes cross to areas inhabited by people, due to the loss of natural habitat.

It is also estimated that there is a similar population of domestic elephants in the country, of which there is no recent official data on serious incidents with humans, most of them used in shows intended for tourists.

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The president of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum, defended this Monday that a representative of her government attends the investiture next Friday of the president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, because “it is up to Venezuelans to define” their government.

“In the case of Venezuela, a representative will go to the protest take, but we don’t see why it shouldn’t be like that, it’s up to Venezuelans, not Mexico, to define,” the president said in her morning conference.

The Mexican ruler, who took office on October 1, justified now recognizing Maduro’s victory, questioned by the United States and the European Union (EU), despite the fact that in July, during the transition of Government in Mexico, she asked for “transparency” in the minutes and voting.

“The position (is) that is in the Constitution, with all the governments of the world, the self-determination of the peoples,” Sheinbaum replied questioned by her apparent change of opinion.

Mexico will be in Maduro’s investiture despite declaring itself “impartial”

The president had advanced two weeks ago that she would send a representation of her Government to the investiture of Maduro, who could be the ambassador, Leopoldo de Gyves, which marked the first time she recognized the president’s re-election, rejected by different governments and national and international organizations.

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Sheinbaum announced since October 15 an “impartial” position on the post-electoral crisis in Venezuela, after his predecessor, Andrés Manuel López Obrador (2018-2024), agreed in August with his counterparts from Colombia, Gustavo Petro, and from Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, that the minutes should be transparent.

The announcement of the Mexican president occurs while the Venezuelan opposition leader Edmundo González Urrutia, considered by several countries as the winner of the July 28 elections, is touring America to get support before Maduro’s investiture.

The opponent will seek to meet this Monday with the President of the United States, Joe Biden, after meeting over the weekend with Presidents Javier Milei in Argentina and Luis Lacalle Pou in Uruguay.